Naked, Painted People To March Through Bushwick Streets

BUSHWICK, BROOKLYN — Dozens of naked bodies covered in paint will parade through the streets of Bushwick this month.

Artists and volunteer models will gather in Maria Hernandez Park at noon on July 20 for Human Connection Arts' sixth annual NYC Body Painting Day, organizers announced.

The theme is "The Purpose of Our Existence."

"I wanted to do something positive and important, and at the same time something open and universal," Andy Golub, the event and nonprofit founder, wrote on the Human Connection Arts website.

"I believe deeply in the impact that art can have on our world."

Sixty volunteer models will gather in the park near Suydam Street and Irving Avenue where professional artists will use their bodies as canvasses during a four-hour painting session, followed by a parade through Bushwick and an afterparty.

Models will be fully nude — except for recommended sandals — and painted from head to toe.

Golub, of Nyack, NY, has been organizing body painting since events 2007 and has expanded into Amsterdam, Brussels and San Francisco.

The demonstrations — which Golub writes are intended to challenge conceptions of public nudity and personal identity — led to his arrest in August 2011 when police charged him with public lewdness for painting a model in Times Square, DNAinfo reported.

The charges were dismissed months later after Golub and the NYPD reached an agreement through the NYCLU, according to the report.

More information is available on the Human Connection Arts website and Facebook event page.