The Peekskill Arts Alliance has chosen the winner of a contest to create a major new art installation that will brighten the waterfront district.
The Water Street Arches Project includes huge works of art printed on vinyl banners that are each 16 feet wide and 23 feet tall.
Those banners will be installed on the 10 arches located at the intersection of South Water Street and Central Avenue, and fitted to the arches that support the Route 9 overpass across from the Lincoln Depot Museum.
The Arts Alliance says the installation is set for late August or Early September.
“It will inject a fresh, vibrant feel to the area, and suggest to people seeing it on passing trains that Peekskill is a lively, art-friendly town,” said Peter Bynum, a member of the Curatorial Committee. “Every town deserves great public art, and we’re sure this will bring joy and a sense of hopefulness to everyone seeing it.”
Bynum was one of eight artists and art professionals on the panel that chose the winner.
He is a Cold Spring-based painter whose work has been exhibited in Rome, Shanghai, Singapore, Basel, Paris, Cologne and throughout the U.S., and it can be found in more than 80 public and private collections.
In addition, New York’s Museum of Art & Design named him one of the most influential artists of the last half-century who works with glass.
The committee chose Carol Bouyoucos’s Above the Fruited Plain as the winning entry out of 92 submissions.
“It’s beautiful and cohesive across the ten big arches, with great color and flow and dynamic movement,” said Bynum. “It references local history while also helping us imagine a bright future full of hope and potential.”
Bouyoucos lives and works in Mt. Kisco, and her art has been displayed in Westchester, the tri-state area, and throughout the country and internationally in cities like Paris and Venice.
Bouyoucos is also active in the Peekskill arts community as she’s a member of both HVMOCA [Hudson Valley Museum of Contemporary Art] and the Peekskill Museum, and her pieces have been featured at MOCA.
She was thrilled when she found out that her work had won, “I was out of my mind. I really felt it was such a perfect fit. Because of the physical scope I was able to tell a story from beginning to end.”
Bouyoucos named Above the Fruited Plain after the line in the classic anthem America the Beautiful.
“A new world is emerging, so let’s make it as beautiful and inclusive as we can,” said the artist when describing how she chose the title.
Bouyoucos is a digital painter. “All my work is photography based, and I use different apps to convert what I shoot.” She adds, “Then I bring bits and pieces into photoshop, and I make a collage out of the final pieces and render it through different functions.”
After she finished Above the Fruited Plain, she sent the file to the fabricator, Color Group in Hawthorne, and they printed the work on the massive banners before installing them.
The installation is designed to last between 5 and 10 years, according to Bouyoucos.
Above the Fruited Plain tells the story of the city itself, explains the artist. “It starts at historical Peekskill. As the series progresses, it becomes more about the interpretations about what I see in Peekskill today.”
She adds, “As it progresses further, the color takes over and it becomes more fantastical. The early works have more early 19th century images of the city of Peekskill and the waterfront. The Peekskill Museum gave me access to the archives. I saw photos and etchings and got the approval to use them.”
The arches project is a collaboration between The Peekskill Arts Alliance and HV MOCA, and it’s all part of the Enlighten Peekskill Public Art Project.
It’s funded as part of the state’s $10 million grant for the Peekskill Downtown Revitalization Initiative (DRI) that has also supported several other public arts projects in the city.
They include the Five Elements Arches mural, installed on the arches at Requa and South Streets, four illuminated sculptures sponsored by HVMOCA, and Making Connections, a Peekskill Arts Alliance-sponsored series of mural installations at 13 downtown Peekskill sites.
“The revitalization brings people together at the waterfront and brings people joy.” says Bouyoucos. “If I can present a story that brings people happiness and that everyone can relate to – that’s what public art is all about.”
Carol Bouyoucos website > carolgreenanbouyoucos.com/current-work/1
Larry Epstein is an Emmy-winning writer and producer who works at News 12, and is a former senior producer at Fox News Channel, Fox Business Network, and MSNBC.
