The Create Change Program is growing!

May 18th, 2009 by Laundromat Project | Posted in Announcement | No Comments »

The month of May was a very busy month for The Laundromat Project - new Create Change Participants, new Artist + Community Council, and new Program Associate + Exhibition Coordinator. Stay tuned for updates on this year’s Create Change projects.

The Laundromat Project’s Create Change Program invites artists to mount public art projects in laundromats throughout New York City as a way of increasing the quality of life in communities of color living on low incomes. Past projects have taken place in Crown Heights, Clinton Hill, Bedford-Stuyvesant, and Harlem.

We are proud to announce Carlos Martinez, Michael Premo, and Tracee Worley as our three new Create Change Participants!

Carlos Martinez

Carlos A. Martinez is Colombian-born environmentalist and photographer based in Jackson Heights, Queens. For the past five years, he has worked with Green Map System, a non-profit organization that promotes inclusive participation in sustainable community development worldwide, using mapmaking as its medium. As a photographer and educator, he has worked with the International Center of Photography’s Community Programs on their youth program at The Point in the South Bronx, National Geographic’s Photo Camp, and a photography program with youth transitioning out of incarceration in partnership with Friends of Island Academy.

Carlos will invite his local community to share their stories and personal journeys in a confessional-meets-photo booth.

Michael Premo

Michael Premo is dedicated to documenting, portraying, expressing and celebrating voices from the so-called margins. Through various mediums he seeks to create a stage for the expression of stories from communities whose perspectives have been neglected and underrepresented.

Michael has collaborated on the creation and production of original work with The Civilians, EarSay, Inc., the Hip-Hop Theater Festival, The Globesity Festival: Hunger Strike Theater. He has traveled across the country recording and facilitating interviews for StoryCorps, a national project dedicated to recording, in sound, stories of everyday people, and StoryCorps Griot, an initiative to ensure that the voices, experiences, and life stories of African-Americans are preserved.

Michael will create a multi-media project using sound and photography to record the stories of communities fighting to maintain or obtain decent affordable housing.

Tracee Worley

Frustrated by the inability of her training in the social sciences to adequately capture the complexities of everyday life, Tracee began using art as a means to shape the future with more powerful interpretations of the world. Drawing inspiration from The Situationists and other urban interventionists, Tracee has an abiding interest in public art, aiming to create “situations” that inspire rather than prescribe. She holds a BA in African-American Studies and a MA in Education.

Tracee will move magnetic poetry from the refrigerator surface to those of washers and driers.

Introducing The LP Artist + Community Council

May 18th, 2009 by Laundromat Project | Posted in Announcement | No Comments »

2009 marks the inaugural year of our Artist and Community Council, a group of socially engaged art professionals who live and/or work in the communities where our programming is located. This year’s Council members lent their expertise in the selection of our 2009 Create Change participants and will offer ongoing support throughout the artists’ residencies.

The 2009 Artist + Community Council includes: Rashida Bumbray, Martha Diaz, Andre Lancaster, and Rudy Shepherd. Scroll down for more info.

Rashida Bumbray

Rashida Bumbray joined the staff of The Kitchen in 2006, where she is Associate Curator. She previously served as Curatorial Assistant and Exhibition Coordinator at The Studio Museum in Harlem (2001-2006). While working at The Studio Museum, she co-organized exhibitions such as African Queen, HRLM: Pictures, Seeds and Roots: Selections from the Permanent Collection, co-curated with Thelma Golden, and Energy/Experimentation: Black Artists and Abstraction 1964-1980 with Kellie Jones, among others. She co-founded the well-known tap dance jam series Hoofers House, which is now co-produced by The Kitchen and co-curated Studio Sound, the Studio Museum’s lobby music installation.

At The Kitchen, Ms. Bumbray recently curated solo exhibitions by Jamal Cyrus, Elodie Pong and Rodney McMillian, as well as performances by Kalup Linzy, Rashaad Newsome, Sanford Biggers and Keith & Mendi Obadike. She earned her BA in African American Studies and Theater & Dance from Oberlin College and is completing her MA in Africana Studies at New York University.

Martha Diaz

Martha Diaz is the president of The Hip-Hop Association (H2A), and producer of the H2O International Film Festival and Hip-Hop Education Summit. She is the co-creator of the Hip-Hop Education Guidebook Series, and is releasing her second book entitled, Fresh, Bold and So Def: Women In Hip-Hop Changing The Game in September 2009. Martha created the Ladies First Fund, the first grant for women in Hip-Hop dedicated to fostering the next generation of social entrepreneurs. She also launched H2ONewsreel, the first Hip-Hop media and education resource distribution label catering to the education market. She is Co-founder and Director of the Hip-Hop Education Center for Research, Training, and Evaluation, a partnership with the H2A and the Metropolitan Center for Urban Education Reform at NYU.

She is working on her Master’s Degree in Hip-Hop as a tool for Human Rights and Social Change at NYU’s Gallatin School for Individualized Study. Martha is the recipient of the Catherine B. Reynolds Scholarship, Black Lily Emerging Leader Award, and the Mary Chung Nia Award.

Andre Lancaster

Andre Lancaster is a playwright, stage director and Artistic & Managing Director of Freedom Train Productions, a black queer-inspired political theatre company. He has written four full-length plays: Hope Courage, The Trumpet Man, Descendants of Freedom: a futuristic queer hip hop odyssey, and I Am Not A Hero. His work has been developed and staged at HERE Arts Center (NYC), BRIC Studio (Brooklyn), Freedom Train Productions (Brooklyn), Esperanza Peace and Justice Center (San Antonio), Hyde Park Theatre (Austin), UT Theatre and Dance Reading Series (Austin), and New Works Festival (Austin). Descendants of Freedom was selected into HERE Art Center’s Queer@HERE Festival in 2004. In 2006, he directed the premiere production of Andrea E. Davis’s A Love Like Damien’s at WOW Cafe Theatre.

He studied Playwriting at the University of Texas at Austin.

Rudy Shepherd

Rudy Shepherd is a painter, sculptor and Create Change alum. Rudy’s Create Change project took the form of a larger-than-life drawing cart, which was rolled into a parking space outside one of Harlem’s busy laundromats. He invited passersby and those doing their laundry to sit-down and draw.

Rudy is based in Harlem, NY and received a BS in Biology and Studio Art from Wake Forest University and an MFA in Sculpture from the School of Art Institute of Chicago. He is currently represented by Mixed Greens Gallery, NY. Shepherd is an artist in residence at Location One and has a two-person exhibition from May 9 – June 20, 2009 at Paperwork Gallery, Baltimore, MD.

New LP Program Associate + Exhibition Coordinator

May 18th, 2009 by Laundromat Project | Posted in Announcement | No Comments »

Petrushka Bazin has just joined The Laundromat Project as a Program Associate + Exhibition Coordinator! Petrushka will be managing our Create Change artist residency program as well as strengthening our art education offerings. She is excited to be part of The Laundromat Project family and we feel graced by her good energy.

Petrushka is an independent curator, artist, and educator based in New York. She holds an MA in Curatorial Practice from California College of Arts and a BFA from New York Univeristy’s Tisch School of the Arts Photography & Imaging program. Her past curatorial projects have included working as the Assistant Curator to traveling photography exhibition Reclaiming Midwives: Stills from All My Babies; co-curator to Self-Storage and Miranda July and Harrell Fletcher’s Learning to Love You More project. Petrushka’s photographic work has been included in exhibitions in New York and abroad along with publications such as Black: A Celebration of a Culture and exposure magazine.

CALL FOR ARTISTS

January 1st, 2009 by Laundromat Project | Posted in News | No Comments »

We are currently accepting applications for our 2009 Create Change Public Artist Residency Program. Applications and materials are due by March 9th, 2009. NOTE THE NEW, EXTENDED DEADLINE!

To apply, you can download an Application. Applicants are also encouraged to review answers to Frequently Asked Questions and the program summary below. To see examples of past Create Change projects click on one of the pages to the right or you can visit www.laundromatproject.org/createchange

About Create Change

Create Change is a six month public art residency program (May 15, 2009 – October 31, 2009) developed to connect communities and artists of color in meaningful ways. As a 2009 Create Change artist you will be able to place art-making in the context of everyday living by:

::producing a site-specific, socially relevant installation at your local laundromat

::engaging your fellow laundry patrons as participants in your creative process; and

::increasing your own visibility as an artist and a neighbor in the area you call home.

Create Change public art projects can range in form (from physical installations to performative acts to other kinds of interventions), but must make use of the unique social space of New York City laundromats. Successful projects will 1) help participants to stay connected long after the projects are physically complete; and 2) facilitate a process in which neighbors from different class strata build relationships as shared stakeholders in the future of their neighborhood and/or of a larger cultural history.

To support your process, we will provide you with a stipend and materials budget, but equally as important we offer a supportive network along with opportunities for professional development and sharing your work with a larger public.

About The Laundromat Project

The Laundromat Project is a community based arts organization committed to the well-being of communities of color living on low incomes. We understand that creativity is a central component of healthy human beings, vibrant neighborhoods and thriving economies. Every year we invite artists to mount public art projects in laundromats throughout Brooklyn and Harlem. By bringing art to where our neighbors already are (everyone has to do their laundry), we aim to raise the quality of life in our community.

The LP is honored to receive Union Square Arts Award!

December 5th, 2008 by Laundromat Project | Posted in News | No Comments »

17 NEW YORK CITY GRASSROOTS ORGANIZATIONS RECEIVE $700,000 IN AWARDS
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Community leaders to be honored at upcoming Union Square Awards ceremony
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December 2008

Union Square Awards Seventeen New York City organizations will be honored at the annual Union Square Awards celebration on Saturday, December 6th. Seven will receive the prestigious Union Square Award and a $50,000 grant for exceptional efforts addressing the critical social and economic issues facing New Yorkers. Ten will receive the Union Square Arts Award and a $35,000 grant in recognition of innovative work in the arts with youth and families in low-income communities. “With minimal resources, these organizations are making extraordinary contributions to local neighborhoods. Given the current economic situation, their work is vital to New York City,” says Executive Director Iris Morales.

Named after the park on 14th Street where New Yorkers have organized and spoken out about major social issues since the nineteenth century, the Union Square Awards program was created to recognize and encourage initiative in serving New York City communities. The awards realize an anonymous donor’s dream of honoring New Yorkers who have taken action to improve people’s lives and advocate for social change. Since its inception, the Union Square Awards has granted more than $13 million to organizations that have not received either substantial funding or public accolade.

This year’s awardees work with diverse populations across the City including young people, new immigrant communities, the formerly incarcerated, and the disabled. They join 186 organizations that have previously received the Award since its founding in 1998. Awardees will be recognized at a special ceremony at the historic Riverside Church in Manhattan.

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Recipients of the Arts Award

Cool Culture offers programs that provide low-income families access to New York’s arts, cultural and scientific institutions.

Freedom Train Productions promotes new political theatre that features Black Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual or Transgender (LGBT) characters written by up-and-coming Black LGBT playwrights.

Girls Write Now is a creative writing organization that offers girls from New York City public schools a safe environment that fosters their creativity and independent voices.

The Laundromat Project uses the space of local coin-ops to provide communities of color living on modest incomes access to visual arts as a tool for personal and social transformation.

Mano a Mano: Mexican Culture without Borders celebrates Mexican culture in the United States and promotes understanding of Mexican traditions among immigrants, artists, educators and the public.

The Multicultural Music Group offers performance, instruction and professional development in multicultural music to promote global understanding, cultural awareness, and academic achievement.

Renaissance E.M.S. provides young people in the Bronx with music instruction, vocal training and other programs that maximize their potential and encourage community participation.

T.W.W./Talks with Wolves provides children and youth with programs in writing, visual and performance arts that integrate African and Native American cultures.

Urban Word works to ensure that New York City youth have a safe, supportive, dynamic and challenging community in which to discover and use their voices through written and spoken word.

Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls (Rock Camp) is dedicated to using music to promote self-expression and self-esteem while building bridges of communication to combat racism and stereotypes.

The Union Square Awards is a project of the Tides Center whose mission is to actively promote change toward a healthy society – one founded on principles of social justice, equal economic opportunity, a robust democratic process, and environmental sustainability.

For more information about the Union Square Awards, please visit www.unionsquareawards.org.

Selected Press

December 1st, 2008 by Laundromat Project | Posted in News | No Comments »

NYU Alumni Magazine
Spring 2006
by Nicole Pezold

A laundromat might seem a peculiar place to exhibit art. But Risë Wilson (GSAS ’04) realized this very ordinary location could open a world to an entirely new audience, one that might never think to enter a gallery. As a black woman, she herself had often felt like an interloper in the museums that inspired her. “The pictures in the gilded frames had nothing to do with my experience or my neighbors’ experiences,” she explains. To break down the real and perceived barriers that have locked generations of African-Americans out of the mainstream art world, Wilson proposed combining an art center in a low-income neighborhood with a laundromat that could help support it… FULL ARTICLE

Sparknotes
July 2005
by Justin Kestler

Art and laundry tend to be at opposite ends of the spectrum of human activity: laundry’s a chore we have to do; art tends to be a pleasure people seek out in their free time. The Laundromat Project was created to change both experiences by making a visit to an art exhibition a built-in part of the recurring chore of doing the wash. The profits from the coin-operated machines will help support the creation and showing of the artwork. But above all, the hope is to make art more accessible and relevant to communities who may never visit a gallery otherwise, creating programs and exhibitions that encourage people to engage more with the arts, education, and other civic activities… FULL ARTICLE

Columbia College Today
November 2004
by Shira Boss-Bicak

… For the money making side of the venture, Wilson considered pairing the arts center with a beauty or barber shop or a bodega, among other options. Her objective was to capture the broadest audience possible and to engage customers in visual arts in an informal atmosphere. Eventually she hit on the idea of a Laundromat.

“You have to do laundry whether you want to or not,” notes Wilson, “no matter what the economy is doing.” FULL ARTICLE

24/7 (a publication of Courier Life)
November 2004
by Christy Goodman

… Their angel investor, Echoing Green, was the first place Wilson and Robinson applied for a grant. Lucky for them, they were also the only arts based grant given this year by Echoing Green.

“This is a terrific example of how non-profits are incorporating social enterprise approaches with sustaining an association,” said Echoing Green President, Dr. Cheryl Dorsey. “We were all intrigued by the idea. It is such a smart idea that incorporates social justice principles and theories with a good arts education program that really embraces the changing neighborhood.”

“This is a wonderful grant because it gives us time to plan. The next two years really are planning years to get this up and running,” says Wilson.A third of Echoing Green’s grants go to educational programming. Another third goes towards health-related programming. The rest is historically for the arts, but in the past few years, they have not funded any arts programming—until now… FULL ARTICLE

Daily Challenge
July 16-18, 2004

Rooted in the belief that cultural participation can serve as a path to civic engagement, the Laundromat Project seeks to capitalize on the open, democratic space that a community laundromat offers to engage people who may not actively seek out an arts experience or civic involvement… FULL ARTICLE

CAA News (College Art Association)
September 2002
by Stephanie Davies

… Wilson perceives visual art as an underused tool in African American cultural autobiography and seeks to strengthen the interaction of black audiences with visual art. Her graduate work explores ways in which the art process and “product” has been and can be brought to new spaces and contexts specific to African American populations. Such work serves as preparation to create a laundromat-kunsthalle in a historically black neighborhood... FULL ARTICLE