Visitors outside of White Box in Chelsea
Photo: Jessica Torossian for BizBash
Celebrating the 2008 Digital and Video Art Fair, the only art fair dedicated to video and digital art in the United States, organizer (and art nonprofit) Frère Independent took over a section of west Chelsea on Thursday night for a public block party. The festivities involved food supplied by street-cart vendors and a limo that was used as transportation, as a bar, and as a venue for video screenings. Coinciding with the opening day of the Armory Show at Pier 94, the event provided the white S.U.V. limousine—organized by Artbus, a nonprofit that facilitates public access to art exhibitions—to shuttle guests to and from the pier. The fair kicked off on Monday, March 25, and ran through Sunday, March 30.Taking over 26th Street between 10th and 11th avenues, the party extended from the White Box gallery—the event's home base—to 30 other galleries in the area, which the fair's planners arranged to stay open late for the occasion.
The block wasn’t closed down for the event, but since guests were free to roam among the venues and food carts on the sidewalk, the concern for the organizers wasn’t just about crowd control, but also that the alcohol served inside the gallery would be brought outside. Frère Independent director of exhibitions Thierry Alet admitted the next day that he was worried about those issues but insisted that the low key-event went smoothly. “People would hide the bottle inside their coats, but when we saw people outside with the alcohol, we got the word out to not let anyone leave [White Box] with alcohol,” Alet said.
As for the block party idea, Alet had this to say: “You never know if it’s going to work. We put [the event] together in less than a month, and the response was great.”
The block wasn’t closed down for the event, but since guests were free to roam among the venues and food carts on the sidewalk, the concern for the organizers wasn’t just about crowd control, but also that the alcohol served inside the gallery would be brought outside. Frère Independent director of exhibitions Thierry Alet admitted the next day that he was worried about those issues but insisted that the low key-event went smoothly. “People would hide the bottle inside their coats, but when we saw people outside with the alcohol, we got the word out to not let anyone leave [White Box] with alcohol,” Alet said.
As for the block party idea, Alet had this to say: “You never know if it’s going to work. We put [the event] together in less than a month, and the response was great.”
