But first . . .
A FEW TOUCH-UPS THEY OVERLOOKED
Tonight (Friday) was the night of Snug Harbor's Neptune Ball, the facility's
biggest annual fund-raising effort. In the days leading up to Neptune, in a rush to
paper over the decline before the wealthy and well connected arrived,
an army of landscapers and pothole-fixers was dispatched. But there were some needed fixes (and some, not so cosmetic) that Snug Harbor's administration correctly figured the ballgoers would never notice. Here are three. (Click photos to enlarge.)
A CULTURAL CENTER, NOT A PROFIT CENTER
Timed to coincide with the Neptune Ball was a guerrilla art event its participants called CACOPHONY. The idea was simply for artists to come and do, make, perform or read their art on a stretch of lawn opposite the entrance to the ball. Make some noise, in other words, to signal that they haven't abandoned Snug Harbor's true mission, even though its director and board have.
Unhinged by the prospect of artists making art on the grounds of an institution whose mission is the furtherance of art and culture, the administration's response was its typical combination of gracelessness and absurdity.
Get this: More than 19 people standing more or less in one place, participants were told, would be considered public assemblies without a permit; participants in such assemblies would be ejected from the grounds.
Not ones to make trouble except through their art, the participants re-formed into 19-person units and dispersed to nearby locations on the grounds, fomenting revolution as they trod. Background and details on CACOPHONY can be found at sicolab.org .
And now, to the burning question of the hour:
WHO HAD MORE FUN?
THE NEPTUNE BALL
OR . . .
CACOPHONY
The Art Fairy a/k/a Vivian Vassar a/k/a Hey Viv! raises a bejewelled scepter to shower noissome blessings on the cacophonious.
. . . and assemblies small . . .
