The Free Portrait Project Parade

The Free Portrait Project explores commonalities of disparate communities in one area and weaves a multi-faceted picture of the place through its people, paired with audio excerpts from each individual’s oral history. The culminating 30-day exhibition will open with a parade and a marching band to lead the way from Sunset Park to the opening reception– in which all 200 portraits & oral histories of South(ern) Brooklyn by artist Rusty Zimmerman will be shown together for the first and only time, hosted by Industry City. Thereafter, the paintings belong to the people who sat for them, & their audio will be shared with the Center for Brooklyn History for consideration to their permanent collection of oral histories of Brooklyn. A few hundred residents of over 20 neighborhoods South of Prospect Park, will walk down the road together with a marching band & NYPD escort– to say hello, to see their portraits together, to honor the threads that connect them, to celebrate South Brooklyn, and to give this place and its people their flowers. Parade ends at The Free Portrait Project: 900 3rd Ave. (Industry City, Bldg 8).