Here's a terrific opportunity for visual and performing artists in all disciplines, at Robert Wilson's stunning Watermill facility outside of Southampton, NY.
For more information, please visit: www.watermillcenter.org/programs
In Friday's New York Post, Justin Silverman paid a visit to LMCC's most recently acquired Swing Space at 14 Wall Street. At nearly 15,000 square feet, it is one of largest Swing Spaces ever donated to LMCC. Capstone Equities purchased the landmark building in 2007, and has generously agreed to donate space in the basement vaults to LMCC's Swing Space program.
Since January, the empty vaults have been serving as rehearsal space for live theater productions, musical groups, writers and multimedia performers - all of whom find themselves plying their art in a neighborhood far more famous for commerce than culture. "I didn't even notice the artists working in the building until one day I saw a guy in a leotard walking through the lobby," says Daniel Ghadamian, a partner at Capstone Equities, which purchased the landmark building last year.
Eva Yaa Asantewaa, a New York-based dance writer and blogger, visitedThe Prosodic Body by Daria Fain and Robert Kocik, presented in a bank vault at 14 Wall Street, an LMCC Swing Space.
Fain imposes no directions about what to do in this chamber. Each visitor is on his or her own, and everyone's experience will be unique. Once my brain settled down, I merely enjoyed relaxing into the dark, sensing the faint odor of its wall's wool padding, and connecting to the reality of the building.
Thursday, February 28, 6-8PM
LMCC Project Space | 125 Maiden Lane, 2nd Floor
Join us as Shoplifter (a.k.a Hrafnhildur Arnardottir) presents a preview of the tableaux vivant she is creating for an upcoming performance with Nico Muhly at The Kitchen. The tableaux will draw on three bodily elements: bone, skin, and hair.
About the performance
With compositions that have been performed at some of the world’s most prestigious venues, a critically lauded first album, and collaborations with artists ranging from Philip Glass to Björk and Antony, Nico Muhly is, at 26, being acknowledged as one of the most exciting composers and pianists of his generation. The Kitchen has commissioned a new work from the artist, in which he collaborates with the Icelandic artist and fashion designer Shoplifter (a.k.a. Hrafnhildur Arnardottir). Muhly will premiere the work on Friday, March 7 and Saturday, March 8, performing with the accompaniment of Sam Amidon (banjo and voice), Nadia Sirota (viola) and Sam Solomon (percussion). Performances will take place at 8:00 P.M. at The Kitchen (512 West 19th Street). Tickets are $10.
The work Muhly will perform at the Kitchen comprises three new chamber music pieces, each with a different tableaux vivant designed for it by Shoplifter. Each of Muhly’s pieces represents one of three bodily elements: bone, skin and hair. The last of these has been the focus of Shoplifter’s recent sculptures and wall murals (as well as her first collaboration with Björk: the human hair sculpture on the cover of her 2004 album, Medúlla). Each of Muhly’s pieces will also prominently feature one of the three costumed musicians performing with him. The culmination of the evening will be a performance of Muhly’s The Only Tune, a retelling of the old folk tale The Two Sisters, a chilling murder ballad in which a young girl’s body is butchered and turned into a fiddle. http://www.thekitchen.org/
About Shoplifter
Shoplifter (a.k.a. Hrafnhildur Arnardottir) was born in Reykjavik, Iceland and currently lives and works in New York. Underlying Shoplifter’s work is an obsession with vanity, self-image, beauty, fashion and fetish. She explores these themes through a variety of mediums including installation, sculpture, photography, drawings, paintings and performance. Recent projects include an ongoing collaboration with the singer Björk; an eighty-foot wall-mural and a wall-sculpture commissioned by Nike for a 2006 exhibition in New York; Siamese Rapunzels: The longest live human hair braid in the world created for Deitch Art Parade in 2007; and solo shows in Reykjavik, Iceland. Arnardottir’s upcoming shows include a solo exhibition at i8 Gallery, Reykjavik, Iceland; a collaboration with Eli Sudbrack of a.v.a.f. at Deitch Projects; and various other shows in Canada, the U.S. and Iceland. In 2006, The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council included Arnardottir in their 9-month studio program and in 2008’s Swingspace program to support her project with Muhly at The Kitchen. Arnardottir is also a recipient of the Visual Artists' Stipend Fund, financed by the Icelandic government.
Image: Sarah Oppenheimer, Installation View
Congratulations to past Swing Space artist, Koosil-ja and current Workspace resident, Sarah Oppenheimer on their 2007 Guggenheim Fellowships!
Koosil-ja, Artistic Director and Choreographer, Dansology, Inc. koosil-ja/danceKUMIKO, New York City: Choreography.
Sarah Oppenheimer, Artist, New York City; Assistant Professor, Yale University School of Art: Installation art.
For the full list, go to http://www.gf.org/newfellow.html.
The deadline for applications to Swing Space is Moday, February 26 at 5PM. Swing Space is the art space program of Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. Our program makes temporary space grants to artists and curators for a variety of projects. We're accepting applications for studio workspace, rehearsal space, exhibition space, performance space, and office space. Residencies last between one and five months, and are accompanied by stipends up to $3000. Go to our website now to apply.
Meghan Trainor and Jamie Allen Swing Space installation, Northern Electronic Research Division, in an office space at 125 Maiden Lane was featured in a Ericsson special that was broadcast across to any Scandinavians fortunate enough to have the right service.
Check it out here!
Austin Thomas, past LMCC Workspace Resident, when faced with losing her studio, took a cue from our Swing Space program and started her one-artist version called Free Space. She has a traveling studio of supplies that she sets up anywhere that she can pull up a free chair. I've spotted her on one of my coffee breaks working in the POPS at 60 Wall, and I've even lined up a coworker's desk for her. Check out Austin's blog to see just how she does it. It's a project Austin has included me in for a while, and now she's out in Santa Barbara, bringing Free Space and her social sculpture to Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum for a three-month run, and she's doing it all with her toddler Grant in tow. Next week, Hendrik Gerrits from Swing Space is going to be guest lecturer on free space and the studio practice in Santa Barbara. Free Space for all!!!
Swing Space artist, Betty Beaumont, just finished her residency at 15 Nassau where she hosted a very interesting series of panels. The first two panels have an impressive line-up of panelest and focus on the displacement of artists in New York, what can be down, and what implications that might have on the city's future.
In Beaumont's third and final panel, she invited Worldchanging and the Buckminster Fuller Institue for the book release of Worldchanging: A User's Guide to the 21 Century. Editor, Alex Steffen, and Dr. Michael Ben-Eli , former student and collaborator of R. Buckminster Fuller, celebrated the book's release with a very compelling talk about how our everyday lives need to change and are already changing with the onset of Global Warming.
All three talks are now available as a podcast.
Check out Colin McMullan's MOBILIZE, a moving movie theater built onto a big tricycle. Come for a walk around the neighborhood while watching funnies and munching on popcorn and lollipops, all free! MOBILIZE will be screening Charlie Chaplin films and various other shorts nightly from July 24th through August 3rd, departing from the NE corner of 6th Avenue and Walker Street at approximately 9 p.m. In case of inclement weather, check http://emceecm.blogspot.com for cancellation information. This is a fair weather action - if there is rain, the show's off.
FOOTPRINT FACTORY is a portable printing station for spontaneous collaboration. Emcee C.M. handles the ink and the blocks, and you are the press. Look for the factory on curbs and sidewalks throughout lower Manhattan, evenings, wednesdays and weekends through the end of August. If you would like to make a foot print, please email emcee_cm@yahoo.com to arrange a meeting.
TO DO list for artists:
1. Find space
2. Create, rehearse, present
What if we took care of #1 for you?
Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Swing Space program provides artists and arts organizations with rent-free space to create, rehearse, and present work.
It’s that simple.
In partnership with area landlords, LMCC makes vacant space downtown available to artists, curators, and cultural organizations on a temporary basis for projects. And not only that, but Swing Space artists and art groups are also eligible to apply for stipends ranging from $300 to $3,000 to support project costs.
Proposals are accepted twice a year through an open call and reviewed by a panel of artists, arts professionals, and LMCC staff.
Next Deadline: July 17, 2006, 5pm
Information Sessions require an RSVP...
Wed, June 21 | 6PM
125 Maiden Lane, 10th Floor
Focus: Studio workspace
Rehearsal space
Office space
Mon, June 26 | 6PM
15 Nassau (at Pine)
Focus: Installations
Curated exhibitions
Public programs
Performances
Peruse our site, complete information on Swing Space including guidelines and applications are available now..
Contact Jeanne at jgerrity@lmcc.net or (212) 219-9401 x108 with questions.
Know any artists? Help us by passing this great opportunity on!
