'Friends Of Carroll Park' Throw Reception For New Volunteers And Group's Founding Members

A rainy Carroll Park On Saturday evening

Invite to Volunteer Reception

Inside the Robert Acito Park House

from l.to r.: Joe Auer, Amy Vermeer Crews, Sarah Starling, Eunice Auer, Jim Crews

Friends of Carroll Park President Bruce McDonald

One of the founding members of Friends Of Carroll Park, Nancy Stehle

with an old photo showing her at a park's event.

Old press releases from Friends of Carroll Park events

Founding Members and volunteers Joseph Mariano and Nino Pantano

Another founding member, Linda Mariano with friend Margaret Maugenest

Bottom right, Linda Mariano and Nancy Stehle in the park in the 1970's

Foreground, Nancy Stehle and Joe Auer. In the back, former Friends of Carroll Park President Glenn Kelly with founding member Judy Pantano

From an event by the Friends Of Carroll Park in 1975.

From l. to r.: Peter Drago, Former Assemblywoman Eileen Dugan, Linda Mariano with daughter Rachel, Nino Pantano, Judy Pantano, Ann Faulkner, Sal Feriaoli, Elisabeth Feriaoli and Rich Leolta.

Carroll Gardens residents in 1975 in the Carroll Park ball field...

...listening to Nino Pantano sing

during a concert honoring Enrico Caruso, the Italian tenor.

Georgia, a future member of the Friends group

This past Saturday evening, the current members of Friends Of Carroll Park held a reception inside the Robert Acido Park House to honor the founding members of the group as well as to welcome new volunteers. Together, those gathered have taken care of the park and organized events for the community for over 36 years.

The group was founded in the 1970's by members Nancy and Paul Stehle, Linda and Joseph Mariano, Judy and Nino Pantano along with a few others. Over wine and cheese, they shares some of the history and photos taken during park events in the 1970's, including a tribute concert to Enrico Caruso, the Italian tenor.

Today, Friends of Carroll Park is still going strong and has grown in the last decade. New members are always welcomed.

The group meets the first Thursday of every month in the park house at 7:30 PM.

Click here for more history and information on the group.


***If anyone recognizes someone from the photo showing local residents at the 1975 concert, please let me know and I will add their names.

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Joseph Mariano: A Visit With The Gowanus Artist

When Gowanus area resident Joseph Mariano retired in 1996, he knew that he wanted to spend the rest of his life painting. Standing in his sun drenched studio, he showed me his many works. There were portraits and landscapes, some of Jamaica Bay, some of different scenes along the Gowanus Canal, one of his favorite subjects.

Very often, Joseph takes a canoe out onto the water and paints the bridges at Carroll Street and 3rd Street. He likes to explore the canal's many inlets, places well hidden from others. Often, he encounters egrets and Night Herons. There used to be horseshoe crabs, too, but he has not seen those in the past five years.

Except for a life-drawing class in graduate school, Joseph is essentially self-taught. His style varies from delicate, as in the watercolor of the bumble bee above, to bold colors and lines in the canvases of urban grit along the shores of the Gowanus Canal. The portrait of his wife Linda, reading, displays the artist's tender, playful side. He credits Linda, who is also an artist, with having taught him much.
" She is my muse and I am hers" he told me, smiling.

Joseph and Linda moved to the Gowanus area in the mid-1970's. A few violent incidents in their old West Village neighborhood convinced them that it was time to leave with their infant daughter. Inspired by a New York Magazine article entitled
"Brownstone Districts of New York", Joseph found his way to Carroll Gardens, where he and Linda rented an apartment. They bought their house near the Gowanus Canal shortly afterward.

Sitting in the couple's charming kitchen on a recent afternoon, they pointed out all the work that they had done over the years. The house had needed everything, from windows, doors, banisters and fixtures. But the result is as unique and artistic as the house's inhabitants.

Over coffee, we spoke of art, of the Gowanus Canal and of its future. I asked Joseph what he envisioned for the polluted waterway, which he knows so intimately. "Ideally, it should be cleaned and protected." he said. He hopes for a wetland restoration and adaptive re-use of the old factory buildings along its shores. Most of all, he hoped that the Gowanus area will not be turned into the" New Miami or a second rate Venice."

On my way home, I though about Joseph's comment that any change in the area is "a double- edged sword". There is beauty to be found along the Gowanus Canal, even in its decrepit state. But it takes an artist like Joseph to see and capture it.

Thank you, Joseph and Linda, for inviting me and for sharing your art.

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