Downtown Beat (Nite)
At Salena Gallery in Downton Brooklyn. Photo by Christopher Michael Beer.
Jason Andrew has been organizing Beat Nite events for about seven years now. We’ve championed them for just as long, so you’ve probably already heard of them, know what they’re all about, have attended some of them, and so on. You’ve almost certainly at least seen some photos of them in The L or Brooklyn Magazine, or in any number of other Brooklyn-ophilic media outlets you follow. A good indication of how popular these nights are is that out of the first several hundred images that turn up in a Google search for ‘beat nite,’ almost all of them are directly relevant.* (That backlog of posters looks so great all gridded-out, right?)
Still, just in case you don’t know, here’s the downlow: Beat Nite is the name Mr. Andrew gave to his previously Bushwick-centric after-hours gallery tours and art parties, which he’s always produced under the creative aegis of Norte Maar. They take place a couple times per year—in the spring and fall—and they usually entail visits to a dozen or so galleries, sometimes chosen by guest curators, and wind up at an afterparty. Because one of the things Andrew loves to do most is spread his curatorial energies and limitless enthusiasm around as much as possible—endorsing and furthering the goals of countless artists and fellow curators along the way—he decided last year to take the Beat Nite model to other parts of Brooklyn. So last October, he put together Beat Nite Gowanus.
Much more recently, on the final Friday of February to be more precise, Andrew led art fans around yet another Brooklyn hotbed of creativity with Beat Nite Downtown. This time he collaborated with BRIC to schedule the evening and select participating spaces, which included 321 Gallery, American Medium, Urban Glass, MOCADA Museum, Clover’s Fine Art, Galleries at LIU, Mark Morris Dance Center and, of course, BRIC.
We asked one of our favorite Brooklyn photographers, Christopher Michael Beer, to take some pictures in the various venues. Below is a selection of his shots. More might go up at some point on his website or Tumblr.**
By the way, we heard that the next Beat Nite, presumably sometime this fall, might not in fact be a Beat ‘Nite’ at all—because it might take place during the day. So it might involve lunch. Or maybe brunch. And a certain enoteca. In Bay Ridge! (Full disclosure: emphasis on ‘might.’ Conditionals are so useful.)
At 321 Gallery in Downtown Brooklyn. Photo by Christopher Michael Beer.
At 321 Gallery in Downtown Brooklyn. Photo by Christopher Michael Beer.
At American Medium in Downtown Brooklyn. Photo by Christopher Michael Beer.
At American Medium in Downtown Brooklyn. Photo by Christopher Michael Beer.
At BRIC in Downton Brooklyn. Photo by Christopher Michael Beer.
At Resnick Gallery in Downtown Brooklyn. Photo by Christopher Michael Beer.
At Resnick Gallery in Downtown Brooklyn. Photo by Christopher Michael Beer.
At Salena Gallery in Downtown Brooklyn. Photo by Christopher Michael Beer.
* One image that turns up in the Google search that is not relevant to Beat Nite led us to learn that a band called Nite Beat alternates evenings with Stan G Band and Acoustic Tattoo (yes!) to rock the house at a “world famous” Italian eatery in Houston, Texas, that not too long ago christened a heated outdoor patio. See here for everything you need to know about Grappino di Nino and its affiliated establishments among the Vincent Mandola Family Restaurants. Maybe you can order up one of those Party Pans for your next rager in Bed-Stuy! It’s all “convenient style.”
** Christopher’s Tumblr is really, really great. As great as a heated outdoor patio. Maybe greater. Actually, its banner image at the moment is its own kind of heated outdoor patio.
