Its Bushwick

This weekend marks the beginning of this year's installment of the Bushwick Open Studios. Sponsored by Arts In Bushwick, BOS '09 features over 200 registered artists, and aims to involve the entire local community in organizing, celebrating and otherwise facilitating the event. The whole thing actually captures quite nicely the distinction between Bushwick and its more pretentious neighbor(s) to the west. On the one hand, there will likely never be an organization entitled Arts In Williamsburg, anymore than there will be a Bank of Wall Street or a SoHo shopping center. On the other, its not exactly clear that the 'Burg couldn't use a well-designed map indicating exactly where all that so called art actually is, what with so much of it apparently happening in ephemera only. It's an aggressive ephemera, too, spilling out and recolonizing West Bushwick as East Williamsburg. Which is perhaps the best thing about BOS, namely that its an effort to actually bring the art and the place along together, simultaneously. Festivities kick off on Friday and continue through Sunday.