Profile

In 1981 artist Jackie Battenfield asked the Brooklyn borough president for permission to hang local artists' work in a rotunda space of his municipal building. Thereafter known as the Rotunda Gallery, the endeavor relocated in 1993 to a Clinton Street space acquired from developer Bruce Ratner and redesigned by architects Smith-Miller and Hawkinson. Now overseen by an artist advisory committee, the Rotunda serves as the visual-arts component of Brooklyn Information & Culture (BRIC), promoting Brooklyn artists at all stages in their careers. The exhibitions often revolve around critical issues, consumer culture, digital technology, experiential painting, and focus on artists who live and/or work in the borough. A slide registry available to curators and collectors further extends the gallery's outreach as does an ambitious education program that places working painters, sculptors, and craftspeople in classrooms where they assist children in producing exhibitions. — Lori Cole