BY LINCOLN ANDERSON | Things are really starting to come together at the new Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space (MoRUS) — including, notably, its mosaic sign.
A volunteer crew assembled at the museum space, in the ground-floor storefront of C-Squat, at Avenue C and E. 10th St., last Saturday to start assembling the sign — a first for all of them.
According to Laurie Mittelmann, the museum’s co-director, they tried to enlist the East Village’s “Mosaic Man,” Jim Power, to do the 13-foot-long shingle, but he was swamped with his various commission work. But Power gave two of the museum’s volunteers a tutorial, and they also read about making tile mosaics online.
The result was a smashing success. However, the tiles weren’t literally smashed, but clipped. They purchased 3-inch-by-3-inch blue tiles, and Mittelmann, using a cutting tool, clipped them into fragments and shards. Then the volunteers arranged the blue bits into the shape of the letters, which had been stenciled onto the sign. Black tile bits were used to create the MoRUS logo at the sign’s right end. The space between the blue letters will be filed in with mirrored mosaic pieces, and on the sign’s left side will be four tenement buildings with a garden in the middle, with the sun shining in the background.
Meredith Doby, an exhibit designer, created the sign’s design, and, with Jonathan Daily, pieced together the “M” last Saturday.
“It’s like a puzzle — but you’re controlling it,” she said of the M.O. of mosaic.
The sign was close to completion, and needed another day of work. As for the museum, Mittelmann said they hope to open soon.
When they’re not getting MoRUS ready, Mittelmann, co-director Bill DePaola and volunteers help out in local gardens. They recently installed a sink in La Plaza Cultural and built a stage in Green Oasis Garden. Last Sunday they planned to construct a solar-powered pond in another community garden.
MoRUS will be paying C-Squat $1,600 monthly rent. The museum recently received $3,500 from Councilmember Rosie Mendez, which will help, covering two months’ rent.
Bill Cashman, a band and event manager who lives in the former squat, took the lead on bringing in the museum.
He said a couple of the C-Squat residents actually had backed getting a more mainstream tenant for the space, feeling it would bring in the most rent, which would be to the residents’ benefit. One of them even sarcastically quipped why not bring in a Starbucks? But most wanted a nonprofit use connected to the principles of East Village squatting and activism, and MoRUS fit the bill.
“I’m totally for it,” Cashman said of MoRUS. “Me and Johnny Coast — it was a total group effort.”
Cashman added that, hypothetically, assuming a chain store were the tenant, it would have fixed up the storefront space at its own expense. However, C-Squat spent its own funds to get the storefront, as well as part of the basement, into usable shape for MoRUS.
“We put in a lot of money,” Cashman said, not wanting to disclose the amount publicly.
For Cashman, the crowning moment will be when the museum’s new windows are installed — they were made by two of C-Squat’s longtime denizens, Popeye and Shayne — which will mark the end of C-Squat’s efforts on behalf of the new museum space. That was scheduled for sometime this week.
“It’ll be good,” Cashman said. “That roll-down gate has been closed for so many years. It’ll be one less closed, roll-down gate on the block.”
