Socrates Sculpture Park

The Daily Plant : Tuesday, September 19, 2000

GIVE ME SOME SPACE: “THE SPACE AROUND THE ARCHITECT” DEBUTS AT SOCRATES SCULPTURE PARK

Photograph by Amanda (Greenpoint) Tedeschi

Commissioner Henry J. (StarQuest) Stern visited Socrates Sculpture Park in Queens on Sunday, September 17 for the opening of The Space Around the Architect, a brand-new exhibit in the outdoor museum.

The exhibit features the work of eight talented new artists. Several of these artists are recipients of Socrates Sculpture Park's Emerging Artist Fellowship and Outdoor Studio Residency. The winners of these fellowships are Robert Caldwell, Beth Campbell, Peter Gould and Susan Griswold, all of whom have been granted the opportunity display their work in a public venue where it can be seen by art enthusiasts and casual park visitors alike.

Before sculptor Mark di Suvero created Socrates in 1986 with a coalition of artists and community members, the area was an abandoned landfill littered with junked cars and garbage. The park now serves as a lovely place to enjoy nature, walk your dog, or go fishing, as well as internationally renowned outdoor gallery. Through its twice yearly exhibitions, its outdoor studio program and its fellowship program, Socrates has become a major New York City art institution forming, along with the Isamu Noguchi Museum, the Museum of the Moving Image and P.S. 1, a vibrant burgeoning art scene in Western Queens.

LITTLE RED LIGHTHOUSE HOSTS A FESTIVAL THAT'S BIG ON FUN

The charming Little Red Lighthouse was the site for an extravaganza featuring jazz performances, hay rides, craft activities for kids, boat building, fish tasting, raffles, and much more on Saturday, September 16.

The forty-foot tall lighthouse stands nestled under the George Washington bridge, giving visitors a scenic view of the Hudson while they participated in the festivities. Out on the river, the New York Fire Department sprayed rainbows of water hundreds of feet in the air, and swimmers participated in the annual Little Red Lighthouse swim.

"Little Red," also called the Jeffrey's Hook Lighthouse, was erected in Sandy Hook, NJ in 1880 and was moved to its present location in 1921 as part of a project to improve navigation on the Hudson. The finishing touches are being put on a $70,000 restoration project which, among other improvements, restored the lighthouse to its original rich orange-red hue. People who helped make the festival possible included Director of Little Red Lighthouse and Dyckman Farmhouse Allison (Longbow) Bowen, Director of Community Resources Jill (Mainsail) Mainelli, Director of Historic Houses Amy (Friday) Freitag, Director of the 181st St. Beautification Project Jean Lee (Little Red) Poggi, and Urban Park Rangers Director Sara (Whisperer) Hobel.

THIRTEEN YEARS AGO IN THE PLANT
(Tuesday, September 22, 1987)

MAYOR NAMES "IPHIGENE'S WALK" AFTER A FRIEND OF CENTRAL PARK

With a snip of their scissors, Mayor Koch, Commissioner Stern, Marian Sulzberger Heiksell, Susan W. Dryfoos and Central Park Administrator Elizabeth Barlow Rogers cut an emerald green ribbon yesterday stretching across the beginning of what is now officially called "Iphigene's Walk" in the Central Park Ramble.

"Iphigene" is Iphigene Ochs Sulzberger, daughter of Adolph S. Ochs, publisher of the New York Times from 1896 to 1935, daughter of Arthur Hays Sulzberger, publisher from 1935 to 1961 and mother of Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, publisher since 1963.

QUOTATION FOR THE DAY

Imagination is the voice of daring. If there is anything Godlike about God it is that. He dared to imagine everything.

Henry Miller (1891-1980)