Proteus Gowanus Interdisciplinary Gallery to Host 'Battle of Brooklyn' Family Workshops, Beg. 4/6

This spring, Proteus Gowanus Interdisciplinary Gallery has organized a series of family workshops as part of the Battle Pass project, a series of installations, performances and workshops that mark sites of the Battle of Brooklyn. The workshops will take place in conjunction with the Proteus Gowanus spring exhibition, "Battle Ground," which will open on Saturday, April 13 and which will explore issues of conflict, history, and memory.

This series of three free family workshops will explore history through art, and will investigate different aspects of the Battle of Brooklyn, the biggest battle of the American Revolutionary War, which took place across a large swath Brooklyn in 1776. The workshops will occur at three different Brooklyn locations-each associated with the battle in some way.

The workshops are free and open to children ages five and up and their families. These are drop-in workshops, and no reservations are required, but space is limited.

Shipbuilding Workshop

The Waterfront Museum

290 Conover Street, Pier 44, Red Hook

Taught by artist Eva Melas

Saturday, April 6, 2013

1:00 to 4:00pm

We will be exploring the important role ships played in the Battle of Brooklyn at the Waterfront Museum, located on a barge in Red Hook. In the summer of 1776, local residents would have seen the imposing British fleet from Red Hook; Washington later rounded up more humble vessels in order to retreat to Manhattan from Brooklyn Heights. Participants in this family workshop will make their own improvised armada from objects found in Brooklyn today, such as coffee cups and cardboard packaging. Weather permitting, we will test launch our boats from the deck of the barge.

Tide Mill Workshop

Proteus Gowanus Interdisciplinary Gallery

543 Union Street, down the alley off Nevins Street, Gowanus

Taught by educator Angela Kramer Murphy

Saturday, May 4, 2013

1:00 to 4:00pm

One of the first tide mills in America once stood not far from where Proteus Gowanus stands today. Brouwer's Mill, built in the mid-17^th century, used the power of the Gowanus Creek's rising and falling tides to turn wheat into flour. During the Battle of Brooklyn, the mill and its bridge burned, forcing soldiers to cross the rising waters of Gowanus Creek. This workshop will uncover the little known history of tide mills in Brooklyn, as families work together to build their own miniature mills.

Diorama Workshop

The Brooklyn Historical Society
128 Pierrepont Street at Clinton Street, Brooklyn Heights
Taught by educator Angela Kramer Murphy

Saturday, June 1, 2013

1:00 to 4:00pm

In this family workshop, participants will reflect on the relationship between Brooklyn past and present by making their own three-dimensional accordion books, or dioramas, using copies of old and modern maps, photographs, and other images. We will be working in the Othmer Library at the Brooklyn Historical Society, which holds the original versions of many of the documents we will be using in our artworks.

For more information, consult proteusgowanus.org.