Announcing Creative Time HQ, A New Gathering Space Rooted in the Cultural Rebelliousness of Downtown NYC
October 25th, 2023
Creative Time’s flagship community space for politically engaged artists in the Lower East Side will debut with public programs designed by Art.coop
(NEW YORK, NY — September 26, 2023) — Creative Time is excited to announce Creative Time HQ (CTHQ), the organization’s new gathering space rooted in the legacy of art and activism in the Lower East Side, officially opens this month. The first long term public space to be operated by the nearly 50-year-old arts nonprofit––known for ambitious, politically charged public art activations, its longstanding Creative Time Summit, and other socially engaged artist initiatives––CTHQ is designed to be a space for artists working at the intersection of art and politics to engage with the community, as well as a hub for artist activists in New York City and around the world. A robust series of artist-led public programming kicks off with Art.coop’s “Art Worlds We Want” series.
“CTHQ is a physical embodiment of our commitment to artists working at the intersection of art and politics, and provides convening space for extended engagement and the collective imagination. Rooted in our commitment to site specificity, CTHQ references the legacy of art and activism in the neighborhood. This hub embodies our belief that the arts can be a catalyst for societal transformation. It is an opportunity to think on an intimate scale in parallel with our large-scale public art commissions,” said Justine Ludwig, Executive Director of Creative Time.
Located above Creative Time’s offices on East 4th Street, with interior design by environmental designers FOOD New York, CTHQ is rooted in the cultural rebelliousness of artist-organizers in the LES. From the 1970s through today, East 4th Street has been home to a rare example of cultural organizations thwarting the patterns of gentrification to stay in place through decades of cultural organizing. In 2005, the City sold six buildings and four vacant lots on the block of East 4th Street between Bowery and 2nd Avenue for $1 each to local cultural organizations. The following year, this block was designated an official Cultural District. The advocacy work of these organizations enabled Creative Time to receive affordable access to its own space, including the newly opened CTHQ. CTHQ, made possible through a founding gift from the Mellon Foundation, both pays homage to this past through its recreation of the iconic artist lofts of the 1970s, and invests in the future of the neighborhood by providing additional space for artists to collectively organize.
“We hope that CTHQ is a small refuge for artists to plot, scheme, collaborate, and recharge from political action together. We hope that CTHQ becomes a community space for artists, locally and internationally, to deepen, expand, and shape new forms of public practice that model otherwise ways to work and live together. For us, CTHQ is a way to consistently hold and build our communities of artists and activists, outside of our large-scale commissions and convenings, as we continue to collectively imagine new and liberatory worlds to thrive in,” Diya Vij, Curator, Creative Time
Starting September 30th, CTHQ will engage Art.coop over the course of 10 weeks for collective inquiry, discussion, network and solidarity building through the “Resist & Build: Art Worlds We Want” series. The program begins with a special screening of the powerful film, “Rabble Rousers: Frances Goldin and the Fight for Cooper Square,” followed by a conversation between Tito Delgado and Valerio Orselli, two organizers featured in the film who have been deeply involved in the fight to transform Cooper Square into the community-controlled land that it is today in downtown. Emilie Miyauchi from the Cooperative Economics Alliance of New York City (CEANYC) will also give attendees an educational lay of the landscape of the solidarity economy movement in New York City.
Visit https://hq.creativetime.org/ for further programming details.
“With CTHQ, we have the ability to support a wide spectrum of artists, defined as those whose creative practices explore critical issues in their communities. Programs at CTHQ will span the intimate and the public, from large to small scale. This allows us to consider the multiple ways that space can be an integral resource, in real-time, to sustaining work at the intersection of art and politics,” added Creative Time’s newly appointed Assistant Curator, Anna Harsanyi, who will be directing Community Engagement of CTHQ.
