Howe’s Brooklyn: d.u.m.b.o. arts center

Photogenic brides, wicked hot chocolate and delectable ice cream are just some of the usual fair under the Brooklyn bridge these days, but this weekend DUMBO’s 10th annual art under the bridge festival is taking over the neighborhood.

Created in 1997 by d.u.m.b.o. arts center (dac) founder JOY GLIDDEN, the three-day festival now draws as many as 200,000 visitors, according to the center’s executive director Breda Kennedy.

From Friday through Sunday, some 30 square blocks from Fulton Ferry Landing to Little Street in Vinegar Hill will serve as a sprawling artists’ playground: Dance, gallery shows, video art, performance art, and other hard-to-categorize happenings all converge for a non-stop showcase of contemporary creativity in DUMBO.

One of the festival’s mainstays is the open studio, a chance for visitors to go behind the frequently closed doors of some 200 DUMBO-based artists. (Check out www.dumboartscenter.org/ festival/2006 for a complete list.) Some of the participants who caught our attention include SUE CARLSON, a longtime member of First Presbyterian Church in Brooklyn Heights, whose richly colored, abstract paintings have been exhibited widely throughout Manhattan and Brooklyn. She’s in studio 716 at 68 Jay St.

Husband and wife duo BRECK HOSTETTER and MATT HEINDL of Sesame Letterpress will be at 55 Washington St. in studio 55. They use vintage machines (whose “clankety-clankety” sound effects are a big hit with kids, said Heindl) to create gorgeous printed goods from invitations to coasters. They are teaming up with other Brooklyn letterpress printers for a sample sale Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 45 Main St. in studios 812 and 520. More on these two and their newest apprentice (baby Greta) at a later date.