NYU / SPRING 2014 / 37 36 / SPRING 2014 / NYU

ane’sADDICTION

In the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge spins proof that—with enough elbow grease, tenacity, sacrifice, and belief—anything is truly possible

Nearly three decades elapsed between the time artist Jane Walentas (STEINHARDT ’85) won the Idora Park merry-go-round (above) at auction in Youngstown, Ohio, and the day it opened as Jane’s Carousel on the banks of the East River (right).

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veryone

except my

husband and

son thought I

was crazy,”

says Walentas of her passion

project. “Even having my

studio in DUMBO seemed nuts

because it was so desolate

when I started in the 1980s.

There wasn’t anything here

but a coffee truck outside and

mice indoors.”

Walentas leaned heavily on her fine arts training to help her authentically restore the horses—carved and painted in 1922—to their former Roaring Twenties glory.

While Superstorm Sandy damaged the electronics of the carousel’s high-tech Jean Nouvel–designed pavilion (above right), the wooden equines remained, thankfully, unscathed.

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