Plaque Sabbath: A Benefit for Crane Street Studios

You've wondered about it while waiting to get in to Warm Up; what goes on inside that big yellow graffiti-covered building? The massive structure across from P.S.1 isn't just a warehouse anymore; it's five levels of art studios housing the working spaces of nearly 200 artists. They are painters, sculptors, jewelers, collage and installation artists. And now you can own a piece of their work for a song.

Plaque Sabbath is a benefit project to raise funds for Crane Street Studios. To cover the costs of advertising for the next Open Studio weekend in October, a group of artists in the building have created a series of individually decorated wooden plaques. Crane Street Studios artists have donated their time and considerable talents to the Plaque Sabbath project, with each artist encouraged to decorate up to five plaques each. The resulting pieces will be available for a minimum donation of $20 per plaque. A catalogue of the pieces will be available for download from the Crane Street Studios web site: www.css-lic.com . All proceeds will go toward funding future Crane Street Studio events, most notably to advertise for the twice-yearly Crane Street Open Studio weekends.

Coinciding with the final 2007 installment of P.S.1's Warm Up series on Saturday September 1st, 2007, artists will be outside of the Crane Street Studios building from 3:00pm to 8:00pm, offering these individually adorned wooden plaques for a minimum donation of $20 per piece. Plaque Sabbath offers a rare opportunity to support the local arts scene while purchasing a quality piece of artwork at an unheard of low price. Our benefit is your gain!

Crane Street Studios is located in Long Island City, New York, in the borough of Queens. Originally known as the Phun Phactory, the exterior of the building showcases the work of local and well known graffiti artists, headed by Meres of 5 Pointz. Crane Street Studios features five floors of art studios, including sculptors, painters, printmakers, jewelry makers, and more.

Address: Jackson Avenue at Crane Street and Davis Street, Long Island City, NY 11101

Subways: E, V subways to 23 St/Ely Ave., 7 to 45 Rd/Court House Sq., G to Court House Square.

Buses: Q67 to Jackson and 46th Ave. B61 to 46th Ave.

--Jessica Benston