COME TOGETHER: SURVIVING SANDY, YEAR 1 Exhibition Set for Now thru 12/15 at Industry City

To commemorate the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Sandy and celebrate the resiliency of New York City's arts community, which was hit especially hard by the storm, the Dedalus Foundation and Industry City present a nearly 100,000-square-foot exhibition, including more than 300 artists, titled Come Together: Surviving Sandy, Year 1, on view today, October 20 through December 15, 2013. The exhibition is curated by artist, writer, and publisher of The Brooklyn Rail, and independent curator, Phong Bui, who previously served as a curatorial advisor to MoMA PS1.

The exhibition will take place at Industry City, located at 220 36th Street in the Sunset Park neighborhood of Brooklyn, a historic manufacturing and innovation center. Industry City has been involved with Hurricane Sandy relief since Sandy hit. At the time of the storm, Industry City, which itself suffered extensive basement flooding and infrastructure damage, donated the use of 18,000 square feet of space to volunteer conservators who worked on the recovery of hundreds of works of art.

During the course of the exhibition there will be many events, including music and dance performances, screenings of documentary films, panel discussions regarding the conservation of works of art and preventative measures with regard to future natural disasters, and readings by poets who have been commissioned to write about their experience of Sandy.

Participating artists include Shoja Azari, Rachel Beach, Rackstraw Downes, Deborah Kass, Alex Katz, Ben Keating, Ronnie Landfield, Josiah McElheny, Chris Martin, Jonas Mekas, Donald Moffett, Shirin Neshat, Rona Pondick, Joanna Pousette-Dart, Alexander Ross, Michelle Segre, Richard Serra, William Schuck, Mark di Suvero, Gary Stephan, SUPERFLEX, Daniel Turner, Lee Tribe, Ursula von Rydingsvard, Lisa Yuskavage, Nicole Wittenberg, and Joe Zucker. The complete list of artists, events and viewing hours, including holiday closures, is available at www.cometogethersandy.com.  

Many of the works in the exhibition will be for sale, with a portion of the proceeds to be donated to a charitable fund benefiting both Sandy relief and arts education in the local community. The Dedalus Foundation will match the amount raised, up to $25,000.

"The Dedalus Foundation is proud to be engaged in helping to bring together the New York arts community after last year's devastating events," said Jack Flam, President of the Dedalus Foundation. "We are especially pleased to be working together with the extraordinary Phong Bui, who is so deeply committed to artists working in so many different mediums, and with Industry City, whose involvement with relief from Sandy goes back to the aftermath of the storm. This remarkable exhibition is the beginning of a long-term collaboration between Dedalus and Industry City, which will include exhibitions, educational programs, and various cultural events."

"In the year since Sandy wreaked havoc, the many artists who lost use of their studios or significant parts of their life's work, have struggled to recover," said Phong Bui, the curator of the exhibition. "This event is about the arts community, the Sunset Park neighborhood, and the city as a whole coming together in the spirit of solidarity to celebrate resiliency through art and expression."

"This exhibition is a cathartic moment for both Industry City and the Sunset Park community which sustained major damage during Sandy," said Andrew Kimball, CEO of Industry City. "Given the exhibition's theme of resiliency, Industry City was a good fit to host this event. We are proud to bring people together under our roof for this significant commemoration of a storm that truly impacted us all."

The exhibition marks the beginning of an ongoing partnership between the Dedalus Foundation and Industry City. After this inaugural event, exhibitions and educational initiatives at Industry City will be programmed by the Dedalus Foundation on an ongoing basis.

About the Dedalus Foundation
Founded in 1981 by the artist Robert Motherwell, the Dedalus Foundation educates the public by fostering public understanding of modern art and modernism through its support of research, education, publications, and exhibitions in this field. For more information, visit: www.dedalusfoundation.org.
 
About Phong Bui
Phong Bui is an artist, writer and independent curator, who previously served as a curatorial advisor to MoMA PS1. He is also the co-founder, editor, and publisher of the Brooklyn Rail and the Rail Editions publishing press, as well as the host and producer of the radio program, Off the Rail on Art International Radio.

About the Brooklyn Rail
Founded in October 2000, the Brooklyn Rail is a free monthly 501(c)(3) non-profit journal of arts, culture, and politics throughout New York City and beyond. The journal offers in-depth coverage of contemporary visual art, featuring local reporting and criticism of music, dance, film and theater, as well as book reviews, poetry, and fiction.

?About Industry City
Industry City at Bush Terminal is a large complex of manufacturing, office, and retail space on the Brooklyn waterfront. When it was built in the early 1900s, it was the largest manufacturing and distribution center in the world, and it helped turn Brooklyn into a major 20th-century seaport. Industry City is once again emerging as a major commercial center in the heart of Brooklyn, a hub of innovation and manufacturing that is an engine for creativity and local job creation. For more information, visit: www.bushterminal.com.