For Art’s Sake
October 28, 2006
A Project by Nicolás Dumit Estévez
Estévez traveled on his knees from the offices of Lower Manhattan Cultural Council on Maiden Lane to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian at Bowling Green, carrying in his hands a piece of casabe, a type of bread prepared from the cassava root, thus transporting a legacy of the Caribbean Taíno culture to be presented as a gift to the host institution.
The museum is located at the southern end of the Wiechquaekeck Trail, an old Algonquian trade route, in the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House. The Custom House, designed by Cass Gilbert (1959-1934) and opened in 1907, once collected revenues for the Port of New York, then the country’s most prosperous trade center. The journey comes to an end when a Museum staff member signs the passport he carries.
The day’s activities included the museum’s annual Day of the Dead/Día de los Muertos celebration. The family-friendly activities at the museum were free and included performances, storytelling and hands-on workshops from 1 to 5 pm.
Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and Franklin Furnace were proud to partner on interdisciplinary artist Nicolás Dumit Estévez’s two-year performance series For Art’s Sake. Several arduous and pious pilgrimages enacted by Estévez were conceived as a part of the LMCC’s Workspace Residency Program and the Franklin Furnace Fund for Performance Art.
About Nicolás Dumit Estévez
Nicolás Dumit Estévez is an interdisciplinary artist who has exhibited and performed extensively in the US as well as internationally at venues such as Madrid Abierto/ ARCO, The IX Havanna Biennial, and others. Awards include the PS1/MoMA National Studio Program, the Lambent Fellowship Program of Tides Foundation, the Michael Richards Fund of LMCC and the Franklin Furnace Fund for Performance Art. His work has been reviewed in The New York Times, NYArts Magazine, and in major publications in Mexico, Spain, Cuba and the Dominican Republic. Born in Santiago de los Treinta Caballeros, Dominican Republic. Estévez lives and works in the South Bronx.
Funding for this project was provided by
The Franklin Furnace Fund for Performance Art, The Center for Book Arts, Lambent Fellowship Program of Tides Foundation, The National Association of Latino Arts and Culture, The Michael Richards Fund, a program of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council
