The most amazing thing about DUMBO, besides its blossoming galleries, ateliers and restaurants, is the silence. Stroll among the crumbling slabs of granite and rough-hewn buildings, and the cars zipping along the wide expanse of the graffiti-marked bridge overhead register only as a faint hum. Even the rattle of the subway fades to a barely heard intermittent interruption. It's the kind of quiet - lonesome but comfortable - only found in abandoned spaces reclaimed by residents engaged in their own singular and solitary work.
But DUMBO always throws aside its cultivated introspection for the Art Under the Bridge Festival, this year celebrating its 10th anniversary with a three-day smorgasbord of creative delights Oct. 13-15.
Along with extensive gallery showings, neighborhood wanderers who visit for the festival will discover Project Glow: light installations and sculptures illuminating the waterfront and Brooklyn Bridge Park.
Roving performance art will pop up in the streets, with "You Say the Sweetest Things," a combination of sugar, lollipops and just a bit of saliva, scheduled for the corner of Washington and Main streets. Twenty pieces of elevator and lobby art will "invite spectators into existing corporate environments," and the Water Projects will consist entirely of art placed in, on, under or over the East River (one innovator plans to use underwater lights to mirror the nocturnal city skyline). For more on the festival, visit http://www.dumboartscenter.org.
The best way to experience DUMBO and the festival, of course, is to start with a jaunt across the Brooklyn Bridge for a bird's-eye view of the tiny neighborhood under the adjacent Manhattan Bridge. Look for the red, white and blue water tower on the roof of a building on your left as you near Brooklyn - that's approximately where you're headed. Follow the exit ramp to the left and descend a short flight of stairs to street level. Head downhill, and in two short blocks you'll see Washington Street, one of the main gallery arteries that weave through DUMBO.
If you are in town for the festival, you don't want to miss kickoff night from 6 to 9 Friday. Galleries throw open their doors, and there's a free flow of foot traffic and conversation around the entire nine-block DUMBO radius.
Must-see moments include the unveiling of Jane Walentas' "Carousel," a painstakingly restored 1922 carnival ride - the first to be listed on the National Historical Register - and Gallery 99's (at 99 Front St.) debut of "Katrina Remembered: The Coast Is Still Not Clear," with works of six Gulf Coast artists and the photojournalism of Brooklynite Radhi Chalasani, dispatched to New Orleans by CNN last year.
The many galleries warehoused at 111 Front St. always have something innovative to offer, whether you make it to the festival or not. The same goes for neighborhood stalwarts Jan Larsen Art, Smack Mellon and Nelson Hancock Gallery. But it's only natural that the best stuff gets trotted out on special occasions; during the festival you'll not only see great art, but get swept up in the creative fun as the artists come out to play.
Getting there
Where to eat
Where to stay
