"This Side of Paradise" Exhibition

Andrew Freedman Home

poster for "This Side of Paradise" Exhibition

This event has ended.

No Longer Empty presents “This Side of Paradise” in an Italian Renaissance-style palazzo on the Grand Concourse. The Mid-Bronx Senior Citizens Council (MBSCC) who owns the Andrew Freedman Home, has invited NLE to launch a dramatic and transformative initiative for the site. NLE will temporarily repurpose the Home through artistic endeavor and community engagement, turning the former grand ballrooms, library, and bedrooms of the mansion into an immersive exhibition. For two months, the venue will also host cultural events that reference the quixotic history of the Home and the current realities of the neighborhood.

The Andrew Freedman Home was a retirement home for formerly wealthy seniors so they could continue to live in style. The operation of the Home ceased to exist when the endowment ran out in the 1980s. The title of the exhibition, “This Side of Paradise” is intentionally ironic, asking the viewer and the artists to rethink “where is paradise?”-a term not immediately associated with the Bronx. However, it was indeed considered such for the previous generations of immigrants, whether escaping Eastern Europe for New York, or the Lower East Side’s tenements to the Grand Concourse’s clean air. The Bronx still continues to be a haven for newcomers coming from other parts of the world today.

Using a variety of media, 32 local and international artists will address such issues as immigration, historical and cultural memory, and even issues of transportation in this fractured Borough. Several artists are also working directly with the community creating choirs, theater performances, and even collecting messages for President Obama. Extensive cultural and educational programming will accompany the exhibition. Complete program list is on our website. Schedule is subject to change.

“The house epitomized an era and a sensibility which so echoes the divides that exist in society today. Some of the artistic responses to the space including where artists have repurposed furniture and found objects for their installation, compel us to confront the inequalities of our time but also the strength of the human spirit to overcome adversity” says Manon Slome curator of This Side of Paradise.

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