Fall 2013 Newsletter

Thank You!

Thanks to scores of generous contributors, we were able to successfully match a challenge grant from the Troy-based Howard & Bush Foundation that brought in a total of $15,000. The flurry of fundraising activity that surrounded construction of Freedom Square had a great outcome! 

Words alone are not enough to express our gratitude to everyone who provides support, whether in the form of donations, volunteer labor, or kind words!

Next year marks our 10th anniversary. None of us imagined we would get so far along this path; what an amazing journey! Thanks for making it possible, and for coming along.

Uptown Summer

Our team from the Rensselaer County Summer Youth Employment Program joined forces with the Northeast Parent and Child Society AmeriCorps program to bring about an amazing transformation on our block this summer. They cleared brush, built paths, and planted trees and shrubs to create amazing garden spaces.

Their efforts were supported by an incredible KitchenSanctuary crew who made it their mission to ensure that the young people, and anyone who wanted to join them, had tasty and nutritious meals every day.

Joining forces with a small army of community volunteers, they made the “Found Art in North Troy” edition of Uptown Summer a huge success. Check out their creative place-making triumphs during the StoryHarvest celebration on September 28!

Freedom Square

This fall marks the end of “Found Art in North Troy,” a year-long community wide public art project using found objects to address themes of re-purposing, re-use and sustainability.

This past summer was the first-ever season of programming on our new outdoor stage. Whether it was the righteous hip hop of the Bend the Bars with Beats posse, live movie music for “Night of the Living Dead” from the Andrew Alden Ensemble, the incendiary Ethiopian grooves of the Krar Collective, or the cool North African blues sounds of the Festival in the Desert’s Caravan for Peace, it seems as though there was something for everyone in Freedom Square!

Meet Sixth Ave 

The folks living on the 3300 block of 6th Avenue woke up with new neighbors this summer, as many boarded-up windows along the street were transformed by beautiful portraits of local residents.

The images are the work of photojournalist Brenda Ann Kenneally, who for years has been documenting the lives of people in this neighborhood. Many of the photos were taken last December as part of our free holiday family portrait workshop.

Mural Project

The south face of the new Hot Spot restaurant is now the site of artist Marcus Kwame Anderson’s beautiful tribute to freedom fighters, titled “Out of Many, One.” 

One of three public mural projects led by Troy Alley Action, community volunteers are the secret force behind this explosion of color!  Follow the trail of art across the street at Troy Bike Rescue and down the block at the Troy Central Little League!

Nature Lab

This summer we launched “BioArt in an Industrial Wasteland,” a project funded by the National Endowment for the Arts that is bringing internationally-recognized artists to our North Troy neighborhood. Community workshops, presentations and public art projects are just a few of the ways art, science and technology are integrated into visual metaphors for abandoned spaces across the planet.

Next, with support from the Department of Environmental Conservation’s Environmental Justice Community Impact program for our “Uptown Summer: From Food Desert to Edible Neighborhood” initiative, we will move forward with our plans to convert abandoned lots on the 3300 block of Sixth Avenue into lush spaces filled with edibles.  

Through art, we are dealing with issues of sustainability and our biological futures. Grounded in a neighborhood undergoing a creative renaissance at the birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution, we are envisioning a transformed space of hope, criticality, do-it-yourself ecological ingenuity, collaboration and creativity.