BY ALEJANDRA O’CONNELL-DOMENECH | Google helped promote the work of more than 50 local New York artists by teaching them how to enhance their personal Web sites.
On June 21, the Grow with Google Learning Center in Chelsea held a workshop called Make Your Website Work for You, which was designed to help artists build their online presence by improving an existing Web site or creating one.
“New York City is home to some of the most talented artists in the world,” said Carley Graham Garcia, Google’s head of external affairs in New York City. “With this workshop we hope to give artists the tools they need to promote their work online and reach new audiences, helping to support our city’s — and this neighborhood’s — long legacy as a home to the world’s most impactful artists.”
A second workshop is currently in the works and will take place some time in mid-August, according to Google.
A large portion of the workshop was dedicated to teaching artists how to create search-friendly Web sites in order to reach the highest number of Internet users possible.
The workshop took place on the same day that the Grow with Google NYC Learning Center unveiled a new mural. In order to create the piece, Google partnered with ArtBridge, an organization that works with local artists to reinvent scaffolding and parts of construction sites to transform them into artwork. Currently, the city has 310 miles of construction fencing, according to Stephen Pierson, executive director of ArtBridge.
According to a statement from Google, the mural was the first to be installed under the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs’ new City Canvas pilot program.
The mural was designed and painted by seven prominent female street artists based in the city, including BKFoxx, Danielle Mastrion, Indie184, Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, Gera Lozano, Natasha Platt and Jess X Snow. The art piece will continue to decorate Google’s Chelsea location until the end of October.
