Save CHARAS: Time to act, Mayor de Blasio!

Gentrification’s Empty Victory
by Allegra Hobbs, The New York Times, June 1, 2018

The story of Chino and CHARAS; Activist hopeful for old P.S. 64’s return
by Lincoln Anderson, The Villager, April 29, 2018

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Visit Arts On Site's Open House, October 23

Studios at Arts on Site
East Village
(photos courtesy of Arts on Site)

Arts On Site is a brand new non-profit organization offering affordable rental space to all art forms, creating a home for the arts with an aim to build community.

You're invited to an Open House on Sunday, October 23, 2pm-10pm, hosted by Arts on Site in partnership with Fourth Arts Block (FAB) and Danspace Project at St. Marks Church to celebrate the launch of Arts on Site. Get to meet the Arts On Site team as well as the community of teachers and artists holding events and classes at this new East Village space for the arts.

2-7pm OPEN HOUSE and DEMONSTRATIONS

Find out about upcoming events, classes, and workshops. Visitors are invited to explore Arts on Site's newly renovated studios and participate in a wide variety of sample classes lead by its current roster of artists.

7-10pm SOCIAL HOUR and PERFORMANCES

In the spirit of collaboration, Arts on Site has teamed up with Fourth Arts Block (FAB) and Dancespace Project at St. Marks Church to present a short evening of performances. After the performances, enjoy a drink at a social hour with fellow artists, local business owners and community organizations from the area.

Arts On Site is a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting artists of all disciplines by offering affordable studio rental space and a diverse calendar of classes, events, and workshops. Studios are open from Monday through Sunday, 7am-10pm, located at 12 St. Marks Place, 3F. For more information please visit artsonsite.org or email to artsonsitenyc@gmail.com.


ARTS ON SITE
12 St. Marks Place (Studios 3F & 4F), Manhattan
artsonsitenyc@gmail.com

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Gibney Dance Center welcomes community to its new downtown branch

Gina Gibney
(photo: Christopher Duggan © Gina Gibney Dance, Inc.) 

This is our space. It’s a safe space. And here is our opportunity to share our stories and look forward to what may be.

With those words, Lane Harwell (Executive Director, Dance/NYC) welcomed members of New York’s dance community and its supporters to an open discussion about Gibney Dance’s successful campaign to rescue 280 Broadway--former home of Dance New Amsterdam–and preserve it for the field of dance.  The SRO crowd, gathered in the 130-seat theater space, erupted in applause as Gibney Dance Artistic Director and CEO Gina Gibney announced the organization’s 20-year lease for 280 Broadway and its receipt of a $3 million grant from the Agnes Varis Trust.

Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer and State Senator Daniel Squadron offered congratulatory remarks. GDC staff members were introduced, and panelists Adair Smith (Gibney Dance Executive Director), Gus Solomons, Jr. (Gibney advisor), and Kathleen Hughes (Assistant Commissioner for Program Services, Department of Cultural Affairs) spoke of their hopes and visions for the project.

Harwell opened the floor for questions and ideas from the audience. Four main questions or themes emerged from this segment of the evening:

● How can Gibney Dance Center 280 interact with its Tribeca neighborhood as a responsive, useful, creative participant in the downtown ecosystem? How can GDC 280's presence matter, not only in Tribeca, but in this diverse city as a whole?

● How can GDC 280 provide support and resources for the process of developing individual creative voices and original aesthetics in dance?

● How can GDC 280 provide consistent access to space for tech sessions, enhancing the quality of the presentation of work?

● How can GDC 280 provide physical space and opportunities for artists to interact more--especially in informal, social ways--fostering an atmosphere of creative cross-pollination and potential collaboration?

Gibney Dance welcomes you to share your thoughts, bring new ideas or offer your assistance at a series of small group discussions at GDC 890 Broadway, Fifth Floor, Studio 6:

Monday, February 3

4-5pm: Open Discussion/ Welcome Session Follow-up (Eva Yaa Asantewaa)

5-6pm: Rehearsal Space Needs (Adair Smith)

6-7pm: Class, Training and Education Needs (Hilary Easton)

Click to RSVP for February 3 at Eventbrite 

Tuesday, February 18

4-5pm: Performance Space Needs (Sara Juli)

5-6pm: Community Action and Advocacy (Amy Miller, Yasemin Ozumerzifon)

6-7pm: Open Discussion and Thoughts on Next Steps (Sydney Skybetter)

Click to RSVP for February 18 at Eventbrite

All are welcome to come to any and all sessions!

For further information on the expansion, click here.

Brooklyn's Industry City gentrification threatens artists

Industry City, the SoHo of Sunset Park
by Julie Satow, The New York Times, January 17, 2014

Gina Gibney acquires former Dance New Amsterdam space

Lease Is Fresh Step for New York's Dance World
Gibney Dance to Take Space Formerly Held by Dance New Amsterdam in Lower Manhattan
by Pia Catton, The Wall Street Journal, January 9, 2014

Watch this space!

BMW Guggenheim Lab to Open as Pop-Up in East Village
by Carol Vogel, The New York Times, August 1, 2011

BMW Guggenheim Lab Web site

No Space Too Dilapidated for a Show
by Alexis Soloski, The New York Times, August 3, 2011

Maybe not HERE

Soul Leaves Her Body, running now at HERE Arts Center, would benefit from relocation. No disrespect to HERE, but this piece--co-directed by Peter Flaherty and the dance artist Jennie MaryTai Liu, who also choreographed it--seems ready to bust its sheath. 

At 75 minutes, it's a biggish kind of multidisciplinary work which, unfortunately, often moves at a ponderous, earnest pace. But there are some very good big things about it, too--like set designer Peter Ksander's tall, adjoined glass panels that cleverly serve as video screens and create dramatic entranceways. Of the four live performers, including Liu, the work is best served by dancer Leslie Cuyjet's vivid, delicately-detailed performing and actress Wai Ching Ho's beautiful warmth. These two possess an assured subtlety and conviction that tug at one's attention.

The piece, inspired by a story from China's 13th Century Yuan Dynasty, overlaps and merges ancient and contemporary narratives in a way that is sometimes intriguing, sometimes drawn out and not quite fresh. The point of it all--which, according to press materials, is something about love and family and distance and digital communication--wanders about and gets lost at times. But its visual elements--especially the larger-than-life imagery of characters in period theatrical garb and makeup--are knockouts.

Soul Leaves Her Body feels not only stuffed into its space but, with the maneuvering of the glass panels or the deployment of the video, shoved into our laps and faces. I imagine it, instead, in a more generous setting where its virtues can perhaps be reconsidered and better appreciated.

Soul Leaves Her Body continues through November 23. Ticketing information and directions

HERE Arts Center

145 6th Avenue, Manhattan 

(entrance on Dominick Street, one block south of Spring)

Ford has a better idea

Ford Foundation Grants to Aid Art Spaces and Housing

by Stephanie Strom, The New York Times, April 4, 2010