Additional details forthcoming - please check the Exhibitions page at OSH for more

Click here to participate in the EPA Multispecies Care Survey

Regeneration in Place is the Old Stone House & Washington Park (OSH)’s newest contemporary art programming, featuring the artist collectives Environmental Performance Agency (EPA) and Gowanus Swim Society (GSS). Originally scheduled for Spring 2020, the format for the exhibition has shifted in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the consequent mandated social distancing. We are pleased to announce the launch of the participatory online project by the EPA, as well as a series of digital programs with GSS. Our exhibition component Nature Contained with Gowanus Swim Society will be postponed to 2021.

Each artist group encourages deeper engagement with specific places that support plant life, from the Old Stone House garden to our own windows and backyards, to catalyze individual and collective rejuvenation. The term Regeneration suggests repairing what is lost or damaged, or a process of renewal and growth in organisms or ecosystems that makes them resilient to both natural cycles and events that cause disturbances. In the midst of a global pandemic, national election, and climate crisis that all threaten to permanently change life as we know it, these artists aim to help us find solace in the cyclical beauty of nature and look critically at our relationships with our environment and each other. We hope this perspective can inform our observance of Earth Day on April 22 as we continue to shelter in place. Regeneration in Place is curated by Katherine Gressel.

Over the next two months, EPA members will host online Multispecies Community Care Circles, dates TBD.

More programming to be announced.

7:05 - 8:35pm click to RSVP

Join artist Jessica Dalrymple to learn Still Life painting at home!

Jessica will teach participants over Zoom giving customized instruction as they paint a still life (or an image) at their home. She will convey fundamental painting principles and advise participants on their painting process. Those who would prefer to paint along independently are welcome to.

Jessica’s expertise is in oil painting and she teaches a non-toxic practice, however, acrylics are optional.

This class can be taken individually or as a series of three classes. Each class is 90 minutes on Fridays, May 29th, June 12th and 26th. $25 per class, or all three classes for $65.

Beginner’s Solvent-Free Complete Oil Painting Kits have generously been created at a discounted price specifically for this class by Artist & Craftsman, please allow 7-10 days for delivery.

(Participants may attend first class with pencil & paper if their kit has not arrived yet.)

3:00 - 5:00pm click to sign up via Explorable Places

The Democracy Project Online is a reworked version of Old Stone House's process drama for Middle School students, usually led by OSH Educators as an after school activity. This Summer 2020 edition is designed for families to work together to build their own colony!

Beginning on July 7, this program will meet each Tuesday and Thursday for a total of eight sessions.

Each family will create and grow their own colony, choosing the landscape, natural resources, economy, and jobs. They will design and create their own good, services, and currency and will then meet online to trade and exchange with other "colonies" during the network's weekly meetings.

Make sure to gather you paper, index cards, crayons, and markers to get started.

Find out more information here.

3:30pm register here for session one and register here for session two

Join OSH Director of Education Maggie Weber to learn how to transform old T-shirts into a colorful rug using your Hula Hoop as a loom!

This quick and fun project for Kids 8+ requires: 1 Hula Hoop, several old T-shirts, scissors, and a roll of strong tape.

Adults will need to help kids cut the T-shirts into strips before class starts.

This is a virtual 2 week program. Session 1 we will start weaving by creating the round warp around the Hoop, and learn how to attach the T-shirt strips. Session 2 will be all about finishing the rug and learning how to tie it off. For the fullest experience, we recommend signing up for both weeks, but it is not required.

12:00 - 2:00pm register here

This summer, Old Stone House will be hosting the first online version of the Handwriting Project, collaborating with several Historic House Trust sites in New York City, as well as a community of artists in Europe.

The program will meet every Thursday beginning on August 13 and ending on September 17 and will commit to spending time with the U.S. Constitution, The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, or another document.

Learn more about the program and the Handwriting project here.

10:00am - 12:30pm register here

Why did Long Island have one of the largest enslaved populations in the North during the 17th & 18th centuries?

Join our colleagues at Weeksville Heritage Center, Preservation Long Island and the Lloyd Manor House’s Jupiter Hammon Project, on August 15 for the first in a series of virtual round tables bringing together renowned scholars and professionals, local residents, descendant communities, and other stakeholders to explore the legacy of slavery on Long Island and the life of the first published African American, Jupiter Hammon, who wrote while enslaved in Long Island.

Roundtable #1, “Long Island in the Black Atlantic World” will address Jupiter Hammon’s Long Island as a hub of the Atlantic slave trade through an exploration of identity, agency, and connection among the region’s free and enslaved communities and our collective remembering of New York’s difficult past.

After the roundtable, attendees can continue the conversation in an online forum and follow-up“Q&A” with the panelists.

1:00pm - 3:00pm register here

Sing, Dance, Act, and Compose an Original Song! Our friends at Together in Dance have created musical theater programming in NYC public schools for over 15 years. Their veteran Teaching Artist, Sabrina Chapadjiev is excited to use new technology to help your child continue their love of musical theater.

In this virtual, intensive summer camp for children ages 9-12, students will:

• Learn a Broadway song with choreography

• Write an original song with the teaching artist

• Participate in theater games that engage the body and mind

• Connect to a new theatrical ensemble

• Help create an audio recording of the ensemble’s original song

• Have fun!

The Camp will meet from 1 pm to 3 pm from August 17-21 and August 24-28. $180 per week.

7:00pm - 8:00pm

Our latest contemporary art exhibition Brooklyn Utopias: 2020 will open with an Instagram Live @oldstonehousebklyn reception.

Details for our in-person reception and gallery hours are coming soon.

Brooklyn Utopias: 2020 will address Brooklyn’s past, present and future by inviting artists to consider differing visions of an ideal Brooklyn, or imagine their own. Participating artists also explore how Brooklyn has continued to change over the past 10 years, and if/how it can serve as a model for urban and American living on a national scale as we navigate a global pandemic in a time of unprecedented social, political and environmental turmoil. Brooklyn Utopias also addresses the possibilities (or limitations) of art in creating a better world.

Brooklyn Utopias: 2020 corresponds with the 10-year anniversary of the original Brooklyn Utopias? exhibitions series developed by curator Katherine Gressel and presented at both OSH and Brooklyn Historical Society in 2009-2010.

Click here for more information.

12:00pm - 1:00pm register here

Join the Human Impacts Institute and Old Stone House for this FREE, youth-led conversation about health, justice, and creative communities.

Learn from NYC visionaries in policy, health, and education on how we can keep our families safe and healthy, while leading the way for an equitable and fair “new normal”.

All ages are welcome. NYC-based attendees will receive a voucher for FREE water and soil testing from the Human Impacts Institute (quantities are limited).

Click here for more information.

10:30am - 1:00pm register here

Join artist, educator, and tour guide Rich Garr for a bike tour focusing on the sites of the Battle of Brooklyn, fought in August 1776.

Meet at the Old Stone House and ride to Brooklyn Bridge Park, please wear your mask.

Limited to 12 riders so reserve soon!

Tickets do not include bike rental.

7:00pm - 9:00pm register here

Brooklyn Improv Training will host outdoor Park Jams, bi-weekly improv sessions at Washington Park.

Part hang out, part workshop, part exchange- these sessions are open to all players with a bit of improv training under their belts. Ages 18 & up.

Masks are required and social distancing will be observed. Space is limited.

Park Jams will be moved online to Zoom in case of inclement weather.

6:30pm tune in here.

Owen Lourie is a historian at the Maryland State Archives, where he joined the staff in 2003. He has conducted and supervised research on a wide array of topics relating to Maryland history, specializing in the Colonial, Revolutionary, and Early Federal eras, as well as the operations and members of the state’s government. Since 2013, he has been the project director of Finding the Maryland 400, a collaboration with the Maryland Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, studying the soldiers who saved the Continental Army at the Battle of Brooklyn in 1776.

This talk chronicles the Maryland 400, the soldiers from Maryland who saved George Washington’s army at the Battle of Brooklyn in August 1776. It describes their actions, including their famous last stand against the British. It also follows the lives of some to the soldiers after the war, including a number from Baltimore. For more information about the project, see msamaryland400.wordpress.com