Help us provide sculptures, murals, dance, theatrical and music performances, workshops, and temporary installations for the community.
Leader
Liz Pasqualo
Location
33 E. First Street New York, NY 10003
The lot was a terrible health and safety problem when we began to work for change in 2008. With hundreds of burrows breaking through the pavement, it became so unsafe that the city insisted it be kept locked. The advent of new luxury buildings and high-end businesses nearby disrupted the rat population, pushing many of them into this small lot.
In collaboration with NYC Department of Parks and Recreation, First Street Green has successfully incorporated the formerly derelict building lot at 33 E. 1st Street into First Park, providing ongoing cultural activity by engaging with community and cultural groups, artists, designers, and architects, to produce sculptures, murals, dance, theatrical and music performances, workshops, and temporary installations.
This is our 5th year of arts and programming at First Street Green but it’s the first year we’re asking for your support. In the past, we have received generous support from foundations and other grant makers. This year, First Street Green wasn’t as fortunate, and now this community asset is at risk.
Help keep arts programming in First Park by donating today!
Pay insurance that covers all programming and sculptures.
Purchase and install a shed with safe storage for equipment for all of our events.
Purchase equipment to facilitate programs.
Produce and publicize programing in collaboration with community groups.
FSG builds community through the arts. We promote environmental stewardship through our care of the park. Last August, when our roses were dying from the draught, we sought advice from our neighbor, Liz Christy Community Garden, and put in an irrigation system. When the green thumb community garden on First Street needed a new fence, FSG contributed $500. We have turned blight into beauty, and serve the needs of individual park users and local organizations.
We listen to the community. During our visioning workshops, we saw that arts and ideas programming is valued. We work with community organizations and cultural institutions to provide arts and ideas programming. We began our last season by partnering with the New Museum and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) who built an exciting temporary structure in the park out of waste materials for the IDEAS CITY Festival in May 2015. Talks, workshops, and other events took place in the ETH Pavilion.
We recently installed 2 sculptures, “Signpost” by Stuart Ringholt, co-sponsored by OSMOS, and “The Space between Us” by Henry Kielmanowicz. Our 5th season of arts and ideas programming begins Saturday, May 21, 1 pm, with a Missing Foundation Concert to celebrate Current Obstruction, a Lower East Side History Month mural by Peter Missing and Cyril Mazard, co-sponsored by Fourth Arts Block (FABnyc). During the 1980s, Peter tagged his upside-down martini glass insignia on buildings in the East Village/LES, to signal "The party is over" to developers, that community members would not be displaced. We are planning a series of music making carnivals, SCORE! Based on traditional carnival games, players control the music mix by throwing objects, hitting targets and watching the song change based on what they do. Electric Djinn will present an all electronic line up at the Make Music New York's Summer Solstice Celebration, Tuesday, June 21st from 4pm - 8pm!