Please join us for a series of artist-led workshops that will visualize the possibility of daylighting Flushing Creek. Flushing Creek was artificially forced underground at sections into pipes for the construction of the 1939 World’s Fair grounds and now runs beneath and through the center of Flushing Meadows Corona Park. Daylighting, or restoring underground portions of a waterway into above ground habitats, has immense benefits for social-ecological health and climate resilience.

Led by artist Jevijoe Vitug, “Indigenize dis Shirt!” is an upcycling T-shirt workshop honoring Flushing Creek. Inspired by the indigenous art of Oceania, whose central motifs are water movements and ocean currents, the workshop aims to develop flowing and wavy design patterns based on the natural form of the hidden waters of Flushing Creek. The workshop is composed of reverse tie dye at the creek site and fabric painting at the museum, followed by a fashion photoshoot at the Unisphere.

Organized by Guardians of Flushing Bay together with artist and educator Julia Norton, each of the four workshops in this series will be led by a different Queens-based artist selected through an open call (details to be announced soon). Some workshops will move through the park to examine Flushing Creek first hand, while others will remain in the museum to consider the waterway more broadly. The workshops will allow for exploration within a variety of artistic mediums, such as conceptual practice and hands-on art making. The goal of the workshops is to reveal Flushing Creek through visual materials and content that can be utilized in engaging local park users in the future possibility of daylighting Flushing Creek.

These workshops will be designed for adults ages 18 and older. Any minors older than 12 are welcome to participate, but must be accompanied by an adult. All participants should be prepared for uneven terrain, long outdoor walks and muddy conditions. No prior experience is necessary.

Join for one workshop or for the whole series. Registration is required in order to attend each workshop. Please click here to RSVP.

Other upcoming workshop dates are:
June 25, 2023, 1-4pm

More about the artist:

Jevijoe Vitug is a Philippine-born visual artist and community collaborator whose work addresses perception in relation to the concepts of invisibility and visibility at the intersection of indigenous culture and contemporary digital culture. He earned his MFA from San Francisco Art Institute in 2015. His projects have been presented in various exhibitions, including Art Work: Artists Working at The Met, The Metropolitan Museum of Art (2022), Daydreamer’s Manifestation, Vargas Museum, Philippines (2019); S.T.E.P. at the Queens Museum (2018). Vitug is a recipient of several awards including the New York Foundation for the Arts’ City Artist Corps Grant (2021), Queens Arts Fund New Work Grant (2021, 2019) and has been an artist-in-residence at The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts’ SHIFT (2022) and The Laundromat Project’s Create Change Program (2019).