BAX/Brooklyn Arts Exchange Announces EmergeNYC 2024 Applications Are Open!

EmergeNYC—a program celebrating 15 years and the many artists and activists it has nurtured since 2008—returns home to BAX/Brooklyn Arts Exchange as an incubator and affinity network for socially engaged artists to develop their creative voice, explore the intersections of art and activism, and connect to a thriving community of BIPOC, migrant, and LGBTQIA+ practitioners. The programs—designed for artists who are either beginning their careers or feeling a sense of urgency to move into new territory—provide an opportunity to spend an intensive period of training, exchange, mentorship, and challenging conversations with a specific focus on racial justice and cultural transformation. Rather than training in one specific craft, participants immerse themselves in a challenging, supportive environment, engaging with multiple lineages and approaches to art-making. They delve into issues of personal significance as they engage in the work, and with one another, as their whole selves. Participants leave the programs having deeply researched questions that become the heart of their artistic and activist work.

There are two EmergeNYC programs this year: the Flagship Program at BAX led by george emilio sánchez and The Virtual Program, Analog Bodies and Virtual Activations, led by Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful and Marlène Ramírez-Cancio. Applications open Wednesday, November 1 and will be due Saturday, January 27.  

An information session for both programs will be held on Tuesday, November 28 at 5:30 PM Eastern Time via Zoom. Please register using this link.

The Flagship Program, in person at BAX, is comprised of weekly workshops facilitated by george, as well as workshops by guest artists who are leaders in the field of performance and politics. With a decolonial lens, participants will explore the intersection of art and activism through creative writing, autobiographical narratives, group work, and other multi-disciplinary adventures—all while creating and re-creating a space in which artists build community with one another, actively listen with their bodies, and build intentional trust to lay a foundation where compassion and risk-taking guide the work. 

The Flagship Program will run every Sunday (10:00 AM – 2:00 PM Eastern Time) from March 17 to June 16 at 421 5th Ave, Brooklyn. Final works-in-progress will be presented live at BAX on Saturday, June 22. Financial aid will be available to cover part of the tuition on a need basis.

For The Virtual Program, Analog Bodies and Virtual Activations, participants are encouraged to investigate genders, sexualities, class, race, politics, and spiritualities from the interstitial space between the analog and the digital.

The virtual iteration of Emerge, which takes place via Zoom every Sunday from March 10 to June 9 (11:00 AM – 3:00 PM Eastern Time). Final works-in-progress will be presented online at the end of the program on Saturday, June 15. Financial aid will be available to cover part of the tuition on a need basis.

EmergeNYC is an incubator and network for socially engaged artists to develop their creative voice, explore the intersections of art and activism, and connect to a thriving community of BIPOC, migrant, and LGBTQIA+ practitioners who challenge dominant narratives through cultural resistance. Since 2008, EmergeNYC has activated a strong network of artivists—in NYC and beyond—who have built solidarity across differences and engaged in artistic world-making together. The program is now housed at BAX | Brooklyn Arts Exchange, a multigenerational arts organization nurturing creative expression and artistic process through education, residencies, and performance at the intersection of arts and social justice.

BAX/Brooklyn Arts Exchange, founded in 1991, is a multigenerational arts organization nurturing creative expression and artistic process through education, residencies, and performance at the intersection of arts and social justice. 

BAX is dedicated to serving artists in progress, from children to professionals, at all ages and stages of development. The multi-faceted nature of BAX programs annually invites over 10,000 students, families, artists, audiences, and community members to embark on, and share creative journeys. For three decades, BAX has honored the power of performing arts to connect and transform individuals and communities. The education programs, artist residencies, affordable rehearsal space, community engagement opportunities, mentorship, and performances, all center artists from historically underrepresented backgrounds and prioritize lived and embodied experiences, and access, regardless of ability to pay.