This Sunday, artists, curators, and organizers skipped the last moments of Armory weekend to shoot hoops at the Sara D. Roosevelt Park, on Manhattan’s Lower East Side.

NYC Culture Club creators Clayton and Parker Calvert organized Ball For Art, a basketball tournament for charity. Fashion house Golden Goose provided the players with jerseys featuring designs by New York-based artist Stickymonger, while neighborhood bar Ray’s hosted the after-party—and even provided a few players. All proceeds from Ball For Art (including donations, raffle tickets for a jersey, and poster sales) benefited five local nonprofits: ARTNOIR, Artolution, ArtsConnection, NYC Culture Club, and Silver Art Projects.

A portion of Zeehan Wazed’s four-part mural around the courts. Photo by Parker Calvert.

Nearly a hundred participants, volunteers, and spectators descended on the Grand Street Courts around noon to warm up for the four-hour competition, where 16 teams of four battled it out for bragging rights. In the early rounds, teams played simultaneously across the park’s four courts, ringed with a bold new mural that multimedia artist Zeehan Wazed had painted to commemorate the occasion. Clouds of smoke blending marijuana and tobacco floated over the scene as the players practiced.

Over email, Parker Calvert said he’s played basketball most of his life. The annual East Hampton Artists and Writers Charity Softball Game—inaugurated years ago by Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, and Joan Mitchell—also helped him get acclimated to the art world early in his career.

“During the pandemic many artists really bonded together in basketball games hosted with [ARTNOIR founder] Danny Baez in Morningside Park,” Calvert said of the inspirations behind Ball For Art.

A rapt crowd watching the tournament. Photo by Casey Kelbaugh.

The tournament will become an annual tradition. Some players, like street art duo riisaBoogie and Rez Ones, joined this weekend’s first edition for fun. Others came to dominate. The knockout format, where one loss meant elimination, quickly separated the wheat from the chaff.

Curator and critic Charles Moore showed up to watch. “It surprised me seeing who actually knows how to play very well, and who doesn’t,” he said. Moore’s MVP picks included Parker Calvert, artist Nate Lewis, and actor Barthelemy Astin, who triumphed over painter Telvin Wallace as the two attempted to lead their teams to victory. Alas, Astin faced elimination soon after, against the Calvert brothers and their friend of 10 years, the artist and model Cavier Coleman.

Nate Lewis dribbles before Parker Calvert and Omar Lawson blocks Coleman during the semi-finals. Photo by Casey Kelbaugh.

But the Calvert squad faltered in the semifinals, leaving the championship to the team of Lewis and Baez, alongside artist Omar Lawson and art advisor Anwarii Musa—a chimera of two squads which came together due to injuries during earlier rounds. Their opponents were the team of Ray’s bartenders Ben Guber and Hailey Carter alongside artist Jeff City and photographer AP the Angel.

City councilperson Christopher Marte gave remarks before the championship. The Calverts announced that artist Jason Wallace won NYC Culture Club’s first-ever Stillman Prize.

The nonprofits, mural volunteers, and organizers behind Ball For Art pose with cit counciperson Christopher Marte. Photo by Jason Wallace.

Back on the court, AP the Angel and Musa led teams through the final game, rife with trash talking and contentious fouls. Every player contributed—save for Carter, one of three girls in the whole tournament, who barely played. Lawson barreled through throngs to make layups. Guber sunk some three-pointers.

Lewis, who had two works in the Armory with Los Angeles gallery Vielmetter, scored the winning shot. Although he’s played basketball his whole life, Lewis only started making art when he was 25. “We ain’t new to this, we true to this,” Lewis told me on the court. He believes his artwork relates to the way he plays.

Lewis controls the ball in the final match, while Benzine chats with his parents in the background. Photo by Casey Kelbaugh.

And, even though AP verbally sparred with Musa throughout the game—and Musa took the liberty of a celebratory lap yelling “let’s fucking go”—both teams hugged it out after all was said and done, suggesting that in both art and sports, competition can create community.