1979: Ten Uptown
By Caitlin Hawke
I've been dying to delve into the Seventies. I wasn't here then, of course. But certain things make me wish I had been. "Ten Uptown," the hip consortium of self-named artists is just one of those things. It's like they fell straight out of New York Magazine. I used to grab copies of that magazine from my mother's pile before she read it cover to cover, right down to when we duked it out over who would read Mary Ann Madden's brilliant "Competition" results to whom. Never mind the Sondheim crosswords. God, I miss those.
But I digress.
Recently, discussing the antics of one neighbor -- Len Tredanari -- with other neighbors -- Neil and Gerry Borrell, I learned of the Ten Uptown group, co-founded by Elaine Wechsler around 1976. Gerry and Neil kindly shared an original press release below and the image above relating to the group's first exhibition in 1979. I wonder with this new economy if there are as many and as diverse a concentration of artists living in these few blocks as back then. Maybe these Ten Uptown members' names below will ring a bell. I know several of them, and they are still going strong.
Sadly we lost Cherie at the beginning of the year. She was a co-founder not only of Ten Uptown, but also of the block assocation. And we lost her husband Len about a decade before Cherie's death. We still have Cherie's Broadway sculpture to remember her by. As for Len, his homemade wine and outrageous hose-wielding on Block Association Yard Sale Day are lost to neighborhood lore now. But he certainly is far from forgotten.
Ten Uptown Members circa 1976
Neil Borrell, graphics
Lynn Braswell, drawing
Ruth Cherry, sculptor
Jeri Drucker, painter
Mari Lyons, painter
Jane McClintock, sculptor
Annette Oko, painter
Nancy Sirkus, painter, photographer
Virginia Smit, printmaker
Cherie Tredanari, welded sculpture
Elaine Wechsler, painter
Hannelore Teddie Wolff, painter
Pictures and press release are courtesy of Neil and Gerry Borrell.
But I digress.
Recently, discussing the antics of one neighbor -- Len Tredanari -- with other neighbors -- Neil and Gerry Borrell, I learned of the Ten Uptown group, co-founded by Elaine Wechsler around 1976. Gerry and Neil kindly shared an original press release below and the image above relating to the group's first exhibition in 1979. I wonder with this new economy if there are as many and as diverse a concentration of artists living in these few blocks as back then. Maybe these Ten Uptown members' names below will ring a bell. I know several of them, and they are still going strong.
Sadly we lost Cherie at the beginning of the year. She was a co-founder not only of Ten Uptown, but also of the block assocation. And we lost her husband Len about a decade before Cherie's death. We still have Cherie's Broadway sculpture to remember her by. As for Len, his homemade wine and outrageous hose-wielding on Block Association Yard Sale Day are lost to neighborhood lore now. But he certainly is far from forgotten.
Ten Uptown Members circa 1976
Neil Borrell, graphics
Lynn Braswell, drawing
Ruth Cherry, sculptor
Jeri Drucker, painter
Mari Lyons, painter
Jane McClintock, sculptor
Annette Oko, painter
Nancy Sirkus, painter, photographer
Virginia Smit, printmaker
Cherie Tredanari, welded sculpture
Elaine Wechsler, painter
Hannelore Teddie Wolff, painter
Pictures and press release are courtesy of Neil and Gerry Borrell.
Ten Uptown founding member Cherie Tredanari's sculpture stands at on the median at Broadway and West 106th Street.
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