Workspace offers...

Work by Workspace resident Mike Estabrook

• Studio space

  9-months of free studio space within a larger, shared space with 24/7 access. Living space is not provided.

• Stipend

  There is a modest one-time stipend depending on funding. There is no monthly living stipend.

• Professional Development

  Workspace residents meet as a group once a week, on Tuesday nights, for Salon Evenings. Salon Evenings take different forms: group events like potluck dinners; individual studio visits with arts and literary professionals; workshops on practical issues like taxes, copyright, and grant-writing; as well as artist talks and readings. For a complete list of past guests, please click here.

• Support

  Workspace residents get access to services, including Materials for the Arts and Fractured Atlas.

• Visiting Artist Status (for Visual Artists Only)

  Workspace visual artists are offered visiting artist status at partner institutions. For details on these opportunities, click here.

• Public Programs

  There are opportunities to present work to the general public including presence on LMCC’s website, Works-in-Progress: Open Studios (coinciding with NYC art fairs) and an end-of-session Open Studio Weekend.

Location

The 2009-2010 Workspace Residency location will be announced at a later date.

The 2008-2009 Workspace Residency is located on the 29th Floor of the Equitable Buidling at 120 Broadway in space generously donated by Silverstein Properties, Inc. and the 10th Floor of 77 Water Street. Like its first location in the World Trade Center, this program continues our mission to place artists in studios just blocks from Wall Street, changing what it means to “work” in the Financial District.

About Workspace

Workspace is a studio residency program focused on the creative process for emerging visual artists and writers. Workspace seeks to give emerging visual artists and writers working in a range of media and genres the space, time, and resources to develop new work.

It has always been our goal to address the critical need for affordable studio space in Manhattan by inserting artists and writers into unique, underused, and unexpected spaces in Lower Manhattan in a way that enhances the downtown cultural landscape and invigorates the community.

Program History

Workspace has been serving visual artists and writers for over 10 years. The program began in 1997 in the World Trade Center in space donated by the Port Authority of NY and NJ. Since then, generous New York City building owners, including Silverstein Properties, Inc. and Trinity Real Estate among others, have donated temporarily vacant office floors to LMCC for use as studios. Workspace has provided over 300 artists and writers with rare access to some of the city’s most noted landmarks & including the World Trade Center, the Woolworth Building, and the Equitable Building. Workspace is now one of New York City’s largest and most competitive residency programs for emerging visual artists and writers.

How do I apply?

Workspace is open to emerging visual artists and writers (including international artists and writers and collaborative pairs of no more than two people) working in a range of media such as drawing, painting, photography, sculpture, film/video, installation/mixed media, sound, performance, and new media/computer arts and genres such as fiction, non-fiction, playwriting/screenwriting, and poetry.

Applicants must choose to apply as a visual artist or writer; applicants cannot apply in both categories.

Artists and writers are selected for one 9-month session by two discipline-specific panels of literary or arts professionals, respectively. The panelists change every year. For a list of past jurors, please click here.

Applications consist of two parts, an Online Form and mail-in materials including Work Sample and Printed Documents. In general, we ask for contact information; a Narrative Biography; an Artist or Writer’s Statement; a Proposal; names of two references (not letters of recommendation); a one-page resume; and work samples in the form of jpegs, video on DVD, audio on CD, or pages of writing.

Deadlines

The 2009-2010 deadline for the Workspace is Thursday, April 9, 2009, 5PM. (This is NOT a postmark deadline; it is an in-office deadline.)

There is one deadline per year for Workspace.

To stay informed about all Workspace, Swing Space and Paris Open Calls and deadlines, join our mailing list.

Program offerings and deadlines are subject to change.