Bronx River Art Center (BRAC) will host an Open House & Registration Day on Saturday, October 1st, from 11:30am to 4:00pm. The event is an open invitation to the community to join the program and creatively celebrate our local talent. The Open House consists of FREE Art Workshops, music and gallery visit to initiate BRAC’s Fall 2022 Education Program.

Bronx River Art Center (BRAC) is celebrating its 35th anniversary with the opening of the exhibition CONVERGENCE: Artists & Community now on view through October 22nd. This Saturday, October 1st, BRAC will host an Open House & Registration Day from 11:30 am to 4:30 pm. The event is an open invitation to the community of West Farms and beyond to visit our facilities. Parents, children, youth, and adults are welcome to participate in the art making workshops led by local artist / muralist Tony Cruz aka RAM 2 and Brooklyn based artist / painter Mathamatics Patterson. Selection of urban and latin beats by Bronx native DJ Joker will animate the event. 

BRAC’s Fall 2022 classes begin on Monday, October 3rd and run until December 17th. In addition to the regular classes in Drawing, Painting, Mixed Media, Printmaking, Ceramics, and Digital Media courses in Animation, Photography and Illustration, this semester BRAC is offering the Afro-Brazilian dance Capoeira and Introduction to Web Design. In addition, interested participants can apply for admissions to the FREE program, Teen Project Studio, TPS (ages 15 to 23), to work on a Art & Nature Design Project. 

Details of days, times, and description of the classes available in BRAC’s Education Web Page: www.bronxriverart.org/educacion.

For more information call (718) 589-5819 XT17.

About BRAC:

Bronx River Art Center (BRAC) is a culturally diverse, multi-arts, non-profit organization that provides a forum for community, artists, and youth to transform creativity into vision. Our Education, Exhibitions, Artist Studios, and Presenting Programs cultivate leadership in an urban environment and stewardship of our natural resource — the Bronx River.

Bronx River Art Center (BRAC) was founded in 1987 to bring professional arts programming to a culturally underserved population. For more than 30 years (including several years of arts programming under the umbrella of the first Bronx River Restoration project), this multi-arts center has filled the West Farms community of the Bronx with art and environmental experiences. Our programs are designed to encourage our residents to engage in creative activism towards the revitalization and future of their neighborhood

About the Open House guest artists:

Tony Cruz aka RAM 2 is an award winning graffiti art designer and art therapy teacher born in the South Bronx. Hailed as master trailblazer in graffiti art, urban art, and mural landscape, he has helped to preserve The Hip Hop culture of the 1970s '80s in the South Bronx and NYC. Since 1984, Cruz has created over 200 commissioned, urban advertising graffiti art murals. He has created a global impact project using graffiti art and lyrical poetry as a tool for self growth, self therapy and communication focused on people dealing with depression, anxiety, stress, and facing hardship. His projects have helped others find their voices and express their lives creatively. Due to his deteriorating eye condition and vision loss/impairment which began in 2009, Tony Cruz has worked in creating work following early teaching from his mother and grandmother, and inspired by hip-hop culture. Cruz was invited to speak at the United Nations in 2019 on the dangers of blue light and vision protection awareness. His speech also addressed the power of art as a self-healing and coping tool. In 2020, Cruz started to teach 80's graffiti at the NY Metropolitan Museum of Art. In 2021 he was invited to introduce his Hop Hop Cultural Arts Preservation Project Workshop at the Universal Hip Hop Museum in the Bronx. Today Tony Cruz is celebrating 43 years of Hip Hop  graffiti art culture remembering his childhood dream: "to be a famous graffiti artist and make a difference in the world." Tony Cruz has secured a $1,000 scholarship for 10 students through the local business Empire Wok Chinese Restaurant.

Mathamatics Patterson lives and works in East New York, Brooklyn. In his mixed media paintings, Mathamatics explores a wide range of subjects, including: hip hop, religious figures, historical monuments, iconography, currency, place, and affect--particularly the feeling of triumph. His richly textured works use highly saturated color and incorporate traditional oil paint with push pins, googly eyes, coins, and his signature dollar bills. Patterson has shown his work at the SFMoMa, the Brooklyn Museum, the Bronx Museum of the Arts, and the Queens Museum. His work is held in private collections in the United States and the Netherlands. 

BRAC COVID 19 Protocols

Proof of vaccination will be required upon entering building for all persons over age 6.

Use of masks is required.