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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

BROOKLYN PSYCHIATRIC CENTERSí CHILDRENíS ART ON DISPLAY AT
BROOKLYN OFFICE OF MASSEY KNAKAL

BROOKLYN, NY—July 27, 2007—Colorful sculptures created by children in an art workshop at Brooklyn Psychiatric Centers’ Bushwick Mental Health Clinic have been installed in Massey Knakal Realty Services’ Brooklyn Office, Dr. Pamela Straker, president and CEO of Brooklyn Psychiatric Centers, announced today.

“Education for children is one of the things our firm likes to align itself with,” said Brian T. Leary, managing partner of Massey Knakal’s Brooklyn Office. “The children’s art program that took place at Brooklyn Psychiatric Centers’ Bushwick Clinic is very much in line with the types of programs we want to support.”

“We were delighted to have the opportunity to display the children’s art work because the sculptures bring joy to everyone who sees them,” said Timothy D. King, senior partner for Massey Knakal. “When we designed our new office on Montague Street our goal was to produce a space large enough for the community to enjoy. We’ve succeeded by creating a venue for the work of these young artists and by allowing many community and professional groups to meet here.”

In recognition of their contributions to the Brooklyn community, Mr. King and Mr. Leary will be honored by Brooklyn Psychiatric Centers at its annual gala on October 4, 2007. The pair, along with David Behin and Elan Padeh of the Developers Group, will be receiving the Judge Robert J. Wilkin Commitment to Community Award, which is named after the agency’s founder.

The figurine sculptures painted with bright, vibrant colors are about two feet long and housed in custom-made display cases that were produced and donated by SurroundArt, a full service fine arts company that specializes in exhibition design, fabrication, mount making, art installation, packing, crating, shipping, and storage.

Mick Murray, a partner in SurroundArt, remarked, "When Dr. Straker gave us the opportunity to assist with this program, which helps young artists find the discipline and outlet to discover their talents, we could not have been happier. It allowed us to handle works from the world’s next generation of great artists, and SurroundArt looks forward to continuing our work with Brooklyn Psychiatric Centers and this worthwhile program."
“I’m extremely grateful to Tim, Brian, and Massey Knakal’s Brooklyn Office for allowing us to show the community these beautiful sculptures that were created by our children,” Dr. Straker said. “We also greatly appreciate the work that Mick and SurroundArt did to design and produce museum quality display cases to protect the art work, and the special care they took in handling each of the pieces.”  

Dr. Straker said the art program is part of Brooklyn Psychiatric Centers’ holistic approach to mental health, which promotes art and healthy lifestyles as ways to improve the overall well-being of clients. For example, she said, the young artists who produced the sculptures on display at Massey Knakal are clients or relatives of clients at the agency’s Bushwick Mental Health Clinic who may have difficulty expressing themselves verbally, but were able to express themselves easily through their art. The goal of the agency is to raise money in order to introduce additional art programs for children at all of its clinics.

Dr. Straker also praised the artist who served as the instructor for the workshop, Emmett Wigglesworth, a muralist, painter, sculptor, fabric designer, and poet as well as an art teacher. Mr. Wigglesworth presented the workshop as part of The Children’s Art Carnival, an organization that has been teaching art to children since the late 1960s when it was affiliated with the Museum of Modern Art.

Founded in 1907, BPC offers borough-wide mental health services to Brooklyn’s most vulnerable residents through its clinics in Bushwick, Canarsie, Flatbush-Sheepshead Bay, Williamsburg-Greenpoint, and downtown Brooklyn, programs on-site in the borough’s public schools, an outpatient drug and alcohol treatment program, a prevention program serving at-risk children and their families and senior programs. Thousands of adults, seniors, children and their families are helped during more than 60,000 visits to these programs each year.  More information about Brooklyn Psychiatric Centers’ programs is available at www.bpcinc.org.

Mr. King opened Massey Knakal’s Brooklyn Office, which specializes in commercial real estate sales, more than four years ago as its first managing partner. Since then, the office has sold $1 billion worth of property, including 400 separate sales transactions, more than 5,000 residential units in multi-family properties, and more than 10 million square feet of existing buildings, and approximately ten million square feet of buildable space for residential and commercial development. The office has expanded to more than 70 employees with real estate brokers covering the entire borough of Brooklyn, 33 territories, and four Staten Island territories.  To accommodate the growth, the Brooklyn Office moved to an 18,000 square foot space on Montague Street in downtown Brooklyn in 2006. More information is available at www.masseyknakal.com.

SurroundArt’s museum-trained staff has extensive knowledge and experience handling all types of artwork and antiquities, and works with the largest and most respected institutions and private collections in the world. SurroundArt has offices in the Brooklyn Navy Yard and Washington, D.C. More information is available at www.surroundart.com.

 

Left to right: Mick Murray, of SurroundArt, Timothy D. King and Brian T. Leary, of Massey Knakal and honorees for Brooklyn Psychiatric Centers’ annual gala on October 4, 2007, and Dr. Pamela Straker, president and CEO of Brooklyn Psychiatric Centers.