ART START-UP! Neighborhood Gathering to Address Cultural Concerns at TNC

With the City of New York now creating its very first citywide Cultural Plan, a group of artists and friends of Theater for the New City (TNC) are helping the East Village/Lower East Side contribute to this process, but in a unique way. Instead of having arts organizations advise the City, they are banding together as Art Start-UP! and are initiating a process by which artists will listen to the community, exploring how to seed new relationships that will serve our district and the city in many ways.

A free gathering will be held on December 27 at 7:00 PM at TNC, 155 First Ave., in which a diverse and unique group of artist-panelists from the East Village/Lower East Side (now in formation) will confer with people from neighborhood churches, mosques, synagogues, schools, settlement houses, NYCHA and other residences, and civic groups. Topics will include: what kind of art is missing, what the community wants more of, what the economic barriers are to art in the East Village/Lower East Side and how the government can help without censorship or favoritism.

The artists panel, representing the full spectrum of artistic disciplines, will be recruited from differing ethnic, racial, religious, LGBT and other communities in an effort to reflect the diversity of artists in the district. The intent is to bring the disparate elements of the community together in the face of the challenging times that are ahead.

CreateNYC (createnyc.org), on behalf of the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, has begun reaching out to many sectors of the arts community for input, challenging us to report what culture means to us, how we experience culture in our daily lives, and how we as a community think culture can help create a just, inclusive and equitable city. Art Start-UP! believes that true symbiosis between artists and the community requires artists to listen directly to the community. So the coalition is going one step further by pioneering that part of the process.

This free event on December 27 at 7:00 PM will be sponsored by the following neighborhood restaurants: Iggy's Pizzeria, McSorley's Bar and Grill, Moishe's Bakery, Gena's Grill, Haveli and Banjara Restaurant, La Palapa, China Star, Veselka's Restaurant, Paquito's, Rai Rai Ken and Pinks Tex Mex. They will provide free food tastings.

For information and reservations, call 212-254-1109 or email info@theaterforthenewcity.net.