About this Event
Join us for an immersive afternoon with artist Tiffany Baker, creator of The Dear Neighbor Project — a public art and storytelling initiative that shares the voices of Gowanus residents impacted by flooding and environmental change.
We’ll begin with a guided mural walk to view nearby outdoor installations, created from recorded neighbor interviews and layered visual storytelling.
Following the walk, we’ll return to Van Alen Institute for a hands-on workshop and live listening session. Together, we’ll listen to excerpts from community interviews and take time to reflect through drawing, writing, and discussion. Prompts will invite you to explore personal themes of water, place, housing, and belonging—adding your voice to the evolving story of the neighborhood.
Open to ages 12 and up. No artistic experience required.
The Dear Neighbor Project is produced by Van Alen Institute.
About Tiffany Baker
Tiffany Baker (she/her) is a Chicago-born, Brooklyn-based visual artist, working in oil, acrylic, pencil, digital media, and glass. Tiffany works in a unique style of realist portraiture marked by vibrant palettes and considered attention to her subject’s grooming, often merging somber, regal, and mundane themes, bringing forth her subject’s essence. In her portraiture, she transmutes life experiences into emotive visual expressions that reimagine trauma, embed messages of connection, and celebrate her identity as a Black woman.
About Van Alen Institute
Van Alen Institute is a driving force behind community-led urban design, which believes that local knowledge and care enrich the design process. Since 1894, Van Alen has invested in people with a passion for improving cities through the power of architecture and design. Our public space projects build unconventional coalitions of designers, local stakeholders, and city leaders, and we support their visions through project scoping, hands-on guidance, and seed funding. Our work confronts longstanding power imbalances in citymaking, showcases the vanguard of community-led design, and supports the next generation of designers in creating more just cities.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Van Alen Institute, 303 Bond Street, Brooklyn, United States
USD 0.00
