52 Emerging NYC Artists Chosen For Inaugural “Open Call”

Alex Poots, Artistic Director and CEO of The Shed, today announced that 52 emerging artists and collectives living or working in New York City have been commissioned to create new work as part of The Shed's inaugural Open Call program. Developed specifically for New York City artists who have not yet had opportunities to create new work with full support from a large cultural institution, Open Call is integral to The Shed's vision: to develop and present the full spectrum of performing arts, visual arts, and pop culture, under one roof, for all audiences. Open Call debuts in The Shed's 2019 season, with works continuing to be presented into 2020.

Working across multiple disciplines, the following artists and collectives have been selected to participate in the inaugural season of Open Call, which is co-organized by The Shed's Senior Curator Emma Enderby and Chief Civic Program Officer Tamara McCaw:

Saint Abdullah
Tariq al-Sabir
Justin Allen
Troy Anthony
Haley Elizabeth Anderson
Caitlin Blanchfield and Farzin Lotfi-Jam
Kim Brandt
Maia Chao
Daniel Chew and Micaela Durand
Onyedika Chuke
Gabriela María Corretjer-Contreras
nicHi douglas
The Extrapolation Factory
Avram Finkelstein
Fana Fraser
Moko Fukuyama
Ebony Noelle Golden
Yulan Grant
Hugh Hayden
Vicente Hansen and
Mat Muntz
Prince Harvey
Madeline Hollander
Maryam Hoseini and Phoebe d'Heurle
It's Showtime NYC!
The Illustrious Blacks

Ayesha Jordan
Tahir Carl Karmali
Sam Lavigne
Maya Lee-Parritz
Richard Kennedy
Kyle Marshall
Asif Mian
Troy Michie
#MIPSTERZ
Tyler Mitchell
Neil Padukone
Kelsey Pyro
daaPo reo
Farideh Sakhaeifar
Rachika Samarth
Richard Sears, Clara Cullen, Yael Ginosar, and Ethan Braun
Alice Sheppard and Kinetic Light
Harold "Fyütch" Simmons
Analisa Teachworth
Christopher Udemezue (Neon Christina)
Mariana Valencia
Jon Wang
Julia Weist
Kiyan Williams
Nia O. Witherspoon
Thanushka Yakupitiyage
Yatta Zoker (YATTA)

More information and artist biographies are available here.

Each artist will receive a stipend between $7,000 and $15,000, depending on the scope of the proposed project, in addition to support and resources to develop their work.

Work commissioned for Open Call will be presented in The Shed's black-box Theater, the 12,500-square-foot column-free Gallery I, and the 17,000 square-foot open-air plaza in front of the building (configured when The Shed's movable shell is nested over the base building). Three programs will be presented consecutively beginning in late spring 2019, with a fourth program in 2020. All programs will be free and open to the public (ticketing details to be announced).

"Our programs are built on the belief that there is parity across all forms of art and human creativity," said Alex Poots, Artistic Director and CEO of The Shed. "Open Call is The Shed's way of offering support and valuable resources to artists in New York City who are working at pivotal stages in their careers."

"All aspects of producing commissioned work, from financial and organizational resources to personal attention, will be provided to Open Call artists," said Emma Enderby, Senior Curator at The Shed. "We will work closely with all of them over the course of the season to hone their original proposals and realize them at The Shed."

"We launched Open Call with the intent of creating a meaningful opportunity for emerging artists to make new work," said Tamara McCaw, Chief Civic Program Officer at The Shed. "A fundamental part of our mission is to engage our local communities and support New York City's diversity of talent. Open Call provides the resources local artists need to fully explore their ideas, as well as the platform for reaching higher levels of visibility with new audiences."

The Shed's request for proposals encouraged projects that push the boundaries into multidisciplinary or collaborative realms across six creative disciplines: design, visual arts, music, performing arts, literary arts, and cinema.

More than 900 applications for Open Call were received over a three-month period. Through a rigorous selection process, all were vetted by a committee of curatorial and producing staff with a collective eye toward identifying synergies between artists' projects and The Shed's mission and core institutional values. The panels specifically sought out inventive, thought-provoking, risk-taking, timely, culturally sensitive work that provides sustained impact and value for diverse audiences and viewers.

To make the final selections, The Shed convened panels of New York-based artists, cultural programmers, producers, and academics, who were selected for their significant contributions to the field of art and culture, including:

Suzanne Anker (School of Visual Arts/SVA), Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby (The New School-Parsons, Dunne & Raby), Lauren Boyle (artist, DIS), Joeonna Bellorado-Samuels (We Buy Gold), Keri Bronk (The Shed), Courtenay Casey (National Sawdust), Simon Castets (Swiss Institute), Ken Chen (poet, Asian American Writers Workshop), Alec Duffy (JACK), Andrew Durbin (frieze magazine, Wonder), Cornelius Eady (poet, Cave Canem), Emma Enderby (The Shed), Rhys Ernst (artist, filmmaker), Matthew Higgs (White Columns), Rasu Jilani (curator, NEW INC at New Museum), Jon Key (The Cooper Union), Nora N. Khan (Rhizome), Nellie Killian (curator), James King (Harlem Stage), Shannon Matesky (Queer Abstract, Urban Word NYC), Tamara McCaw (The Shed), Beth Morrison (artist, producer), Adrianna Moschides (Knockdown Center, Loveless Records), Hans Ulrich Obrist (The Shed, Serpentine Galleries), Alex Poots (The Shed), Ali Rosa-Salas (Abrons Arts Center), George Emilio Sanchez (College of Staten Island-CUNY, Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics), Kevin Slavin (Consultant to The Shed), Sable Elyse Smith (artist), María Fernanda Snellings (The Shed), Lisa Strausfeld (InformationArt), Jasmine Wahi (Project for Empty Space), Xin Wang (curator, art historian), Leilah Weinraub (artist, filmmaker), and Melodie Yashar (designer).

About The Shed

Opening in spring 2019 where the High Line meets Hudson Yards on Manhattan's west side, The Shed, led by Artistic Director and CEO Alex Poots, is dedicated to commissioning, producing, and presenting the full spectrum of performing arts, visual arts, and pop culture. From hip hop to classical music, painting and sculpture to literature, film to theater and dance, The Shed will bring together leading artists and thinkers from all disciplines under one roof. The building-a remarkable movable structure designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro in collaboration with Rockwell Group-physically transforms to support artists' most ambitious ideas. Committed to nurturing artistic invention and bringing creative experiences to the broadest possible audiences, The Shed intends to be a cultural hub of and for 21st-century New York City.