Check out the profile NYFA Current wrote about our organization in their December 2009 issue:
Karen Demavivas and Suzan Sherman on The Laundromat Project

What can we say...it's been an amazing season. We had a great opening for the 2009 Create Change Public Artist Residency exhibition in October and 'fabu' turn out for our first benefit auction at Envoy Gallery on the Lower East Side. Create Change Public Artist Resident Michael Premo's project, Housing is a Human Right, has been getting great press! Click here here, and here to read the buzz. See a trailer of the project here.

Beautiful people, positive energy, and amazing ideas - we are so excited for our next year of programming.

Stay tuned!

Donating artists
Ifetayo Abdus-Salaam • David Abir • Dawolu Jabari Anderson • Petruskha Bazin • Aisha Bell • Nathan Bennett • Sanford Biggers • Louis Cameron • Saul Chernick • William Cordova • Pradeep Dalal • Stephanie Diamond • Stephanie Dinkins • Nathaniel Donnett • Sam Durant • Torkwase Dyson • Chitra Ganesh • Rico Gatson • Deborah Grant • Kira Lynn Harris • Wayne Hodge • Sheree Hovsepian • Jennie C. Jones • Nsenga Knight • Joseph Laurro • Simone Leigh • Shaun El C. Leonardo • Glenn Ligon • Carlos Martinez • Paul D. Miller (aka DJ Spooky) • Chris Myers • Glexis Novoa • Wura-Natasha Ogunji • Karyn Olivier • Jessica Ann Peavy • Micheal Premo • Rob Pruitt • Ronny Quevedo • Tanea Richardson • Marc Andre Robinson • Athena Robles • Paul Mpagi Sepuya • Xaviera Simmons • Shinique Smith • Anna Stein • Hank Willis Thomas • Zefrey Throwell and Eric Anderson • Robert Trujillo • Mary Valverde • William Villalongo • Deborah Willis • Saya Woolfalk • and others

Host Committee
Derrick Adams • Anthony Allen • Yona Backer • Naomi Beckwith • Collette Blanchard • Sylvia Chivaratanond • Dean Daderko • David Harper • Michelle Huff • Kemi Ilesanmi • Desiree Mwalimu • Kavita Rajanna • Alvin Starks • Sharon Pendana • Rudy Shepherd • Alvin Starks • Emma Taati • Mickalene Thomas • Jacquette Timmons • Rise Wilson • list in formation

Tickets
To purchase tickets, write specialevent@laundromatproject.org. Space is limited. Levels of support include:

The Laundromat Project Champion, Gift of $1,000
• Ten tickets to the event
• Limited-edition print by Mickalene Thomas
• Premiere recognition on all Laundromat Project publications & website
• Half-page advertisement in the event catalogue
Tax-deductibility of $800

The Laundromat Project Ally, Gift of $250
• Five tickets to the event
• Limited-edition print by Rudy Shepherd
• Premiere recognition on all Laundromat Project publications & website
Tax-deductibility of $150

The Laundromat Project Sustainer, Gift of $100
• Two tickets to the event
• Name recognition in the event catalogue & website
Tax-deductibility of $70

The Laundromat Project Contributor, Gift of $25
• Individual ticket to the event
• Name recognition in the event catalogue & website
Tax-deductibility of $15

If you cannot attend but would like to make a contribution, please visit our Support page.

Please make all checks payable to NYFA (New York Foundation for the Arts) with “The Laundromat Project” written in the memo line of the check, and mail to: The Laundromat Project, 275 Macdonough Street, Brooklyn, NY 11233.

The Laundromat Project is a sponsored project of NYFA (New York Foundation for the Arts), a nonprofit 501(c)3 organization.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


SUPERFRONT
1432 Atlantic Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11216
Gallery Hours: Saturdays & Sundays, 1-6pm and by appointment





(Brooklyn, NY) – For the last six months participants in The Laundromat Project’s 2009 Create Change Public Artist Residency Program have leveraged the space of local laundromats to engage their neighbors in a process of public art making that ranges from multimedia installation to an anonymous hotline for airing out “dirty laundry.” From October 17 – December 12, 2009 in a group show designed by the team at SUPERFRONT, a gallery focused on architectural experimentation, the general public is invited to experience these otherwise separate public works located across Brooklyn and Queens in their shared context of building community in a too often alienating city. The installation opens with a reception on Saturday, October 17, 2009 from 6 p.m. – 9 p.m at SUPERFRONT.

Each year, The Laundromat Project sponsors three artists of color to develop neighborhood-specific artworks through its Create Change Public Artist Residency Program. Following selection by a juried process, participating artists are charged with creating socially-relevant works using the space of their local laundromat to meet and engage their neighbors. This year’s Create Change artists: Carlos Martinez, Michael Premo, and Tracee Worley, have approached their projects from different perspectives and media, yet thematically converge through the act of public testimony.

In his Photo Booth Without Borders, Carlos A. Martinez created a portable photo booth to travel to area laundromats in search of what his fellow Jackson Heights residents thought made (or could make) one of the most diverse neighborhoods in the country a more livable community for old and new New Yorkers alike.

Michael Premo’s Housing is a Human Right, developed in collaboration with Rachel Falcone, explores the concept of home and community through a collection of audio portraits of his neighbors' ongoing efforts to maintain or obtain affordable housing. Marked by image and sound, this assemblage of viscerally honest first person narratives serve as a reminder that home is as tenuous a space in New York City as the shelter that sustains it.

Tracee Worley has created an experiment in neighborhood communication through The Dirty Laundry Line a toll free number and accompanying website that allows callers to come clean. Begun in Bed-Stuy and now spread to neighborhoods in Chicago and Oakland, the 800-hotline lets laundry patrons across the country purge secret shames, scandals, and betrayals by leaving an anonymous voicemail. Doubling as a cathartic forum and a voyeur's delight, the hotline also offers the option of snooping through other people’s dirty laundry.

About The Laundromat Project

The Laundromat Project is a community based arts organization committed to promoting the well-being of low-income communities of color. Understanding that creativity is a central component of healthy human beings; vibrant neighborhoods; and thriving economies, The LP's programs bring art to where people already are: the laundromat. Its two core programs, Works in Progress and Create Change Public Artist Residency Program, focus on making art education broadly accessible for all ages and skill levels, as well as providing professional development opportunities for artists of color looking to build or deepen a community-engaged art making practice by creating new public works in their own neighborhoods.

About SUPERFRONT
Since January 2008, SUPERFRONT has invited students, emerging architects, designers, visual artists, and performance artists to engage in a public forum that raises awareness of contemporary architectural practice and theory. Dedicated to supporting, promoting, and producing radical contemporary architecture while fostering creative interdisciplinary exchange, SUPERFRONT recently opened a satellite gallery in the Pacific Design Center in Los Angeles in addition to its location in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn.