Children aged 8 to 14 work in a junkyard near 19th Street in Park Slope cutting, drilling and painting reclaimed materials to build custom cars for the annual South Slope Derby. KoKo NYC runs workshops every summer that teach design, engineering and reuse through a "trash is treasure" approach. Participants, mostly Brooklyn residents, choose components like bike tires and experiment with aerodynamics and wheel configurations. Monika Wuhrer founded KoKo in 2007 as part of Open Source Gallery to make art accessible and encourage free exchange of ideas. KoKo now operates from the KoKo Lot where kids build clubhouses, toolsheds and trophies amid piles of salvaged materials.
In a junkyard just off 19th Street in Park Slope, 8- to 14-year-olds have been sawing, drilling and painting, surrounded by brightly colored piles of wood, rope-and-tire swings and lots of wheels. They're getting ready for Saturday's 18th annual South Slope Derby, when hundreds of spectators will cheer on dozens of kids racing their own custom-built cars down 17th Street. Every summer, KoKo NYC - the program that runs the race - organizes workshops where kids design and build their vehicles.
"It really puts engineering skills to the test, and I want to be an engineer when I grow up," 8-year-old Bowie said as he and his fellow 8-year-old partner, Henry, finished up the final touches of their car at the junkyard earlier this month. Like most of the participants, Bowie and Henry are from Brooklyn. "You have to think, 'How do I build wheels? How do I make this aerodynamic?'"
Monika Wuhrer created KoKo in 2007 as a project of the Open Source Gallery, an artist space she founded that year with an emphasis on a free exchange of ideas. Wuhrer, who is originally from Austria but moved to Brooklyn about 25 years ago, said she aimed to make art accessible to the families in her neighborhood. KoKo started small, operating out of the gallery location on 17th Street. Now the program has its own space, the KoKo Lot.
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