Neighborhood Printing Collective’s mission is two-fold: To host printmaking workshops enabling participants to create a personal tribute to their neighborhood, and 2: To collect stories related to living and working pre and post Verrazzano Bridge, BQE and Gowanus Expressway.

After building and printing several iterations of their collagraph plates on paper and flags, workshop participants will leave me their plates to bring to the studio. Here, I will arrange and combine them with others to create large scale neighborhoods intended to celebrate a community despite the high speed roadways cutting through them.

The collaborative prints will reflect the neighborhoods that share the elevated green monster while also celebrating their resiliency and diversity. They will provide a visual representation of these neighborhoods while highlighting and imagining areas that could use some traffic calming and green space initiatives.

These large scale neighborhood arrangements are to be printed on household fabrics such as sheets, curtains, shower curtains, and tablecloths. The stories shared during workshops or through online submissions are to be embroidered into the collaborative pieces, giving visuals and voice to the neighborhoods of Bay Ridge, Sunset Park, Gowanus and beyond.

The Collective aims to bring attention to the city planning happening around the neighborhoods affected by the BQE. It wants to hold the city accountable for listening to what communities want when envisioning a kinder, gentler BQE. A federal grant was awarded to the city for this purpose and has resulted in The BQE Corridor Vision.

Please email ellencolemanizzo@gmail.com with questions or to schedule a workshop.

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Ellen Coleman Izzo

Ellen Coleman Izzo