In the summer of 2014 the People's Climate March design contest lined up a jury panel of art, ad world and activism stars (Shepard Fairey, Barbara Kruger, Swoon, Moby, DJ Spooky and more), and drew submissions from artists worldwide to find a killer design that can help get hundreds of thousands of people on the streets of NYC for the People's Climate March on September 21.
As Akira Ohiso, a neighbor who until recently ran an arts magazine called Green Door, explained, “people come up here to opt out of the mainstream, to find space to roam and do whatever you want. That’s the frontier, and it’s a tough go, but it’s not about hiding out; it’s about searching for something, and out of this desolate environment springs all these amazing creative things that are about the beauty of a brief experience, about something that is alive.”
LIBERTY — Can the Village of Liberty become the new cultural hub of the Catskills?
The former Sullivan County resort mecca may have a few empty storefronts.
But this village flanked by the green Catskill mountains also has a colorful palette of two-story shops offering everything from Mexican, Chinese, Italian and health foods to gourmet coffee and cutting-edge art.
“Why not Liberty?” said Ellie Ohiso, publisher of another thing Liberty has — Green Door magazine, which calls itself “A Journal of Comfortable Living.”
“Liberty has the potential to be like a Saugerties, with its mom-and-pop shops and art. It can be anything it wants to be,” Ohiso said.
Ohiso and a group of business owners calling themselves ArtLib hope this village of some 4,400 residents takes a major step in that direction at 6 p.m. Sunday, when it unveils a giant sculpture that’s sure to attract lots of attention.
It’s called “Ed” and it’s a 10-foot-tall fabricated, welded steel rendition of a big guy with a giant head made of such found objects as an ax and a bicycle tire.
The sculpture is the product of another thing Liberty and Sullivan have — talented artists like Zac Shavrick, a Liberty High School graduate who has shown his steel sculptures in galleries ranging from Chelsea to California.
Shavrick, 26, knows that the open spaces of Sullivan have become a hub for artists who’ve shown everywhere from the Museum of Modern Art to the Smithsonian — especially artists from New York City who need open spaces like the Catskills provide.
“It’s not easy to fit all this art (in a space) in the city,” he said, gesturing to sculptures like a larger-than-life version of 7-foot-6-inch basketball great Yao Ming on the 15 acres in Ferndale where he lives with his father, Barry, also a sculptor of welded steel.
“The city’s moving up this way, too.”
“Ed” will be unveiled next to another member of ArtLib, Floyd and Bobo’s Bakery and Snack Palace, on a tiny slice of the Main Street lawn of the Town of Liberty government center — itself unique since the building is an old home set on a tree-lined lawn.
And when you ask Floyd and Bobo’s co-owner, Louie Petraglia, if he thinks Liberty can become the next cultural hub of the Catskills, he answers with the same question Ohiso asks:
“Why not?”
LIBERTY — Bland sheets of plywood stretched across the entrance of the former Liberty Theater and connected storefronts in the center of Main Street.
Where others saw a row of depressing closed storefronts in the heart of their village, Akira and Ellie Ohiso spotted an opportunity.
They painted the dull white wood black, lettered “I would like to see this storefront become ”»” in Spanish and English, and left colored chalk behind for people to scribble away their ideas.
Akira is the president and editor and wife Ellie the publisher of Green Door Magazine, a Sullivan County-based journal dedicated to responsible living in the Catskills and Hudson Valley.
The Ohisos say the project extends the magazine’s mission, to get people thinking about their community and making positive changes.
But they also say they did it because they live in the village and don’t want to drive or walk past boring blank boards for the next several months.
“There is some type of psychological impact to walking past vacant stores every day,” Ellie said. She said people grow apathetic and tend to get used to seeing closed buildings.
“Art,” she said, “has a way of making a psychological impact for the positive.”
Stephanie Eisenberg owns the property on South Main Street. She plans to renovate the former movie theater into a performing arts space, and create retail stores.
It is unclear, however, how long that project will take to get going.
Akira Ohiso said the wall will stay up for at least six months and possibly the duration of the construction project.
They finished the wall on Jan. 13 after obtaining the owner’s permission. Within a couple hours, people were scribbling away, Akira said. It has been a hit with young people.
Most of the wall is covered with comments in multicolored chalk. A skateboard store, youth center and game room are the most repeated requests. Others wrote: “hair shop,” “teen pregnancy prevention center,” “semi private youth pool hall,” or simply “something amazing and unexpected.”
Ellie Ohiso said once the wall is filled with comments, they’ll erase them so people can keep writing. They monitor the content to ensure no foul language is on display.
The idea was based on artist Candy Chang’s “Before I Die” series, where people have expressed their feelings and aspirations in public spaces. Chang created the first wall on an abandoned house in New Orleans, after she lost a loved one.
Liberty’s wall has been featured on the Web page beforeidie.cc with other walls in the series as far flung as Australia and the Netherlands.
