Collaborative Drawing Project Featuring the Celebrated Studio of Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney

Catherine Bickford (CERT 2024) is orchestrating a two month-long collaborative drawing project as part of her Residency at NYSS Projects @ DUMBO. Bickford will create a “drawing capsule” of the onetime home of Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney on 8 West 8th Street in Manhattan. The building has served an outsized role in supporting the creation of art from 1900 to the present day, operating as the original location of the Whitney Museum of American Art and currently the home of the New York Studio School.

The public will be invited to join NYSS students, faculty, and alumni to create a collaborative artwork drawing upon the art and architecture of this beloved building. Participants will draw from historical photographs that date from as early as 1925 when the building served as the Whitney Studio galleries and the Whitney Studio Club before it became the Whitney Museum, through the last sixty years that it has been home to NYSS. “I hope to capture the mystery of artmaking and its impact on our culture by layering experiences from the last 100 years that have taken place in this art filled home” says Bickford.”

Open for collaborative drawing: Saturday, January 11 and Saturday, January 18, 12-6pm.

Closing Reception: Thursday, January 23, 6-8pm

Contact Catherine Bickford catherine@catherinebickford.com to schedule a visit to view or draw.