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Read the press release here.

Free Outdoor Festival to Blanket Park Slope With Art This Fall

 Sculptural
Sculptural "drips" on the exterior of 200 Seventh Ave. in Park Slope. The neighborhood will be awash in public art this fall during the first-ever Art Slope festival.
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Mark Ravitz

PARK SLOPE — Art, music, dance and other creative activity will fill neighborhood streets during a free festival this fall and organizers are looking for artists who want to show off their work during the nine-day event.

Submissions are now being accepted for Art Slope, which will be held Sept. 17 - 25 across Park Slope from Flatbush Avenue to 17th Street.

Created by the Park Slope Civic Council, the festival is inspired by events such as the interactive Figment on Governors Island and the Washington Square Outdoor Art Exhibit.

Art Slope will feature outdoor sculptures in Prospect Park, artwork displayed in stores and front yards, poetry readings, artist talks, nighttime video projections and more, said organizer Gilly Youner, co-president of the Civic Council.

"Park Slope has a huge amount of creative people, but we never get to see each other's artwork," Youner said. "I want people to come to Park Slope and discover things."

Residents and business owners can sign up to host artwork and artists can submit works to be displayed at the festival. The fee for businesses to display art is $100. Venues will be listed on a map that visitors can use to navigate the festival. Artists pay $25 to submit their work.

Organizers hope to attract between 100 and 200 artists and about 100 venues, Youner said. Anyone is welcome to submit work, including artists who live outside of Park Slope or even outside the United States. Organizers are seeking a range of submissions including sound installations, video and film and performance art. "We welcome and encourage local, diverse, activist art," Youner said.

The Civic Council is partnering with several local groups including the Prospect Park Alliance, Arts Gowanus, the Old Stone House, and the Community Bookstore. Organizers are looking for financial sponsors to back the festival, which Youner estimates will cost less than $20,000 to produce.

Youner said she wants the festival to be as open and accessible as possible. Venues will be on the ground floor as much as possible so people who can't walk up stairs will be able to see all of the art.

Youner's vision for the festival was inspired in part by a childhood memory of her mother, an art teacher, hosting an outdoor art event where the public was invited to paint on blank canvases hung up on poles.

"It was just this great memory of people and color and fun and outdoors and collaboration," Youner said.