When Joan Pursley, Project Director for New York Beyond Sight (NYBS), read The New York Times interview with BMCC President Antonio Pérez (“In Setbacks, Finding Motivation,” June 23, 2009), she thought he’d be the perfect New Yorker to collaborate with on a media project.
NYBS is a Manhattan-based organization that helps make cultural riches—such as public art—accessible to the blind.
For NYBS, prominent New Yorkers (politicians, writers, actors, artists, authors, business and community leaders) are asked to record a 3- to 5-minute visual description of their favorite Manhattan landmark, and President Pérez proudly and happily agreed to lend his voice to the program. It’s just one of the many projects under, what Pursley calls, the ‘umbrella’ of the Art Education for the Blind (AEB).
“It gives sighted people another perspective on the city’s artworks and landmarks, sending a message of equal access, inclusion and tolerance,” she said.
Pérez records audio in office
After reaching out to President Pérez, Pursley and her colleague Lou Giansante, a writer and multimedia producer, worked with the President on his verbal description. NYSB scheduled and recorded the audio, making it available to the public via its Website.
After agreeing to record a visual description for NYBS, it was Pérez’s idea to talk about Balloon Flower (Red), a sculpture by artist Jeff Koons, which has been on public display since 2007. It fronts the deconstructed Fiterman Hall; just a few blocks away from BMCC’s main campus.
“He has a great voice,” said Pursley of Pérez, who recorded his session at the beginning of the Fall 2009 semester at his office. “I knew he was the type of New Yorker who would do this; and he was immediately open to the idea. We were so delighted by the Koons artwork he selected.”
Born in 1955 in York, Pennsylvania, Koons studied art in college, later working as a Wall Street broker while establishing himself as an artist on the side. He garnered attention for his artwork in the 80s, when he set up a factory-like studio loft in SoHo, where a staff of 30 employees helped him produce his sculptures.
Tribeca’s “Red Balloon”
“Balloon Flower (Red) is a symbol of hope for college and for all of downtown Manhattan,” said Pérez in his audio session.
“The sculpture sits in the center of a fountain in a small park in front of 7 World Trade Center, the first building rebuilt after the attacks of 9/11. The park is bounded by Barclay Street, Greenwich Street, West Broadway and Vesey Street. Vesey Street overlooks Ground Zero where the World Trade Center was located. And across Barclay Street is Fiterman Hall, one of our college buildings. It was severely damaged on 9/11 and is being completely rebuilt, with a scheduled reopening in 2012,” he continued.
The sculpture is further described by Pérez as “a 9-foot tall representation of a flower that appears to have been created by twisting and knotting together one of those long, thin balloons that a clown might use.”
Balloon sculpture evokes hope
On a personal level Pérez said the balloon sculpture “makes me think of children. It’s as if a child left their balloon there. Children represent hope, and so the sculpture gives me a renewed hope for the future.”
Thick, dark benches circle the sculpture, and Pérez talked about them in his audio. “I know that someday, many [BMCC] students will congregate on these benches between classes. And as they sit there, the Balloon will reflect back to them literally and figuratively the sense of hope and optimism in the future, for themselves and for New York City.”
Recordings for ‘anyone’ to download
Other prominent New Yorkers who committed to recording content for NYBS include Marty Markowitz, Brooklyn Borough President; Congressman Charles Rangel; Gregory H. Williams, President, CCNY, and many more. Access to the online audio recordings is free.
October is Art Beyond Sight Awareness Month, an international initiative to bring public attention to the benefits of making art and visual culture accessible to all.
For more on AEB, visit www.artbeyondsight.org.
