The Catch— & — Release installation is temporarily set up in a vacant space under the FDR at John Street, from January 11 until March 16, 2014. It offers a physical respite where neighbors, visitors and all are invited to share messages of gratitude. In this interactive space, visitors are performing a sort of ritual by which their written “Thank You” notes will be publicly “caught,” and elevated to create an installation that will become the visual symbol of this place.

Photos: Yeju Choi

 Soft Launch on December 19, 2013

The South Street Seaport project was soft-launched on the cold night of December 19th, with a hand-picked group of small business owners, harbor workers and Seaport supporters invited to privately inaugurate the project. Entitled “Catch&Release,” the installation is located in a vacant space under the FDR. This neutral space marks the symbolic frontier between the Old Seaport cobblestoned neighborhood and the piers on the East River.

Catch&Release installation functions as a default-space in a very polarized community, torn by its upcoming land development. In the span of a few weeks – while lit up at night like a campfire and not yet open to the public until January 11 – it has quietly become for the community a point of reference and hope in the Seaport. Sandwiched between the remaining activity of the Fulton market area and the modern piers–as they get less foot traffic in the winter, and as the demolition of the nearby Pier 17 is about to happen–our project activates an empty space while signaling a potential new destination in this temporary phase of renovation of the South Street Seaport area.

Still catching…

With information and emotions collected and shared throughout the box installation’s limited time and space, Catch&Release hopes to create a method to empower its community to have a say in its future. By “Catching” acknowledgements of gratitude through various related community engagement programming, and a parallel mapping project, the project aims to “release” this information for a second phase of design development and community engagement.