“When We Were Ancient:” The Williamsburg Hipsters of Yore
- Ethan Pettit, All Rights Reserved
- Minor Injury art gallery
While the population in Williamsburg is wildly different than it was 25 years ago, the area still had a small but thriving arts community at the time. What kind of person was drawn to the area in the mid-1980s?
Back in the day we were adventurous pioneers. It was very physical, and it was all about really big spaces. I just walked down Bedford Avenue one day and rented that storefront for $300 a month. And I had the run of miles of factory space for free all over the neighborhood. Everyone knew each other. There were two galleries, I worked on Minor Injury. Then in the late 80s the warehouse movement started, and that established Williamsburg as a subculture as well as an art scene. There were huge loft parties. In 1987 I started the Nose, that was the first artist paper as far as I know. In 1991, Genia Gould started the Waterfront Week with me and Rube Fenwick. That was the first weekly newsletter. What’s amazing about Williamsburg is that it is still a creative hub. Of course there’s much more music and film production, fashion and design going on now.