Brooklynites were given the chance to paint the boardwalk red on Saturday, May 6 during the New York City Parks Department’s Boardwalk Barrels of Fun event in Coney Island.
Presented as part of a collaboration between Parks and the Alliance for Coney Island, the annual family-friendly art competition pitted contenders of all ages against each other to see who could best decorate rubbish barrels between West 10th Street and West 12th Street in Coney Island.
Attendees were invited to paint landscapes, seascapes and carnival-themed art on the barrels, which will be placed along the Riegelmann Boardwalk in the spring and summer seasons.
“It’s a fun activity. We were really looking for creativity,” said Alexandra Silversmith, executive director of the Alliance for Coney Island. “There’s a wide variety, there’s some interesting messages. Coney Island is just very diverse so the winners show a lot of diversity. They were all colorful and creative.”
The competition saw 116 participants transforming 300 barrels and spanning three categories: student, adult and family. Winners included Bianca Guese in the student category, Leah Michaelson in the family category and Neil Kudd in the adult category. Overall winners included William Petrosino of the adult category and Cui Ming and Cheyenne Chen of the family category. Runner-ups included Geraldo Aguilar, Maya Poten and Hector Rios.
Prizes included tickets to a Brooklyn Cyclones game, Deno’s Wonder Wheel Amusement Park and Luna Park among other goodies.
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