Gowanus Open Studios turns 30 with 400-plus artists and the first CBA studios on the tour

Gowanus Open Studios returns this weekend for its 30th year, opening hundreds of working artists' spaces to the public for free on Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 17 and 18, from noon to 6 p.m.

Arts Gowanus, which hosts the event, says more than 400 artists will welcome visitors across more than 90 locations from Pacific Street to 19th Street and Smith Street to Fifth Avenue. Brooklyn Paper, citing organizers, put the count higher — more than 500 artists in over 100 locations — and called it the biggest edition yet.

Affordable studios after the rezoning

The neighborhood has changed sharply since a handful of artists first opened their doors in 1996. The 2021 Gowanus rezoning brought high-rises and higher rents, but Arts Gowanus negotiated a Community Benefits Agreement that secures more than 100 permanently affordable artist studios across 11 waterfront development sites. Studios rent at $1.66 per square foot per month, with annual increases capped at 2%, the organization says. Each building also includes a deeply subsidized fellowship studio for artists earning under 50% of AMI.

Twenty-two of those CBA studios are already open and occupied at The Shop at 420 Carroll Street and Society Brooklyn at 498 Sackett Street, and Brooklyn Paper reported that 15 will be open to visitors during this year's tour — the first time the public can walk those spaces as part of Open Studios.

"It really is, to me, such a happy moment to realize the creative community is thriving in Gowanus still," Arts Gowanus executive director Johnny Thornton told Brooklyn Paper.

Anniversary shows and side events

Beyond individual studios, the weekend includes a "30 for 30" anniversary exhibition at Union Channel on Third Avenue, a group show at The Barn on Bond, Van Alen Institute's Fall Fest on Bond Street, a makers' fair at the Old Stone House in Park Slope on Oct. 17, and a free screening of the documentary Gowanus Currents at The Shop that evening. An anniversary after-party is set for Sunday night at Union Channel.

Longtime participant JoAnne McFarland, who has shown since the first year, told Brooklyn Paper she will exhibit mixed-media dress collages at the anniversary show rather than in her studio at 543 Union Street — the birthplace of the tour. Printed maps will be distributed across the neighborhood; the digital directory is at artsgowanus.org.