BIO

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Rich Garr is an interdisciplinary artist based in Brooklyn. Broad interests in connecting art and history surface in his work. Whether site-specific wheatpasted paper memorials, traditional collage, or in a walking tour format— it’s all a form of collage. 

Early on, Rich worked as a teaching artist at the Cleveland Museum of Art and Brooklyn Museum. Later he freelanced as a guide and artist educator around NYC at places like the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, Lefferts Historic House, and the Brooklyn Navy Yard. He enjoys working with kids, and for a long time taught them photography and darkroom techniques at a Lower East Side community center. There, neighborhood photo walks branched into gallery and art studio visits geared towards his adult mixed-media students. Since that time he has fully integrated walking into his art in both practice and product. He enjoys inspiring others to find their own creative platforms, and is especially eager to facilitate under-represented voices and activism. 

Community engagement is a large part of his art practice. This includes public, creative investigations of Gowanus every month. These walks are collaborative with other local artists and like-minded groups like the Gowanus Dredgers. They are open air explorations of communities featuring ALL art on the streets- including graffiti, murals, infrastructure and architecture- contextualized from multiple angles. Connections on walks occasionally feature his Street Art History memorial plaques, but are not curated around them. They are unscripted multi-sensory four-dimensional collage happenings. Some call them walking tours. Some call them “Gotham SideWalks.”