Sunday Sets Holiday Party

Before Pioneer Works shutters its doors for a brief winter respite, come join us for a last holiday hoorah with live music, open studios, a robotic sculpture, drinks and dance!

Doors will open at 5pm: we invite visitors to discover Chico MacMurtrie’s / ARW’s robotic installation Chrysalis, on view for its best and final performance, and to engage with recent work by our artists-and-scientists-in-residence on all three floors of Pioneer Works: Thomas Beale, Ivan Forde, Joey Frank, Christine Laquet, Bruno Levy, Shana Lutker, Jason Saager, Cleek Schrey, our Science Lab (Matthew Putman, Angel Say, Jacob Keith) and Classroom (David Sheinkopf).

6PM: Smokey Hormel/Smokey’s Roundup will begin the evening! Hormel’s résumé reads like a history of American popular music. He has worked closely with Beck, Tom Waits, Johnny Cash, and Neil Diamond. Hormel’s band Smokey’s Roundup, whose weekly shows at Sunny’s Bar have become a Red Hook institution, is inspired by the sounds of Milton Brown and other Western Swing classics. Smokey Hormel will lead the concert on Sunday on vocals and guitar with Charley Burnham on fiddle, Tim Luntzel on bass, and Andrew Burger on drums.

6:45PM: Special guests Clara Claus and Gaspar Claus The Graphic Score will perform second an ephemeral 10 min happening that weaves music and art together in a live performance, featuring a projected painted scroll by Clara accompanied by her brother Gaspar’s musical interpretation on the cello, and special guest Mitchell Yoshida, a multi-instrumentalist, composer, and sound designer living in Brooklyn. Brought to PW by curator Gaelle Porte, this unique performance reflects the intimate relationship between the brother-sister artists and challenges our musical vocabulary traditions by exploring a conversation between their two mediums. Inspired by John Cage’ avant-garde exploration of music, the performance at Pioneer Works will be the 3rd iteration of The Graphic Score, which was last performed in June 2013 at BAM on the occasion of the Crossing Brooklyn Ferry festival with musicians Bryce Dessner (guitar), Thomas Bartlett (keyboard/organ), David Cossin (drums), and Ben Lanz (trombone).

7:15PM: Finally, coming straight from Mexico City, La Sabrosa Sabrosura will perform their crazy mixes, started as an offshoot of the Mexican Reggae band Los Yerberos. La Sabrosa Sabrosura has since joined the Cumbia tsunami that has overcome Latin America in the past few years. The group brings its punk approach to Mexico’s deep-rooted cumbia tradition, with nods to Rigo Tovar, Chicoche, Celso Piña and others. The charismatic Claudia Mendoza will lead a delirious dance party.

Olivier Conan is programmer and co-owner of Barbès, a Brooklyn