Tribute to a UMP Supporter Si Scheiner

The Urban Memory Project is grateful to the late Si Scheiner, in whose name a financial gift was donated to our school programs by his niece and nephew, Rachel and David Scheiner. Si Scheiner's generosity enabled the Urban Memory Project to upgrade the technology used by students to document and present their research of changing urban neighborhoods.

Si Scheiner was born in Buffalo, New York in 1935. From a young age, Si enjoyed all aspects of the photography process, avidly taking pictures and then developing and printing his work. According to Si's brother, one of bathrooms of their house became Si's darkroom, where he spent hours perfecting his final prints. Si's love of photography evolved into a life long interest in film and technology. Si Scheiner died in August, 2009, and even as the process of photography has changed significantly since Si's youth, his financial gift helps UMP continue to utilize photography as a tool for students to express their ideas visually about the changes they see in their neighborhoods.

Our Brooklyn, Our Story: Final Student Exhibit 2011

Students at the Secondary School for Research shared their work in a final exhibit at their school in January 2011. Students and their families, teachers and administrators, and other members of the school community came to celebrate the culminating student work that represents the sixth year of partnership between the school and the Urban Memory Project.

Park Slope

Students at the Secondary School for Research took to the streets of the rapidly changing Park Slope, their school's "backyard," to document evidence of gentrification in the neighborhood. Their photos include evidence of rising rents and taller buildings, images of new construction and fading store fronts, inspiring the question: what does a community risk losing as it gains economic prosperity?

Coney Island and Gowanus

Coney Island and Gowanus, while each unique and distinct, both represent neighborhoods in flux. As part of their Urban Memory Project, students at the Secondary School for Research and their teacher, Michael Salak, explored the evolving character of these areas by documenting snippets of a struggle to preserve the past as we face the economic future--and in the case of Gowanus, the environmental challenges-- of these neighborhoods.

Our Brooklyn Neighborhoods

Secondary School for Research students, after examining their school's and local communities, focused their attention on changes they see in their own Brooklyn neighborhoods, documenting shifts in the urban landscapes of Prospect Heights, Flatbush, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Sunset Park, and Crown Heights, among others.

Students at Secondary School for Research Document A Changing Brooklyn

Seniors at the Secondary School for Research and their teacher, Michael Salak, collaborated with Urban Memory Project in the Fall semester of the 2010/11 school year to consider changes both subtle and sudden occurring in the Brooklyn landscape. Students studied a variety of issues facing the borough, including new development projects in Coney Island and Atlantic Yards; environmental challenges in Gowanus; and the gentrification of Park Slope, before turning a critical lens to their own communities. The result of the students' exploration and documentation was a week-long exhibition at the Secondary School for Research of the students' photographs, writing, video and multi-media projects expressing what they believe to be the greater good for Brooklyn.

UMP at City Reliquary Museum

Students from the Lyons Community School and their teacher, Joshua Sol Lewis, worked with UMP's Rebecca Krucoff and Dave Hermann from the City Reliquary Museum on a study of the rapidly changing community of Williamsburg. Students took several photo-walks of the neighborhood, visited the City Reliquary Museum, as well the Crest Hardware Store, a community landmark. The students also met and interviewed photographer Vincent Cianni, who documented the south side of Williamsburg in his series We Skate Hardcore in the 1990s. At the end of their eight-week unit, the students chose photographs and wrote labels to include in an exhibition at the City Reliquary Museum. The result is a beautiful display of photographs that capture the neighborhood's history, character and current trends. We hope to continue our work with Lyons and City Reliquary Museum in the future!