Sasha Chavchavadze

Conceived and curated by artist/curators JoAnne McFarland and Sasha Chavchavadze, SALLY is an interdisciplinary, community-centered project that uses art to revitalize communities around their forgotten history as a catalyst for change. Through community outreach, exhibitions and public conversations SALLY brings together artists, writers, performers, and scholars intrigued by women, like Sally Hemings, whose narratives have been erased or forgotten. The SALLY Project explores how contemporary conceptions of white/black, male/female, young/old, rich/poor reflect or disrupt earlier cultural norms. The process strengthens communities of artists and others through dialogue around complex, often divisive issues.

The SALLY Project has completed nine iterations in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and New York, with a tenth iteration planned in Somerville, MA in Fall 2022. To date, over 35 artists have been featured in The SALLY Project. With each SALLY iteration, at least half of the participants are artists of color, or from other historically marginalized communities. Presented in interdisciplinary, community-centered venues, such as libraries, historical societies, boathouses, and universities, the SALLY project blurs the line between art and other disciplines, between artists and non-artists, reaching non-traditional art audiences.

FOOTNOTE is a collaborative project that uses art to focus on forgotten history and its effect on memory and place. FOOTNOTE exhibitions and projects reactivate the public memory as a catalyst for change, exploring the pathos and power of forgotten narratives through selections of art and artifacts. Conceived by Sasha Chavchavadze, Footnote projects are created by artist Karen Mainenti and Sasha Chavchavadze. The Footnote project space is located in the Gowanus neighborhood of Brooklyn, and houses the Hall of Gowanus, an archive of art and archival material related to the history and environment of the Gowanus Canal.

For information contact sashachavagmail.com.

Banner Image: Sasha Chavchavadze, FOOTNOTE: Matching Red Stars, Museum of Matches Project, Archival Pigment Print on Canson, Assemblage of art, artifacts and books, 2021

In 2017 I initiated the Carnival of Connectivity Collective (CCC), a traveling collective of artists, poets and performers, who engaged Brooklyn neighborhoods in spontaneous, playful, site-specific art carnivals that deepened our connection to each other, our history and environment. A 2018 Brooklyn Arts Fund grant recipient, CCC collaborated with local non-profits as it researched and developed interactive art projects based on the history, environment and social issues of specific Brooklyn neighborhoods. As artists, the synergy of chance encounters with community members on the streets of Brooklyn broadened our artistic reach in an art environment that feels increasingly compartmentalized. Offered to adults and children,  CCC projects bridged the divide between art and other disciplines, and between artists and non-artists as we altered perspectives and delighted our audiences.

CCC was inspired by our study of early 20th century Progressive art movements, that considered art to be a human necessity and a holistic practice extending into all aspects of life. Our work was loosely based on Victor D'Amico's 1940s Children Art Carnivals. A forgotten art visionary, D'Amico ran the People's Art Center at MoMA from 1937 - 1969.  

CCC Projects have taken place at:
Expo Gowanus 2018, Gowanus, Brooklyn
Expo Gowanus 2017, Gowanus, Brooklyn
Smith Street Festival 2017, Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn

Carnival of Connectivity Artists, Educators, Performers:
Nick Fracaro, Rob Hickman, Lauren Cannon, JoAnne McFarland, Gabriele Schafer, Wayne Moseley, Robert Gould, Jennifer Marshall, Sweet Aminata, Amy Brook Snider, Cathy Feurst, Tammy Pittman, Sasha Chavchavadze, Eva Melas, Peter Reich, Karen Gibbons, Charles Goldman, Paul Benney, Susan Newmark Fleminger, Donna Maria de Creeft, Todd Drake, Rosemary Brooks, Paula Lalala, Robyn Love, Carolyn Hall, Eve Mosher, Ijaaza EL, Frantasia Fryer, Mother Mary Glover, Angela Kramer, Lourdes Sanchez., Sara Torres.

Special thanks to our collaborating non-profits and businesses:
Gowanus Canal Conservancy
Artichoke Dance
The Lower Eastside Ecology Center
The Textile Arts Center
Gowanus Souvenir Shop
Fifth Avenue Committee
South Brooklyn Local Development Corporation
Arts Gowanus

Funded by the BROOKLYN ARTS FUND
The Carnival of Connectivity Collective was sponsored, in part, by the Greater New York Arts Development Fund of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, administered by Brooklyn Arts Council (BAC).
 

In 2005 I founded a non-profit, interdisciplinary gallery and reading room called Proteus Gowanus in Brooklyn, NY. The gallery exhibited art, artifacts and books revolving around yearlong themes, such as "library," "mend," "battle." An inclusive, collaborative space, visitors were invited to contribute their ideas, artwork, artifacts and objects. Named after the Greek sea god of change and the adjacent Gowanus Canal, the gallery was a vibrant cultural hub that deepened the community's connection to each other and to their environment for ten years.

Proteus Gowanus was a collaborative creative "engine" generated by a thriving community of artists, workers in other disciplines and Projects-in-Residence. Focused on reconnecting art to other disciplines, and functioning decidedly "outside" the commercial art world, Proteus Gowanus was nevertheless invited to present our "creative process" by the MoMA Department of Education in a workshop called "A Way of Thinking," and in a Ted talk and installation at TedxGowanus. The gallery received grants from, among others, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, the Brooklyn Arts Council.  

For me, Proteus Gowanus was an extension of my studio practice and ten-year labor of love.

PG Co-founders: Sasha Chavchavadze and PK Ramani

PG Core Collaborators:
Sasha Chavchavadze, PK Ramani, Tammy Pittman, Wendy Walker, Tom La Farge, Angela Kramer.

PG Projects-in Residence:
Proteotypes, Morbid Anatomy Library, Fixers Collective, Writhing Society, Reanimation Library, Hall of Gowanus, Observatory, Museum of Matches, D’Amico Gowanus Laboratory, Battle Pass Collective, bkbx[Brooklyn Box].

In 2014, I initiated the D’Amico Gowanus Laboratory Collective (DGLC), a group of artists, educators and performers who developed projects in Brooklyn’s Gowanus neighborhood inspired by the life and work of Victor D’Amico, an often-forgotten visionary art thinker and educator who ran the Museum of Modern Art Department of Education from 1937 – 1969.

Victor D’Amico believed fervently that art is a human necessity that should be experienced by all. His inclusive, experiential, exploratory ideas are profoundly important today, when art has drifted away from this essential function. His work was based on early Modernist ideas that promoted art as a holistic lifestyle and stressed the importance of democratic principles and broad access. Through his People’s Art Center, Children’s Art Carnival and War Veteran’s Art Center at MoMA, D’Amico’s work touched countless lives.

The Collective’s work used D’Amico’s ideas as an improvisational stepping off point to develop new creative projects adapted to contemporary needs. Projects have included:

A series of study/laboratory sessions in 2014/15, examining D'Amico's techniques, the people who influenced him, and the Progressive environment in which he lived. The sessions included: hands on art projects from D'Amico's book Art for the Family, and talks by, among others, Wendy Woon, Deputy Director of the MoMA Education Department.

A DGLC exhibition in 2015, Useful Objects at the bkbx gallery in Brooklyn, NY. The exhibition was based on 1930s and 40s MoMA exhibitions called "Useful Objects Under $5 and $10", that stressed affordability and broad access to the arts.

The Carnival of Connectivity, a group of 30 traveling artists, educators and performers, established in May 2017, and based loosely on D'Amico's Children's Art Carnivals. The group interacted with communities and audiences in Brooklyn and beyond through experiential, hands on art projects that connect community members to each other and to their environment. 
 

The Hall of Gowanus is a community-curated archive of art, artifacts and documents related to the history and environment of the Gowanus Canal, a post-industrial waterway that has played a central role in Brooklyn history. The archive was conceived and co-curated by Sasha Chavchavadze and Tammy Pittman at Proteus Gowanus , an interdisciplinary exhibition space, from 2009 until the gallery closed in 2015. The Hall of Gowanus was a Project-in-Residence at Proteus Gowanus with a designated 12” x 25” exhibition space.

Artifacts were donated by community members to the Hall of Gowanus, often gathered during excursions along the canal. Eymund Diegel, a Brooklyn citizen scientist, amassed many of the artifacts, assisting with installation and presentation. Artists were invited to respond to the artifacts, leading to ongoing, rotating exhibitions of art, artifacts and documents.

In 2012, educator Angela Kramer created the Hall of Gowanus Molinology Project at Proteus Gowanus to explore the forgotten history of tide mills on Gowanus Creek. Some of the earliest mills in America were in Brooklyn, including Brouwer's Mill, built in the mid-17th century near today's Union Street Bridge. Angela offered hands on family workshops on tide mills.

In 2014, Angela Kramer and Sasha Chavchavadze presented the Hall of Gowanus in a TedxGowanus talk.

After 2015, Eymund Deigel, Brad Vogel, Owen Foote and other members of the Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club community, continued to collect Gowanus artifacts, creating the Gowanus Dredgers Hall of Gowanus collection, which is currently on display at the Gowanus Dredgers Boathouse.

From 2016 - 2020, the original Hall of Gowanus archive was stewarded by the Gowanus Canal Conservancy , and used in GCC’s educational programming. GCC staff created a Hall of Gowanus Story Map in 2020 describing the archive in the context of the Gowanus environment and history. Since 2020, the original archive has been in storage at FOOTNOTE Project Space.

Special Projects

From 2016 - 2019, a selection of artifacts from the original Hall of Gowanus was on display at the Gowanus Souvenir Shop, curated by Ute Zimmerman. Ute created a website called Gowanus Wunderkammer People’s Archive Program to document artifacts, inviting the community to contribute to the archive.

In October 2021, the art collective Assembly Required curated three interconnected exhibitions that incorporated the Hall of Gowanus artifacts at the Gowanus Dredgers Boathouse, Footnote Project Space and Artpoetica Project Space. The exhibitions were open during the month of October, including the Arts Gowanus Open Studios weekend on October 16/17.

In Spring 2021, the Gowanus Canal Conservancy created a three-month special exhibition of the original Hall of Gowanus artifacts displayed in their window at the Can Factory on 3rdSt/3rd Ave in Brooklyn.

In 2017, Ute Zimmerman designed a Hall of Gowanus logo, and created a document outlining the important role a Hall of Gowanus museum could play in the Gowanus community.