The door leading into the new Banksy Museum at 277 Canal Street looks just like you’d imagine the entrance to a space dedicated to the most elusive character in street art would look like: industrial, anonymous, almost mysterious. 

Head up a flight of stairs, though, and you’ll be greeted with what is meant to be Banksy’s ideal canvas: a city of walls.

“We recreated the street to respect the rule of street art because the work has to be reproduced on a wall and can’t be sold,” says museum founder Hazis Vardar during a recent walkthrough of the new destination. 

Vardar’s devotion to his new project and the artist that inspires it is made clear through the precision of the works on display: all reproductions, also made by anonymous artists, minutely resemble the original works they are inspired by, despite the fact that many of them may no longer even exist.

Banksy’s murals, after all, are just as ephemeral as the artist himself. 

Whether painted over, removed or damaged, his street art often gains attention because of its temporary nature and unpredictable locations. Banksy himself has, in the past, commented on the impermanent nature of the form, acknowledging that it may not last forever. 

“Almost 80% of these works have been destroyed already or white washed,” explains Vardar. “You can’t see them anymore.”

At the new museum—which has previously been mounted in Barcelona, Brussels, Krakow and Paris—the street art, cloned on actual walls, shares space with framed copies of Banksy’s paintings and a reproduction of the artist’s famous Walled Off Hotel, originally designed by Banksy and other creatives in 2017 as a temporary exhibition in Bethlehem, in the West Bank.

The Canal Street exhibit, which Vardar refers to as a museum because he hopes will stay put permanently, is loosely split into geographical regions.

Visitors will first get to look through murals that Banksy installed throughout London (“we started with London because he’s from there,” notes Vardar), moving onto France, New York—including the “Hammer Boy” mural that remarkably still stands today on the Upper West Side—and the Middle East. The lower level of the warehouse-like space is dedicated to Banksy’s work in Ukraine, reminding viewers that, at its core, the artist’s creative pursuits are political commentary. 

“To me, Banksy is a revolutionary and his work has a meaning, something inside of it,” says Vardar. “I’m an Albanian son of immigrants so I understand his position on immigration, women’s rights [and more]. His work touches me more and more.”

Although representative of Banksy’s craft with over 160 works on display, the new museum feels more like a celebration of the artist rather than an objective exploration of his output. Not necessarily a flaw, the obvious allegiance to the enigmatic Banksy might, though, say more about the founder of the museum than the subject itself—a fact that might not be lost on Vardar.

“If I could talk to Bansky, I would say ‘well done,’,” he confesses. “Thanks for shaking people’s brains.” 

* This article was originally published here

Cloudy skies could not dim the sunny outlook as over 250 students, 50-plus future student-athlete cyclists, and cycling race enthusiasts came together for USA Cycling’s first annual Annual Bike Fest Field Day, which was held and coordinated by PS 18 in the South Bronx.

“A whole host of organizations have come together as a result of Principal Anjelica Jordan’s vision at PS 18 to provide access to cycling to her students and to provide the safe spaces to ride,” said Maurelhena Walles, founder and CEO of Equity Design, which is a subcontractor to the New York State Department of Health Creating Healthy Schools Initiative. “We work with schools in and around the Bronx, Brownsville, and East Harlem, communities that have the lowest physical activity engagement. We work with principals around increasing their capacity. It’s a five-year initiative on how to sustain it.”

For the May 15 Bike Fest Field Day, partnerships with USA Cycling as well as organizations like Free Bikes for Kids, Bronx Health REACH, and Up2Us, PS 18 shut down the streets surrounding the school to give students access to cycling. Part of it involved teaching kids how to ride safely, including wearing a helmet.

“For us, representation matters, so being able to interact with BIPOC cyclists who are also racers is great for kids,” said Walles. “It’s also an opportunity for them to interact with Bike NYC that provides bike education. Some of the stations are more so around inclusive play and activities for the students.”

Equity Design is a non-profit founded in 2019 to impact health and wellness in underserved communities. After positions with PowerPlay NYC, Fit 4 Life NYC, and Kids in the Game, Walles examined where she saw communities not fully engaging in physical activities that would lead to increased thriving. Frustrated to see public schools scaling back physical education, she was determined to help schools make physical activity part of school culture.  

Health and fitness are important to Walles, who competes as a master athlete in track. “I am thankful to be competitive,” she said. “I love the challenge of being able to compete at a high level and manage Equity Design. I feel I thrive being able to do both simultaneously.”  

Making bicycle riding part of every child’s childhood is important to Walles. Overcoming the fear of riding a bicycle and building community through cycling is also important.

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* This article was originally published here