Two-Day Photography Festival
Claremont Illuminated

 

 

There will also be several performances at the base of the stairs during Claremont Illuminated: America's oldest senior center, The Hodson Senior Center, located just across the street, will celebrate its 75th anniversary with a performance by the Hodson Senior Choir. The Butler Community Center's step team made up of teenage residents of Claremont, will also do a short performance.

Through this festival, the BDC, the Mayor's Office of Criminal Justice, Claremont residents and community organizations will work together to activate public spaces and increase public safety and community connections.

“We’re thrilled about this partnership with the BDC to help elevate their work to improve community safety. Claremont Illuminated shows how we can accomplish more when we bring government and residents together to create safe, vibrant and thriving neighborhoods,” said Elizabeth Glazer, Director of the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice.

 

 

             

Claremont Illuminated is part of The Claremont Village Documentary Project, a group project that was started in 2017 and explores residents' lives in a Bronx housing project and incorporates local voices through photographs, film, and multimedia, highlighting stories of community resilience and pride. For more information, visit here.

"While working on this project, I spent nights and weekends walking around Claremont, engaging with the community. All I needed to do was listen and the stories began to flow. Claremont Village is full of strength and tenacity and it is important that their stories are shared." — Ed Alvarez, Bronx Photo League Photographer

Light snacks and refreshments will be served. Participating artists, community groups, residents, and members of the press will be in attendance. Through this festival, the BDC, the Mayor's Office of Criminal Justice, Claremont residents and community organizations working together seek to activate public spaces and increase public safety and community connections.

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The Claremont Illuminated festival is a pilot is the first in a series of media projects aimed at engaging South Bronx youth and artists to improve lighting and generate community interaction in public space to promote public safety and community connection. 

The National Endowment for the Arts recently announced that Claremont Illuminated was recommended for a $125,000 award through the NEA’s Our Town program. The pilot festival was funded by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs through the Mayor’s Grant for Cultural Impact, a special fund to support the integration of arts and culture into efforts to improve social well-being in low-income neighborhoods.

Claremont Illuminated is created in partnership with Claremont Healthy Village Initiative, and made possible, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the Mayor's Office of Criminal Justice, the New York State Regional Economic Development Corporation, and the Lincoln Center Cultural Innovation Fund, which is generously supported by The Rockefeller Foundation and administered by Lincoln Center. The evening photography festival is created with assistance from Ethan Vogt, an artist with experience designing and producing large-scale nighttime site-specific public art installations and festivals in multiple cities.

 

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Photo captions from top to left to right;
Claremont Village residents. Summer 2017. © David "Dee" Delgado/Bronx Photo League