New Prize Brings Art to Fort Greene Park

A legacy continued at Fort Greene Park on Wednesday.

Clare Weiss, a strong supporter of art in public spaces, has curated more than 100 outdoor public art installations across the city in her four-year career with the city Parks Department. Privately, she founded Clare Weiss Presents, an organization nuturing the talents of emerging artists.

Last year, she passed away at the age of 43, after a nearly four-year battle with breast cancer.

On Wednesday, Weiss' legacy became a permanent part of the city's art scene as the first young person received the inaugural Clare Weiss Emerging Artist Award at Fort Greene Park.

Ruth McKerrell, 28, whose work was chosen from among 37 entries, created a series of three styrofoam goat sculptures cast in aluminum, now on display at the northeast entrance of Fort Greene Park. McKerrel's inspiration was the Central Park Zoo and her upbringing in Scotland, where she lived until moving to attend the New York Studio School in 2006.

"I'm really interested in the symbolism and nature of animals," McKerrell said. "When I was 16 I had a pet goat, so it was kind of based on memories of him."

The Clare Weiss Emerging Artist Award is an annual prize set up by friends and family of Weiss that awards $7,000 to an artist in order to create and exhibit his or her work in a public space around the city. Each winner will have their work displayed for a year in a public space that is under-served by public art.

The award is the latest in a growing list of temporary public art exhibitions in Fort Greene. Last year, Daniel Goers and Jennifer Wong's "Myrtle Avenue Bird Town," an artistic bird habitat, was on display at the Northwest corner of the park.

Ruth Molina, a Fort Greene resident, says the city's interest in creating more public art spaces is a step in the right direction.

"It looks beautiful," Molina said. "There should be more."

"It's a shame they're only going to be here for a year," Molina's husband, Enrique, added later as he viewed one sculpture.

According to city Parks Department commissioner Adrian Benepe, the beauty of temporary art is, "if you don't like it, it's going to be gone soon."

But adding more art to under-served communities is a goal Benepe believes is important for the department to strive toward. Benepe worked with Weiss for years in Parks, and during her time there, she made it a priority to increase exposure of public art in the outer boroughs.

"She was a remarkable person," Benepe said. "We celebrate and honor her with this gift to the Fort Greene community."

Weiss' mother, Maggie Boepple, said the award and McKerrell's exhibit are in the spirit of her daughter's work.

"She would have loved this," Boepple said. "They're whimsical, but they're true art."