Directed by designer Joe Burck acted as guides and ghouls through the immersive experience that was a real thriller for those who attended.

-Mattia Panza

The Island Current

November 2017

To attract visitors to the museum's exhibit, Dolensek turned to Joseph Burck Jr. a local artist adept in a variety of mediums, including acrylic and clay.  He builds large displays from Legos.

Burck was asked to create something for a vacant store front's window on City Island Ave near Hawkins Street used to advertise the museum to visitors, and he created a Lego sculpture for the museum's promotion.

The black replica of the 1901-era bridge includes both the footings of the old bridge, the superstructure and roadway.  It is black to symbolize mourning.

"I was sitting in my Lego room, playing with the pieces and thinking about the scaffolding on the bridge; I realized that I can make this out of Legos," said Burck, has a holiday display in the same vacant storefront.

-Patrick Rocchio

Bronx Times Reporter

August 2017

Joe is very creative, community minded and generous with his talents.    He has been recognized in our community by the chamber of Commerce at a very young age for his business skills and ability to get back to the community.    Joe has spent many years sololy orchestrating an amazing Haunted House that the whole community enjoys, he works with other volunteers to create a haunted house of professional quality.    He's serve on the board of directors at the City Island Community Center, which he has been a great asset.

-Brenda Prohaska

President

City Island Community Center

THE CURRENT

5/2017

Pelham Cemetery

CleanUp

Joe Burck is an artist who combines his expert knowledge of lighting and his fantastic design talent to create memorable theatical settings that captivates audience members and takes them on a visual journey.    He creates experiences and engulfs you in the atmosphere.

-Nick Sala, President

City Island Theatre Group

 Joe Burck The crew worked as had as the cast, especially the director, Joseph Burck, who expanded his usual roles as set designer and lighting engineer to do a masterful job of directing the play.

-Bruce A. Weis

The Island Current

June 2016

City Island's Haunted House

It was a scary night indeed.    Everyone was given fair warning.    "If you touch the actors, they will be allowed to touch you."    That was an ominous start to a shout walk through the Haunted House at the City Island Community Center on Halloween weekend.    How long could it be?    The room isn't that big.    Add one very creative Joe Burck to the mix, and the walk seemed endless to some of the visitors brave enough to enter the Dispensary of Death, especially as they heard these plaintiff pleas for help: "Please, I'm so cold.    Help me.". "I've lost my brain." "where has my patient gone?" "Mary had a little lamb...." "All I need is a little of your blood." The walk began in the waiting room of the Dispensary of Death, and visitors wended their way through the chapel, the wheelchair room and the bloody gauze room, past the patients' rooms and through the children's ward, which were populated with scary-looking patients and hospital staff.    Although everything was done in great fun, you couldn't tell that from the faces of the people as they left the Haunted House.    They were laughing, crying, excited, scared.  "This is the best ever!" was the most frequent comment. Although the actors, many of them from the City Island Theater Group, a co-sponsor of the event, were fabulous, much of the credit goes to Joe Burck for having planned and created the setting.   City Island is very lucky to able to claim this talented young man as one of their own.    He also created the window at 282 City Island Avenue advertising the Theater Group's production of "The Crucible," for which he also serves as the lighting and set designer.    Many Islanders are familiar with his wonderfully inventive Lego window that appears in a storefront on City Island Avenue at Christmas time.    Halloween is a great tradition on City Island, and we tip our hat to Joe for helping in such a big way to keep that tradition alive.    Thanks also go out to the City Island Community Center, the City Island Theater Group, the students from P.S. 175 and all the others who helped make the walk through St. Joseph's Dispensary of Death a memorable one.

-Mary Mcintyre

The Island Current

To The Editor:      

THE CURRENT 11/8/2005

HAUNTED HOUSE

BRONX TIMES REPORTER 11/9/2006

HAUNTED HOUSE

THE CURRENT

3/1/2000

THE YOUTH SPIRIT OF

COMMUNITY AWARD

Hats off to you and to all the terrific volunteers you assembled to work on this years Haunted House! To be a 100% honest with you, when you first attempted to explain the concept to me a while back, I was somewhat skeptical. Not being an artist myself and having my life motto as " keep it simple, stupid" I thought the project was a little ambitious. Having said that, I also knew that if there was anyone who could pull it off, it was you. And that you did. I must say that this was the best Halloween Haunted House I have ever seen and thoroughly enjoyed by everyone who worked on it and visited it. The effort put into this project was extraordinary. It was so rewarding to me to    see so many people, representing various age groups and two island organizations, working in such a collaborative way on something so positive. It is initiatives like this that make City Island such a wonderful place to live and a place that people want to visit. City Island has truly become the epic center for Halloween in the Bronx, in no small way, thanks to you and the City Island Theater Group. Thanks for letting me be part of it.

-Michael Shanley

BRONX TIMES REPORTER 11/4/2004

BEST COSTUME

For a few years t hat Ihave known Joe as both a dedicated co-volunteer at the City Island Community Center as well as a friend, he has shown himself to be wholeheartedly sincere.    Whether it be creating one of most elaborate (and scary!) haunted houses around virtually single handedly, or arranging tag sales and painting parties to raise money for our space, Joe shows tireless effort once he begins a project. His winter holiday party decorating concepts cant be beat, plus hes a top notch banker!

-Amy Gottlieb

The Island Current

June 2019

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