After enduring a two-month permitting battle with the City of Boynton Beach, the Boynton Beach Art District's monthly art walk returns this Thursday enlivened and reenergized. With its city ban now lifted, BBAD's Art Walk celebrates its four-year anniversary this week.
We hit up BBAD's outspoken leader Rolando Barrero yesterday and found him to be in great spirits about the outcome of his meeting with the City of Boynton Beach on Friday.
Barrero met with Boynton Beach's city manager as well as the chiefs of the police and fire departments last week and says he couldn't be more pleased with the resolution Boynton Beach's city leaders proposed to him about continuing the successful run of BBAD's art walks.
"Lori LaVerriere (Boynton Beach's city manager) couldn't have been more amicable," he revealed. "The moment I arrived, she held her hand out and said, 'I think we have a solution that you are really goong to like.'" The ban on the art walk will be lifted, and BBAD will simply have to pay $250 for a yearly permit to conduct their monthly art walks. "My mouth was an ear-to-ear grin when they told me the news of the proposal."
Last week, Boynton Beach announced that it was putting the kibosh on the the Boynton Beach Art District (BBAD) monthly art walks.
The art walks had revitalized what was previously your run-of-the-mill warehouse district. What was once a wasteland of old hollow buildings buried in the shadows west of I-95 turned into a flourishing art scene.
"Boynton Beach finally did something before Miami and Delray Beach: It banned its own signature, award-winning art walk. Go figure that one out," artist and gallery owner Rolando Barrero told New Times' music blog last week.
A group of artists and spiritualists are meeting at sunset this evening to bring awareness in hopes of shifting the city's perspective on why shutting down the art walk is wrong for the community.
Well into the City of Boynton Beach's 34th Day with out a resoultion to the Ban on the Art District's Art Walk; letter's, comments, reviews and speculations are surfacing.
In print and online, the future of the highly regarded event that established the city as
haven for artists akin to the early days in New York City sits on a balance waiting for the August 1 talks between organizers and city officials.
by Boynton Beach resident Jes Robison says, "As a professional and a resident within this community, I am inspired by the efforts made by the Boynton Beach Arts District to engage the city of Boynton Beach's artistic populace. I believe they should be commended for their initiative and creativity, not to mention the dream they share with the many Boynton residents that believe our city can only benefit by actively promoting an atmosphere of culture and imagination."
"A key to BBAD's success has been its well-staged monthly art walks, which most recently received top honors as New Times' best art walk for Broward and Palm Beach counties.That's why we're scratching our heads at the news that the city decided to shut down this event."
The City is making up policies that are affecting actual working people's lives. BB Art District is a beacon of culture in a depressed area, and THE source of livelihood for dozens of artists and craftsmen who work and exhibit there. It is a homegrown, organic product of love and hard work, and an AMAZING SUCCESS. City of Boynton- try to resolve this please or something we all need will go away!
Is Boynton Beach suddenly unfriendly to artists? So much has been done to put this little seaside town on the map as super friendly to art, with a strong Art in Public Places effort, annual sculpture trail, EcoArt included in its Green Ordinance, a beautiful new EcoArt project (EcoWalk at Seabourn Cove) and a new Kinetic Art symposium and show once a year. Why would the city now shut down what has been called the Most Successful Art Walk in Palm Beach and Broward Counties?? Let's hope Boynton reconsiders shutting down Rolando Chang Barrero's fun monthly events that generate income for local artists! There should be no ban on art!
Four years ago, up-and-coming artist and gallery owner Rolando Barrero had a vision to turn a rundown industrial park west of 1-95 in Boynton Beach into a little artists' hub. Back in 2010, the area now known as the Boynton Beach Arts District consisted mainly of storage units that housed machinery, used carpets, and old car parts, with many units sitting empty. Since that time, Barrero has become a beacon for Palm Beach County's arts community with his brainchild, BBAD. Now housing ten artists, he transformed this unlikely spot into one of South Florida's leading artist enclaves north of Wynwood. A key to BBAD's success has been its well-staged monthly art walks, which most recently received top honors as New Times' best art walk for Broward and Palm Beach counties.That's why we're scratching our heads at the news that the city decided to shut down this event. Con't ....
by Mary Jo Aagerstoun,President of Eco-Art South Florida
“What’s All the Buzz?” is an exhibition to honor the humble
honey bee, especially our Florida native ones. Bees are necessary to pollinate
crops that feed humans, and to pollinate wild plants and trees so they can
flourish. Studies show that Florida native bees are much more efficient and
industrious pollinators of Florida’s crops than are non native honeybees
shipped in for pollinating. We would like to address this issue proactively through conversations, demonstarations, and ultimately through the incepection of art related projects that may surface as a result of the exhibition.
This is just one approach to making the invisible visible
that artists can do so well. The invisible here are the systems of industrial
agriculture.
Another approach to utilizing art based in science to bring
visibility to the plight of our bees, is the work of Kelly Rogers who recently
completed a multi media installation as part of her MFA qualifications. The
installation includes live bees. bee-ecology.com
Yet another approach is art that utilizes native plants in
outdoor installations that can provide nectar specifically for native Florida
bees. A recent example of a landscape designed by an EcoArtist to attract and
nurture Florida native pollinators is Eco Walk in Boynton Beach at the new LEED
Gold certified apartment complex, Seabourn Cove. http://www.boynton-beach.org/departments/public_art/projects/dixie_ecowalk.php
While this work, by local Palm Beach county EcoArtist Lucy Keshavarz is focused
more closely on butterflies, the plants selected also encourage native bees.
Martin County EcoArtist Jesse Etelson discovered that a fanciful ceramic
vessel designed as a screech owl nesting box actually attracted native Florida
bees instead! His research after this serendipitous occurrence showed that
indeed ceramic containers have been used for millennia dating back to Egyptian
beekeepers as ideal beehives. http://jesseetelson.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/screechowl.jpg
Organized by Rolando Chang Barrero, curator. "What's All the Buzz About?" will benefit Palm Beach Beekeepers Assoc., a 501(c)3 Non Profit***
