BRIC House Opens with More Square Footage and Programming

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BRIC House will be a 40,000-square-foot dance space, art gallery and cafe. (Photo by Leeser Architecture, 2009)

In the case of BRIC House, space breeds opportunity. When the multi-disciplinary arts complex opens on Oct. 3, BRIC’s space will have doubled, allowing the organization to offer more performances, contemporary art exhibits and original television programming to the community. Housed within the new 40,000-square-foot space will be a new glass-walled television studio, a café from nearby Hungry Ghost on Flatbush Avenue, and a dance rehearsal and performance venue.

“We had a really rudimentary performance space before,” said BRIC President Leslie G. Schultz. “We had this single-height columned performance space and now we have a state-of-the-art double-height space where we can present performing arts programming year-round.”

Schultz hopes that BRIC House will continue the community engagement BRIC got from its series of summer programs in Prospect Park this year, during the “Celebrate Brooklyn! Performing Arts Festival.”

“Programming in a public park is unlike seeing public arts programming in any other environment,” she said. “It’s public, it’s welcoming and it’s somewhat informal. The thing about BRIC house is that it captures the essence of a program in a public space. Anybody can walk in, you don’t need a ticket and you can sit on our great big stoop and just sit there with a coffee and look at the art.”

In celebration of its opening, BRIC House, located at 647 Fulton Street, will host free kick-off exhibits and performances from Oct. 3 to Oct. 5. Below are some highlights:

  • “Armchair Parade” is a multimedia installation drawn from the minds of of theater designer Julian Crouch, musician Mark Stewart and filmmaker Ragnar Friedank. The exhibit runs through Oct. 13.
  • Brooklyn Jumbies will perform a traditional African dance while on stilts, accompanied by the Brooklyn band Underground Horns.
  • Following a block party and community meal hosted by BRIC, the Revive Big Band will perform “Mac and Jazz Concert,” celebrating the music of Freddie Hubbard, Roy Ayers and Wayne Shorter.

For a full list of events, visit BRIC’s events page.