The Forum @ St. Ann’s will present its first outdoor art exhibition, Footprints on Montague, featuring six Brooklyn-based  artists beginning Sunday, November 1, and on view through January 7, 2021. The exhibition is curated FiveMyles and KODA. The featured artists are Jess Frederick, Madi Dangerously, Ann Rosen, Nina Meledandri, Tatiana Arocha, Hidemi Takagi.

Footprints on Montague, an outdoor art exhibition of works by six artists, will be seen on the fence beside St. Ann & the Holy Trinity Church in Brooklyn Heights starting Sunday, November 1. The collaboration with FiveMyles and KODA represents a shift from indoor to outdoor programs for the Forum @ St. Ann’s and is the first new project in its arts and culture series since the Covid-19 pandemic. Footprints on Montague will enhance the neighborhood landscape and engage community members and passersby on a busy commercial street in Downtown Brooklyn.

There will be an opening reception on Sunday, November 8, 3:00-5:00 pm in front of 157 Montague Street and an online artist talk on Wednesday, December 2, 6:30-7:30 pm. Footprints on Montague will be on view through January 7, 2021.

The paintings, drawings and photographs printed on vinyl banners will be on display on the metal fence. The exhibition will provide the public moments of pleasure and emotional retreat amidst the busyness and noise of city life, inspiring the viewers to reflect upon their individual experience, their place in the community, and on this planet. The artists’ works include drawings of subway scenes, words for thought, prints made from the marriage of painting and photography, photographic portraits, and the cut-outs of migratory birds mounted directly on the fence.

The Rev. Canon John Denaro, rector of St. Ann & the Holy Trinity Church, said, “St. Ann’s is delighted and so grateful for this partnership with FiveMyles and KODA that expands the Forum @ St. Ann’s and showcases the work of six extraordinary Brooklyn-based artists. Footprints on Montague will lift the spirits of our neighbors and amplify the commitment of our historic church to foster artistic expression when it is so deeply needed. It is an investment in the hope of art to carry us through this dark and challenging time.”

Footprints on Montague is curated by Hanne Tierney, the director and founder of FiveMyles, an exhibition and performance space in Crown Heights, and Klaudia Ofwona Draber, the director and founder of KODA, a social practice residency for mid-career artists.

Jess Frederick
The artist’s drawings of subway scenes show the familiar in a surprisingly unfamiliar manner. Her deftly nervous lines pass on the quiet moments of a subway rider going from point A to B. In the drawing of a deconstructed subway car its colors give the car the playfulness of a toy.

Madi Dangerously
With an enigmatic self-portrait and written words, the poet and spoken word artist invites the viewers to an introspective experience, encouraging an inquiry: …ask yourself how am I living.

Ann Rosen
The photographer shows the strong black and white portraits of friends and neighbors taken during the pandemic. She used a 1969 Rolleiflex camera that allowed her to take these portraits with a close-up lens. These faces highlight a sitter’s pensive uncertainty as well as an open smile for being in the present.

Nina Melenandri
The artist’s prints are a fusion of painting and photography. As the artist phrases it “the power of their impact rests in the haunting, tiny, almost subliminal space somewhere in between its two components that have become one.”

Tatiana Arocha
A site-specific installation has birds perched on the metal bars of one fence section. The artist refers to the recent phenomena of birds, who, during their migration to warmer climates, are blown off course. Increasingly erratic weather patterns due to climate change have brought flocks of foreign birds to New York City.

Hidemi Takagi
In her community-based photography project, the artist created a pop-up photo studio in her front yard, and offered free portraits to long time Brooklyn-residents, with selected props and add-ons, to create unique portraits of her neighbors in Bedford-Stuyvesant, bringing out everyone’s superstar qualities.

About FiveMyles
Located in Crown Heights, FiveMyles is an exhibition and performance space where art and community connect. The organization was founded and incorporated as a non-profit in 1999. Its mission is to advance public interest in innovative experimental work; to identify and exhibit the work of under-represented artists; and to engage the local community through participation in the arts.

About KODA
KODA is a nonprofit arts organization based in New York dedicated to mid-career artists of diverse backgrounds. It grants residencies to allow for experimentation and facilitates creative projects through strategic partnerships with socially engaged businesses. KODA is the go-to thinking spot and serves the community through exhibitions of contemporary art, events and outreach to strengthen art education.

About the Forum @ St. Ann’s
St. Ann & the Holy Trinity Church is a house of worship and a community commons in Brooklyn Heights. The Forum @ St. Ann’s seeks to engage audiences from New York City and beyond through civic discourse and compelling and timely music and arts programming.

Images:  Art by Hidemi Takagi, left, and Jess Frederick, right.