“From coastal resiliency and sustainable green practices to the preservation of affordable housing, world-class public art, and vibrant, year-round programming in award-winning public spaces, Battery Park City leads the way in many of the measures that makes cities livable."

Raju Mann

President & CEO
  • 01/16
  • Art & Culture
  • BPC People
  • Community
  • Environment

NEWSLETTER – JANUARY 2018

BPC PEOPLE
Yoshihiro Youkee Nishida:

Battery Park City Parks Gardener and BPC Resident

Favorite BPC Spot:
Area between Museum of Jewish Heritage and Wagner Park

 

Yoshihiro Youkee Nishida was born in Kyoto, Japan. After receiving a law degree from Kwansei University, he moved to the United States and pursue his true passion: art.
Asked about this unconventional career progression, Yoshihiro answers the way a true artist would: “The law is already established. Art is open – and open to interpretation – which means you can make your own path.” And the path he has forged in the art world is a unique one indeed.

At age of 27, Yoshihiro received his Bachelors of Fine Arts and Master of Fine Arts in printmaking from the Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles, California. Being the passionate and driven person that he is, Yoshihiro then went on to study at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, earning a Master’s of Fine Arts in Lithography. It was at Cranbrook where Yoshihiro was inspired to take a new direction by one of his professors after receiving an evaluation about his art quality, and at 35 years old he began his journey through art.

Twenty years ago Yoshihiro moved to New York where he began full time work inside a studio. Currently, he is a part-time artist and a gardener in Battery Park City Parks. It is his time as a gardener that has most recently impacted his approach. “Art de Genki,” which means art through vital energy, is the name he now gives his work.

Over the past two decades his solo shows include exhibitions all over the world. His newest exhibition – and first in New York City – “The only Person in the vast world! Practice Accessing Vital Source through Art,” is being showcased at the Center for Remembering & Sharing. This exhibition of acrylic paintings on burlap explores the relationship between materials and the artist. The exhibition will be shown through February 6, 2018.

In his spare time, he likes to visit museums and marvel at work by Matisse, Miró, and Kandinsky, some of his favorite artists of all time. Since 2006, from April through October on weekends and holidays, he creates chalk drawings in the park. The park itself has become his studio and his canvas is the pavement. His unique designs incorporating BPC’s hex pavers are a beautiful tribute to the idea that everything is integrated in Battery Park City: gardening, art and living.

BATTERY PARK CITY AUTHORITY
PUBLIC BOARD MEETING  
MARK IT DOWN:

Next meeting of the BPCA Board is Wednesday, January 24, 2018 at 2:30pm
click here for more information: https://staging.bpca.ny.gov/about/board-committees/

Statement of Acting BPCA President B.J. Jones
on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day 
 

“While much has changed over the past half century, what remains steady as a rock is Dr. King’s influence and inspiration – needed now as urgently as ever. To honor his work and memory, let us strive today and forevermore to be more decent, more loving, more hopeful of all that we can overcome and accomplish when we are united. If together we persist then together we win.”

For more information please visit: MLK50 Forward | Together We Win With Love for Humanity

 

The New York State Mentoring Program
Change a Life. Become a Mentor.
 

The New York State Mentoring Program creates supportive Mentor relationships for students at risk of dropping out of school. This unique program takes place in a school-based setting, one-to-one between the mentor and mentee, with a school coordinator present who is selected by the principal. The program provides background checks and training for volunteer mentors and mentees.

Get involved by filling out the Mentoring Application or calling (844) 337-6304.

For more information:

The New York State Mentoring Program

State’s Former First Lady Matilda Cuomo Returns to her Alma mater to Launch Mentoring Program

 

Congressman Nadler’s Congressional Town Hall
Monday, January 22
6 – 8pm
NYU Law, Vanderbilt Hall, 40 Washington Square South, New York, NY 10012
(at the corner of Washington Square South and MacDougal Street)

Please RSVP – to help us determine crowd size.
Seating is strictly first-come, first served.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/rep-jerrold-nadler-congressional-town-hall-tickets-41120297918

BPC PARKS
BATTERY PARK CITY AUTHORITY WINTER EVENTS CALENDAR
PRESCHOOL PLAY & ART 
New reduced fees 
Thursdays, January 4 to April 5 
Session 1: 10-11:30am
Session 2: 3:30-5pm

6 River TerraceEncourage imagination and discovery through child-directed free play. Take delight in story time, dress-up and wielding blocks and vehicles. Engage in art projects with your walking toddler that include painting, clay and more!
Fee: 14 sessions $200
To register, please email: registration@bpcparks.org
PARENT & BABY YOGA
New reduced fees 
Mondays, January 8 to April 23
(except 1/15, 2/19)
6 River TerraceEnjoy yoga in a safe, supportive environment while learning postures and exercises specifically suited for new parents and babies.
Cycle1: January 8 – February 26
Fee: 6 sessions $90 or $20 drop-in
Cycle 2: March 5 – April 23
Session 1: 1 – 2:15PM
Session 2: 2:30 – 3:45PM

Fee: 8 sessions $120 or $20 drop-in
To register, please email: registration@bpcparks.org
FTO: Get Your Game On!
Fridays, January 5 – March 23 

(except 1/12, 2/16)
4pm – 7pm, 6 River Terrace
Free
This season BPC Parks is proud to present our new and improved For Teens Only series: Get Your Game On! Join us for some friendly Friday night competition featuring games like Settlers of Catan, ping pong, foosball and DJ workshops! Want to chill? Come hang with your friends, play some Wii or nom on some snacks. See ya there!. To learn more, click here.
Grades 7-12
Chess For Children
Tuesdays, January 9 – April 3

Beginners: (5-7 YRS) 3:30-4:25pm
Intermediate: (7 YRS & UP) 4:30-5:30pm

6 River TerraceLearn the language of chess through thoughtfully designed stories, brain-challenging activities and fun competition. Find out why this ancient game still captures the heart and imagination of young and old. To learn more, click here. Fee: 13 sessions $195
History of the Hudson River Valley
Tuesday, January 30
1pm, 6 River Terrace
Free
Sailing down the river that would later bear his captain’s name, explorer Robert Juet described the Hudson River Valley in 1609 as a “drowned land” submerged by a “great lake of water”. Over the next two centuries, this drowned landscape would be the site of a truly historic flowering of art, literature, architecture, innovation, and revolutionary fervor. Join historian Vernon Benjamin as he illuminates the multifaceted history of New York’s great river with stories both familiar and revealing. Part of our Winter Talk series. To learn more, click here.
Celebrating Haiti featuring Claudia Eliaza
Saturday, January 27
4pm – 6pm, 6 River Terrace
Free
Revered Haitian-American singer Claudia Eliaza will take you on a musical journey that celebrates the strength, resiliency, and empowerment of her culture. We will also be making paper silhouettes inspired by Haitian artist Georges Liautaud’s recycled-steel flat sculptures. Part of our Celebrating the Caribbean family workshop seriesTo learn more, click here.
2018 Annual Art Exhibition Opening Reception
Sunday, January 28

1pm – 3pm, 75 Battery Place
Art on view weekdays,
January 29 – March 30, 2-4pm
Free
View pieces made by participants of all ages from the BPC Parks art programs and see the creative expressions of the community firsthand. To learn more, click here.
RECYCLE YOUR TREE
December 26 – January 26
Battery Park City
Help BPC Parks stay green this holiday season! Please deposit your tree without decorations on the curb. Park staff will pick up trees until January 26th. Trees will be chipped and used for mulch in the parks of Battery Park City. We appreciate your assistance! For more information, call 212-267-9700.
BROOKFIELD PLACE
The Rink at Brookfield Place
Monday – Sunday through April 1
(weather permitting)
Three World Financial Center, 230 Vesey St,
New York, NY 10281
PUBLIC SKATING HOURS
Monday – Friday
1:00pm – 2:30pm
3:00pm – 4:30pm
5:00pm – 6:30pm
7:00pm – 8:30pm

Saturday – Sunday & Holidays
10:15am -11:45am
12:00pm -1:30pm
2:00pm – 3:30pm
4:00pm – 5:30pm
6:00pm – 7:30pm
8:00pm – 9:30pm

PUBLIC SKATING PRICES
$15 single public session (90 minutes)
$5 skate rental
For more information click here.

Luminaries
Through Sunday 1/29
8:00 AM – 10:00 PM
Brookfield Place Mall – Winter Garden
Luminaries is a mesmerizing holiday light installation designed by the LAB at Rockwell Group, based on the season’s traditions of sharing, giving, and community. Visitors are immersed in a canopy of glowing lanterns suspended within the Winter Garden at Brookfield Place, each changing color and intensity. For every wish sent by the public during the holiday season, Brookfield will donate $1, up to $25,000, to the GRAMMY Museum and its music education programs. For more information click here.
MUSEUM OF JEWISH HERITAGE
Soul to Soul
Monday, Jan 15
2pm
36 Battery Pl
Explore the parallel experience of two minority peoples’ paths to find America’s promise of freedom, with stirring songs in Yiddish and English, culminating in songs from the Civil Rights era. This concert features Lisa Fishman (The Golden Bride), Cantor Magda Fishman (Temple Beth El in Stamford, CT), Elmore James (Broadway’s Beauty and the Beast), and Tony Perry (Five Guys Named Moe). Conceived with musical direction by Zalmen Mlotek (NYTF Artistic Director).
Tickets start at $25.
For more information click here.
Lioness Golda Meir and the Nation of Israel
Wednesday, Jan 17
7pm
36 Battery Pl 
From joining the Socialist Workers of Zion movement in her high school in Milwaukee to becoming the fourth Prime Minister of Israel, Golda Meir’s life is the stuff of legend. Author Francine Klagsburn guides readers through her own journey to understand this important, often contradictory, and frequently opaque figure in Israel’s history. Moderated by Alana Newhouse, Editor in Chief of Tablet Magazine.
Free to attend with museum admission. Advance registration recommended.
For more information click here.
Archives of the Second World War: Their Impact on History and Humanity 
Monday, Jan 29, 
7pm
36 Battery Pl
Moderated by Northeastern Journalism Professor Laurel Leff (Buried by The Times: The Holocaust and America’s Most Important Newspaper); featuring Dr. Elizabeth Anthony (Mandel Center, USHMM); Stephen Haufek (Archivist, United Nations); and Dr. Charles R. Gallagher, S.J. (Boston College). The opening of the United Nations War Crimes Commission Records Archives 1943-1949 and the International Tracing Service has both changed historians’ understanding of the Holocaust and impacted the lives of individual Holocaust survivors and their families. Join us for a conversation about what has been learned; what still might be found in the Vatican archives; and what future generations of historians may yet uncover.
Free to attend. Advance registration recommended.
For more information click here.
POSTS HOUSE
Visiting Hours
Tuesday – Saturday
10 River Terrace
Library & Reading Room Hours: 
Tuesday – Friday, 11am – 7pm,
Saturday, 11am – 6pm
Children’s Room Hours:
Thursday–Saturday, 11am – 5pm
Free and open to the public
For more information click here.
SKYSCRAPER MUSEUM 
Millennium: Lower Manhattan in the 1990s
Wednesday – Sunday ongoing exhibit
12pm – 6pm
39 Battery Place
Multimedia exhibition, running from November 8, 2017 through April 2018, vividly recaptures this strange and formative time in the history of New York’s historic commercial hub, through a striking combination of architectural drawings and models, archival and contemporary photographs, original posters, maps, sketches, renderings, and other documents of the era. MILLENNIUM revisits this recent history of lower Manhattan in the years just before Downtown’s identity was cataclysmically recast as Ground Zero, and a new era truly began.
Admission: $5; $2.50 for students and seniors
Children under 12: Free
For more information click here.
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