Live performances to return to Brooklyn streets in May
Mayor de Blasio launches the city’s “Open Culture” initiative, which will open 115 designated public spaces for live, ticketed performances
This spring, Brooklyn’s streets should be a lot more lively. A new “Open Culture” initiative announced this week hopes to bring live, socially-distance performances back to the city that’s been starved for live cultural events.
“We saw with ‘Open Restaurants,’ we cut the red tape, we made it simple,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said Monday. “If you build it, they will come.”
Like the “Open Restaurants” and the “Open Streets” initiatives, “Open Culture” aims to cut down on red tape for hopeful performers. Street performance permits should come more easily to arts, culture, and entertainment venues, allowing single-day performances at 115 public locations around the city. Applications cost $20 and will open on March 1.
“Brooklyn’s dynamic artistic community has been eagerly awaiting opportunities to participate in the revitalization of our creative community by presenting their work to the public in ways that are safe and engaging,” says Charlotte Cohen, executive director of the Brooklyn Arts Council. “We are so delighted to see the City innovating the Open Culture Program as part of a collective effort to bring creativity back to our streets and our lives—we need the arts to reflect our shared humanity now more than ever, after a period of so much suffering and loss.”
At the announcement, ballet group Elisa Monte Dance gave a performance in the snow.
We need a recovery that brings back the heart and soul of this city. We need to bring back our arts and culture.
Our Open Culture program will do just that by bringing performance art to the greatest stage in the world — the streets of New York City.https://t.co/zOoUdeggry pic.twitter.com/bKM4VwijMw
— Mayor Bill de Blasio (@NYCMayor) February 8, 2021
Not everyone was thrilled with the announcement.
“We need a workable vaccine process – good grief, it is a mess and that we cannot blame on the feds,” one self-described consumer advocate tweeted in reply, a sentiment that was echoed by several.
The mayor’s announcement came on the same day New York Governor Andrew Cuomo took the wraps off his NY PopsUp program. The statewide public-private arts festival will host more 300 performances from a variety of artists over 100 days. NY PopsUp is set to begin on February 20th and run through Labor Day. The governor framed it as a way to ultimately ease back in to indoor ticketed events.
Fans will be able to follow along with a new Twitter and Instagram account, @NYPopsUp, for details about upcoming performances, many will be shown online.
