Fresh off the heels of its successful soft launch at Brooklyn Blue Feather Elementary, the B’Lynx Art Cart made its official debut on Friday, May 19, 2017, with a crafts party at Art Cafe + Bar in Crown Heights. B’Lynx members, friends, family, and community guests gathered at the café for an afternoon filled with painting, drawing, collaborative projects, food, drink, and good music.
B’Lynx is a group dedicated to neighborhood involvement and improvement that is made up of staff and people receiving services through AHRC NYC’s Brooklyn Day Habilitation, Bush Terminal, Brooklyn Day Habilitation Without Walls, Employment and Business Services Brooklyn, and AHRC NYC’s Public Information Department. They used funds they were awarded in a 2016 Citizen’s Committee for NYC Neighborhood Grant to build the Art Cart, a mobile art center, available to people in Crown Heights to work on art projects at street fairs, farmers’ markets, and other gathering points in the community.
There were a wide variety of art activities to engage with at the debut party. Photogenic guests could take a picture with a life-sized frame; small cardboard placards were available as a painting canvas; aspiring artists could learn to draw with markers, crayons, pencils, and more; and all were welcome to decorate the Art Cart with a colored handprint.
The next day, the Art Cart continued its inaugural weekend with an appearance at the Kingston Avenue Festival, a street fair promoting non-violence hosted by the Crown Heights Mediation Center. Going forward, the Art Cart will be available at similar community events and initiatives and is sure to be a creative catalyst for the entire Crown Heights area.
