FROM SHORE TO SHORE: BOAT BUILDERS AND BOAT YARDS Exhibition Opens Today at Waterfront Museum

Come view "From Shore to Shore: Boat Builders & Boat Yards" an exhibition aboard Red Hook's historic wooden barge. Contemporary boat builders reflect over 200 years of a maritime tradition. From Shore to Shore explores the worlds of craftsmen and the places where boats and ships are still being worked on today. Thirteen exhibition panels, accompanying audio video interviews and a timeline highlight profiles of master craftsmen, their tools and the historic boat yards where they work.

In collaboration with Long Island Traditions & ArtsWestchester and with support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts and the New York Council for the Humanities, this exhibition is the culmination of several years of planning and field research on the current and historical art of boat building by folklorists Nancy Solomon, the executive director of Long Island Traditions, and Tom Van Buren, staff folklorist at ArtsWestchester. The exhibition has already enjoyed runs at the Port Jefferson Village Center and Arts Westchester and the Salem Public Library. It will be on display at the Waterfront Museum in Red Hook, Brooklyn today, April 18 to Saturday, July 12, 2014. The exhibition can be viewed for free by families and individuals during open boat hours. Group programs any day by reservation.

For centuries, residents of New York have built watercraft and waterfront facilities to transport people and goods locally, nationally and internationally. For the settlers of this area, boating was a way of life. It provided employment, recreation, and transportation. Dutch and English settlers crossed the Atlantic Ocean to settle in New Amsterdam, travelling up the Hudson River, along Long Island Sound and Long Island's south shore. Wooden ships and boats dominated the country's transportation system until the mid 1800s when railroad took on a larger role in transportation. Coastal towns employed shipwrights, marine carpenters, boat captains and other trades people for generations. Boatyards today still house numerous structures ranging from large barns to machine shops, some dating from the 1800s.

Contemporary boat builders continue many of the traditions established in previous generations, with notable changes including the use of fiberglass and newer technologies and tools. Yet we know little about their work and their workplaces. From Shore to Shore explores the worlds of 10 boat builders and their historic boatyards where boats and ships are still being built or maintained today. Boat builders include professionals, amateurs and volunteers, all dedicated to preserving the craft of earlier generations. Featured boat builders and boatyards include: Peterson Boatyard (Upper Nyack), Rocking the Boat (Bronx) and Consolidated Yacht (City Island), Hanff Boatyard (Greenport, LI), Ida May Project (Oyster Bay, LI) and BaylesBoatyard (Port Jefferson), Toomey Boatyard (Amityville), South Bay Boat Repair (Patchogue), Harter Brothers (Bellmore, LI), Davison's Boatyard (East Rockaway) Greenport Yacht & Shipbuilding (Greenport, LI), and Knutson's Boatyard (Huntington, LI).

On May 3rd from 2 - 4 there will be a reception featuring curators Nancy Solomon & Tom Van Buren and invited boat builders, boatyard owners and waterfront preservation specialists. The program is free. Donations appreciated. Come explore the world of boat building, and help preserve these places and practices for future generations.

The Waterfront Museum celebrates the 100th birthday of Lehigh Valley No. 79 September 19th, at the second annual PIRATE BALL. An art show is being planned for later this summer. Learn more at www.waterfrontmuseum.org and www.barge100.org.