HERE Arts Center to Throw Street Fair in Honor of 15th Anniversary 10/25

Since 1993, the OBIE-winning HERE Arts Center has been a premier arts organization in NYC and a leader in the field of new, hybrid performance work. October 2008 marks HERE’s 15th Anniversary, and in celebration of that landmark date, HERE is throwing a Street Fair for its neighborhood, its audience, its friends, family and supporters. For three hours on a Saturday afternoon, HERE will present a series of 15 theatre, dance, puppetry, street spectacle, food artistry, music and children’s events, both on Dominick Street and inside its newly renovated space. These events include Trey Lyford and Geoff Sobelle reprising an excerpt from their HERE hit All Wear Bowlers, Vicky Virgin and company doing an excerpt from her “Salt Ballet”, Adam Matta doing bicycle painting on the street, Vampire Cowboys staging a fight, Lisa Levy offering bipartisan psychotherapy sessions, and music by the Dirty Sock Funtime Band, among others. In addition, food by working artists will be served, including Annie Lanzillotto and Treats Truck, and face painting and other activities for kids will be featured. The event is free.

HERE proudly supports artists at all stages in their careers through full productions, artist residency programs, festivals and subsidized performance and rehearsal space. Work at HERE is curated based on the strength and uniqueness of the artist’s vision. HERE’s Artist Residency Program (HARP) provides development, commissions and full production for up to 20 artists over one-to-three years. Under leadership of Founding Artistic Director Kristin Marting and Producing Director Kim Whitener, HERE has served over 12,100 emerging to mid-career artists developing work that does not fit a conventional programming agenda. Work presented at HERE has garnered 13 OBIE awards, an OBIE grant for artistic achievement, three Drama Desk nominations, two Berrilla Kerr Awards, three NY Innovative Theatre Awards, an Edwin Booth Award and a Pulitzer Prize nomination.

In 2005, with the support of the FJC, a foundation of donor advised funds, Lower Manhattan Development Corporation and the City of New York, HERE Arts Center purchased its long- time home as part of a five-year “Secure HERE’s Future” campaign. With full-scale renovations to the space concluding last June, thanks to generous support from the City of New York, HERE is poised to continue and expand its role as a downtown haven for the finest emerging art. Offering a comfortable, eclectic setting for artists and audiences alike, HERE features a new and improved café/gallery and two state-of-the-art performance spaces.

The 15th Anniversary Celebration Street Fair will take place Saturday, OCTOBER 25, 2-5pm at HERE ARTS CENTER (145 SIXTH AVENUE—on Dominick Street).