The Hang at Summer Home Exported, by Joel Myers

Strong turnout and a wide range of media and subject matter marked Arts in Bushwick’s latest event. BETA Spaces, which was a free one-day arts festival of independently curated group events held on Sunday, came as the latest evidence that the organization’s presence in the neighborhood is becoming more pronounced.

As early as 11 a.m. on the day of the event you could see the participants come in ones or twos, holding a blue event map of the spaces open to the public, standing unsure outside buildings as they reread the addresses on the map, rechecked the number over the door, and finally went in. Each time you went into a new exhibit, it never felt anything like an art event; more like someone’s letting you into their home to chat for a while. In most cases, that’s exactly what was going on.

Artists stood guard over their work, giving modest or matter-of-fact blurbs on who did what pieces and where passersby could get more info. They answered questions; they monitored their cats. There were refreshments on offer at some of the spots: cupcakes, tea, even grilled cheese sandwiches. Overall the vibe felt about as far removed from the typical “gallery experience” as possible, making most observers feel like they were really in on the ground floor of the Bushwick scene as it happens.

Since each show was curated independently, with no overarching theme or even general direction from the organization itself, the content and presentation in each space left you to feel around for the reboot button and start up with fresh eyes each time.

Say you stepped into the exhibition space at Lumenhouse Art Gallery (47 Beaver St.), where a fascinating exhibition — a well-curated study in luminous detail entitled “A Grain of Rice” — explored the intimacy and vastness of the title object, and by extension much of our most private and intimate histories. A lush trio of drawings by Camilla Padgitt-Coles, for example, showed the huge terrain of a half-abstract blossom, almost holy, the debris of petals shattering around it like an ecstatic vision or a dying star. You could almost hear a Renaissance choir in the background.

Then say you made the trek a few blocks away to a loft space at 250 Moore, for a group show entitled “Entanglement is Good, Entanglement is Great.” Up on the wall was the whole range of juvenile energy broadcast irreverently for everyone: haphazard collages of Chris Farley (in Beverly Hills Ninja, of course), hard-boiled Kandinsky-ish experiments in urban color, and… well, cartoon images of a nature I probably shouldn’t describe here. And indy music blaring from a stereo in the back room.

Needless to say, diversity was the name of the game.

Apart from the art, though, one thing that really shone at the event — which shines through in all of Arts in Bushwick’s events — was the backing group’s high level of organization. Being run by an all-volunteer group, they still managed to put together a jaw-dropping number of mini-events-within-the-main-event, did a solid job promoting it all, and kept what’s now become a well-oiled machine running without a hitch throughout the day. Props to all you hard workers out there.

The event showcased the wide range of artists here in Bushwick — contributors brought performance art, video installations, dance, poetry, photography, and sculpture (including a mind-bending sculpture of Jason Peters’ which is still ricocheting around in my head right now) to an event that, after this last time around, is starting to feel something like an institution.