Oct 25, 2019 2 min read Arts & Culture

When Art Is Your Playground: Explore Culture, Meet Neighbors, and Raise Funds to Bring More Art to Bed-Stuy

DJs at Playground After Dark event. Courtesy of Playground Youth.

WILLIAMSBURG — The Playground Art Fair will highlight DIY and independent artists, many of which are part of the Queer, Trans, People of Color (QTPOC) community, this Sunday at the Wythe Hotel

Around 30 vendors and artists will offer everything from tarot card readings, flower arranging demonstrations, Indigenous healing goods, to books that celebrate Black and Latinx heritage, glass objects that mirror Sanskrit characters, and sustainably sourced thrifted clothing.

Playground Coffee Shop founder Zenat Begum created Playground Youth, a 501(c)(3) educational nonprofit, to support the “Bed-Stuy community by ensuring a safe space to exchange art, cultural knowledge, and strategies” through accessible programs and events.

“The mission of the art fair is to bring accessible programming to people in our community of Bed-Stuy,” says Begum.Providing safe community spaces for minorities to share their culture through art and conversation is especially important in gentrifying neighborhoods like Bed-Stuy.

Playground’s Mid-Summer Art Fair. Courtesy of Playground Youth.

Holding the art fair at Wythe will give Playground a platform to showcase more vendors and artists than their previous events.

“I want to cultivate a space that feels diverse, inclusive and accessible. I don’t think that that happens too frequently with boutique hotel spaces,” says Rachael Petach, director of programming at Wythe Hotel. “The artists and the vendors that Playground has brought in are amazing…Using the space in [this] way makes me really proud of what we do.”

Funds raised from the art fair will go towards Playground’s POC-centered and inclusion-based programming.

Playground Art Fair will take place on October 27 from 1:00 pm to 8:00 p.m. Playground’s resident DJ will be spinning at the after-party from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. at Wythe’s rooftop bar, Lemon’s. Entrance will be a sliding scale of $5 to $10 donations. You can find more information about the event here.

Wythe Hotel

80 Wythe Avenue,

Brooklyn, NY 11249.