WEST HARLEM, NY.- The West Harlem Art Fund, under the direction of Savona Bailey-McClain in collaboration with Pratt’s Digital Media Arts and with cooperation from the New York City Department Of Transportation (NYCDOT) Weekend Walks program presents – SYNCED for one night only on Saturday, October 3, 2015 from 6:00 pm to 10 pm along 12th Avenue, starting at 125th Street to 135th Street. This Harlem/Brooklyn collaboration is for the intervention series Under the Viaduct.

Four Northern Manhattan artists, Rafia Santana, Charlie Reynoso, Dianne Smith and Debra Swack are participating in the group installation, which is a mix of interactive digital and performance art. The artists were assisted by students from the Pratt’s Digital Arts Program, allowing them to participate in real art projects with working artists as they create new works.

UNDER THE VIADUCT is an interactive art & lifestyle series where folks can meet, bike, skate or dine in an open-air plaza. New Yorkers can enjoy passive recreation in the daytime and when the sun starts going down, engage in dance, digital and reflective art under the 12th Avenue Viaduct.

“Our last night celebrates Nuit Blanche, which is celebrated in cities around the world,” says, Bailey-McClain, Executive Director for the West Harlem Art Fund and Artistic Director for Under the Viaduct. "We use digital technology to light up Harlem with innovative and original art installations.”

Nuit Blanche in Paris, is a free dusk 'til dawn carnival of arts and culture inspired by St Petersburg's 'White Nights', where music and the arts keep the population entertained throughout the long summer evenings when the sun never sets. In Paris, the premise is simple: for one night only, let art take over the city, and let the city be in its thrall. An ever-changing roster of artistic directors takes over different portions of the city every year, commissioning hundreds of works that are all about finding new ways for citizens to interact with the urban space.

Digital artist Debra Swack is presenting Animal Patterning Project 132-133, a journey that covers one city block under the viaduct in West Harlem. This multidisciplinary performance celebrates the tenacity of humans and animals to persevere in an urban environment. Swack is collaborating with dance choreographer Ellen Maynard, Pratt professor, Matt Broach and students from his digital class to create a work that blends the movement of dancers and technology. Dancers include Ellen Maynard, Louise Benkelman and Quentin Burley.

For the installation Flash, artist Dianne Smith, documented numerous neighborhoods and people within the Harlem community using photographic images and animating sculptures comprised of brown butcher paper. “The brown butcher paper symbolizes notions of mark making and imprints of ones life experiences. The material is twisted, crumpled or braided. The manipulation of the paper in this fashion also alludes to skin and aging." She asks "What are the stories imbedded in the wrinkles of the elders in our families? What are the hidden truths, dreams, hopes and regrets in the markings of those wrinkles?”

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Savona Bailey-McClain currently lives and works in New York City. She is an independent curator and producer. The range of McClain’s practice includes sculpture, drawings, performance, sound, and mixed media. McClain is the Executive Director & Chief Curator for The West Harlem Art Fund, Inc. a seventeen year old public art organization and curatorial collective serving neighborhoods around the City.

VENUE
The 12th Avenue Viaduct also known as the Riverside Drive Viaduct was built in 1900 by the City of New York. The viaduct was constructed to connect an important system of drives in Northern Manhattan -- a high-level boulevard extension of Riverside Drive over the barrier of Manhattanville Valley to the former Boulevard Lafayette, which today, is north of 158th Street.