Croton Water Celebration 2001 (Main Street, Brewster) - "Mayor John Cesar of Brewster, New York cuts the ribbon to inaugurate the new public works project returning Croton Watershed water to Brewster by importing it from New York City," photo courtesy of Rachel Gugelberger.

    On the weekend of July 27-29, 2001 in Brewster, New York, artist Peter Walsh reversed the flow of New York City's drinking water, creating an imaginary public works project that modeled itself on grass roots activism and included a ribbon-cutting ceremony with Brewster's 83 year old Mayor, John Cesar.

    Throughout the hot summer weekend, Mr. Walsh thanked the people of the Village of Brewster and the Township of Southeast, and also visitors to the Brewster Project arts festival, by serving glasses of authentic ice-cold Croton Watershed water, imported directly from the heart of New York City. Local officials and community members were on hand to cut the ribbon, taste the returning water and kick off a new Croton Water Celebration that mirrored a similar celebration in Manhattan over 150 years earlier. (photo gallery)

    The project successfully connected with the Putnam County community's concerns over the political and financial control of area resources and was prominently featured in three different local newspapers. The project was chosen by curator Rachel Gugelberger to be part of the first Brewster Project, an arts festival organized by Regine Basha, Omar Lopez-Chahoud and Christopher Ho with Brewster resident Richard Ruchella. During the festival, Brewster hosted over 30 contemporary artists from NewYork City who were invited by ten curators to create site-specific public projects that reflected on Brewster's history, locale, architecture and specific cultural make-up.

Acknowledgements

     My thanks go out first and foremost to all the celebration participants for having fun and being patient while I played an elaborate prank on their behalf. The project would never have happened without curator Rachel Gugelberger, who generously invited me to participate not knowing where my piece might lead. The New York City organizers of the festival, Regine Basha, Omar Lopez-Chahoud, and Christopher Ho were wonderful as were their Brewster counterparts, resident Richard Ruchella and Samantha Ligon & Amy Campanaro of the Southeast Museum. Also helpful in Brewster were activist Edie Keasbey and Patricia Perez with the Community Affairs Office in Putnam County. As I was doing research, I was given great help by Marc Yaggi at Pace University's Environmental Litigation Clinic and by Jeff Ryan, Beth Gelber and Abdul Jabar with the New York City Department of Environmental Protection. As always, Deidre Hoguet was an inspiration and a steadfast supportor and, lest I forget, provided the engine that ran the Reversal Project - her car.

    And finally, a special thanks to Village of Brewster Mayor John Cesar, who gave several extraordinary speeches on behalf of Brewster, its water, and the Reversal Project. He taught me the true nature of public performance by showing me how it is done.