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Dave Steck of the Yonkers Film Festival – known as YoFiFest – often tweets that hashtag, and he’s right. Cities all across the region are riding a wave of growth built largely on the success of emerging arts and tech communities.
Artists, young people and start-ups are getting priced out of Williamsburg, DUMBO and Jersey City, and they’re looking for the next great neighborhood. That’s why we launched Generation Yonkers, a marketing campaign to position Yonkers as the region’s next great place for people to live, work and play.
During the past three years there has been an explosion of arts activity in our City. There are now almost 40 sculptures or art installations in the waterfront area. We thank Blue Door Gallery, Yonkers Arts, the Hudson River Museum, Groundwork Hudson Valley, Community Engagement Through the Arts and all the organizations and individuals who have been supportive of bringing the arts to Yonkers’ historic waterfront.
Just this week, I joined the owners of the historic Alexander Smith Carpet Mills buildings, YoHo Artist Studios and the 100-plus artists in the complex to announce our plan to transform the former carpet factory into the Carpet Mills Arts District. The plan is twofold: we’re rebranding the buildings – more than 1.5 million square feet of space – with new banners, lighting improvements, outdoor art and signage. We’re also rezoning the Carpet Mills to help attract more artists, art dealers, boutiques, restaurants, tech companies and more to the Nepperhan Valley.
The word is spreading that Yonkers is open to the arts. That message brought Daniel Wolf and Maya Lin here, so that our former City Jail will soon be a major gallery. It brought David Hammons, the man ArtNews magazine calls “our Man in Yonkers” and Robert Zakanitch, who loves his new home so much he is making tourism t-shirts.
It also transformed a fledgling film industry into one of the region’s premier film destinations outside of New York City. Over the last three years, Yonkers has attracted major film productions, including the recent Academy Award winner “Still Alice” starring Julianne Moore and co-produced by Declan Baldwin, who recently moved his company, Big Indie Productions, to Main Street in Yonkers. The Yonkers Film Festival continues to grow in stature, and we thank Dave Steck for his vision in bringing this event to our City.
This weekend we’ll host the second annual Yonkers Arts Weekend, a convergence of over 300 artists, muralists, sculptors, designers and musicians. Events will be held across the waterfront area and the Hudson River Museum, Untermyer Gardens and YoHo Artist studios. Open galleries, live music, artist workshops, pop-up galleries, street art, food trucks, and family-friendly activities will run continuously throughout the weekend. (For a full list of Yonkers Arts Weekend events, venues and a map of the activity, please visitwww.yonkersny.gov/yaw.)
We’re just getting started. Stay tuned for more exciting arts announcements in Yonkers. And years from now, as our City continues to grow, you just might hear someone say, it started with the arts.
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