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The City Kid’s Guide to NYC: New Brooklyn Hangouts for Teens

By Boo Elliot

  1. Brooklyn Botanic Garden

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BBG has a long history of bringing happiness in the form of exotic (and local) flora. While there isn’t much blooming outside just yet, there are still specialized exhibits in the greenhouses. The Aquatic House, Bonsai Museum, Trail of Plant Evolution, and the Desert, Tropical and Warm Temperate Pavilions are all open and flourishing. It’s a perfect place for a spring visit and conveniently located next to the Brooklyn Museum, which is free to all persons under the age of 19.

  1. The Brooklyn Museum

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The Brooklyn Museum has exhibits both modern and historical. Running through April 2 is Marilyn Minter’s Pretty/Dirty, a part of the Brooklyn Museum’s “Year of Yes: Reimagining Feminism” project, a yearlong, ten exhibit project to recognize the 10th anniversary of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art. Her striking photography, mixed media, and paintings explore female sexuality in American culture and critique the commercialization of the female body. This “viewer discretion is advised” exhibit contains a selection of her best work, with videos, provocative photography, erotic paintings, and her explorations in photoshop and manipulation. Pictured above is Minter’s “Smash”.

  1. The Brooklyn Art Library

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Nestled in the hustle and bustle of Williamsburg sits the Brooklyn Art Library, home of the Sketchbook Project. The Sketchbook Project began in Georgia in 2006 as a flagship project from founders Steven Peterman and Shane Zucker. Their company is dedicated to uniting artists from around the globe for collaborative art projects. The Sketchbook Project is a library of notebooks that you can purchase online, fill up, and then mail back to Peterman and Zucker, who add these submissions to the other 35,430 contributor’s sketchbooks on the shelves of the Brooklyn Art Library. There are notebooks from over 135 countries available to the public both in the show space, and an online catalog (for an extra fee). The Sketchbook Project also offers challenges from creative prompts and themes to art exchanges. A link to their digital library can be found below:

https://www.sketchbookproject.com/library