FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 2026
LOCAL LEGENDS: Celebrating DUMBO’s Creative Legacy and Future
A special evening of conversation, community, and live music celebrating the artists and cultural pioneers who helped transform DUMBO into one of New York City’s most iconic creative neighborhoods.
Brooklyn, NY — On November 12, BACI STUDIO presents LOCAL LEGENDS: Celebrating DUMBO’s Creative Legacy and Future, an evening of conversation and live music bringing together artists and cultural pioneers whose decades of creativity helped transform DUMBO into one of New York City’s most celebrated arts communities.
DUMBO is experiencing a creative resurgence, and some of the neighborhood’s most influential longtime artists and culture-makers aren’t simply watching it happen. They’re celebrating it, participating in it, and helping usher in what comes next. Initiated and moderated by Kylin O’Brien, the panel features Jan Bell, Tanya Rynd, Kriss Roebling, and Craig Anthony Miller (C.A.M.), with a special musical performance by The Maybelles.
Once a largely industrial waterfront district, DUMBO became a thriving center for experimental art, music, performance, and independent cultural expression. Generations of artists transformed its warehouses, streets, and unconventional spaces into a neighborhood with an international creative reputation. And many of the people who helped build that culture are still here.
The evening celebrates not only DUMBO’s extraordinary artistic history, but also the enduring creative energy shaping its future. “All of these artists continue to contribute to DUMBO’s creative life with experience, generosity, and positivity,” says O’Brien. “There is something extraordinary about seeing a new generation of creatives bring fresh energy into a neighborhood with such a rich artistic legacy. We have so much to celebrate, and so much still to share.”
The event coincides with KYLIN O’BRIEN | ART UNDER THE BRIDGE, a retrospective exhibition at BACI STUDIO, marking 18 years of creativity in community. The exhibition, running October 29 through December 3, includes over a decade of paintings, interactive projects, and later in the month a book launch celebrating O’Brien’s multidisciplinary practice and the remarkable network of artists, collaborators, and cultural institutions that have helped shape her work for over nearly two decades.
DETAILS
On view
October 29 – December 3, 2026
Local Legends Panel
Thursday, November 12th
7 – 9 pm
Baci Studio
55 Anchorage Pl
Brooklyn, NY 11201
ABOUT THE PANELISTS
CRAIG ANTHONY MILLER (C.A.M.)
Brooklyn-born visual artist, muralist, and storyteller Craig Anthony Miller has helped shape DUMBO’s visual identity for two decades. Known for his distinctive stained-glass-inspired compositions and symbolic animal imagery, C.A.M.’s work spans painting, metal, and monumental public murals. His guiding philosophy, “Always be mindful of your ability to fly,” speaks to the transformative possibilities at the heart of his practice. In 2016, both C.A.M. and Jan Bell (see below) received the DUMBO Dozen Award for contributions to art and community.
JAN BELL
Yorkshire-born singer-songwriter, cultural organizer, and founder of the Brooklyn Americana Music Festival, Jan Bell has been a driving force in DUMBO’s music community for more than two decades. An Independent Music Award winner, Bell has performed alongside celebrated artists including Odetta, Emmylou Harris, Wanda Jackson, and Rosanne Cash. After curating live music for the DUMBO Art Under the Bridge Festival, she founded the Brooklyn Americana Music Festival, now in its 13th year. Her work has helped establish Brooklyn as a vital home for independent Americana music, featuring a strong majority of women artists.
TANYA RYND
Visual artist, writer, curator, and co-founder of Superfine, DUMBO’s beloved restaurant, bar, and cultural gathering place, Tanya Rynd has been an influential presence in the neighborhood since 1995. An accomplished painter and printmaker, her expressive, psychologically rich work explores identity, mythology, and the human condition. She describes her paintings as “the unspoken stories, love letters to the world and to myself.” For more than two decades, she has collaborated with master printer Marina Ancona of Ten Grand Press. Through her art and cultural entrepreneurship, Rynd has helped sustain DUMBO’s independent creative spirit.
KRISS ROEBLING
Kriss’s secret history with DUMBO elucidates the moments just prior to DUMBO’s transformation from largely forgotten 19th century industrial dreamscape to one of the most desired neighborhoods in all of New York City. From the endless maze of abandoned infrastructure and shadow figures that drifted through DUMBO in the early 80’s, to the lawless adventuring and crazy proto parties that slowly began to take over, DUMBO was a world that defied conventional reality, A complete secret that eventually became one of Brooklyn’s greatest “destinations”.
Kriss’s life of adventure in New York City started 61 years ago when he was born at New York Hospital. He has spent his life in New York City making art, primarily as a recording artist and producer. He has also lectured extensively about the adventures that his great great grandparents, Washington and Emily Roebling, had in Dumbo when they built the Brooklyn Bridge.
KYLIN O’BRIEN | MODERATOR
Kylin O’Brien is a New York City born, 5th generation New Yorker. She is an award winning multidisciplinary artist, whose practice spans painting, installation, performance, public art, and community engagement. Over two decades living and working in DUMBO, she has developed an internationally exhibited body of work exploring transformation, spirituality, impermanence, and collective experience. She has collaborated with artists and organizations on performances and events at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the European Cultural Centre, the Brooklyn International Performance Art Festival, and the 56th International Art Exhibition of la Biennale di Venezia. A true multi-passionate, Kylin and her work have been seen, featured, and mentioned for a variety of reasons in publications including Brooklyn Magazine, Art in America, Artsy, The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Huffington Post, NPR, BoingBoing, Gothamist, and Flavorwire. Kylin is not only a multidisciplinary artist, she is also a visionary author, and a success mentor to corporate and creative leadership.
Her new book, with Gagné Contemporary, launches December 3rd at BACI STUDIO. Kylin O’Brien | Art Under the Bridge: 18 Years of Creativity in Community, chronicles this extraordinary chapter of her artistic practice and pays tribute to the community that helped make it possible.
SPECIAL MUSICAL GUESTS: THE MAYBELLES
Jan Bell’s acclaimed Americana trio, featuring Rima Fand and Philippa Thompson, brings its distinctive blend of songwriting, harmony, and musical storytelling to the evening.