In 2019, LMCC awarded over $1.4 million dollars in grant funding to over 200 Manhattan-based artists and arts organizations. Additionally, we completed an exciting renovation and expansion of LMCC’s Art Center that ultimately doubled its size and better serve both artists and visiting members of the public.

 

On September 19, 2019, we re-opened The Arts Center at Governors Island, our first permanent home for artists and audiences, and the gateway to Governors Island’s Historic District. Conceived as an incubator for creative experimentation and a public gathering space, The Arts Center is a 40,000 square foot building that includes artist studios, galleries, performance space, and a café, fully embodying LMCC’s mission “to serve, connect, and make space for artists and community” in Manhattan and beyond. We welcomed the public to the newly expanded Arts Center with a series of exhibitions and programs that focused on ecology and sustainability.

 

In 2020, we experienced a sustained period of collective trauma, rife with the murder of innocent Black lives; incessant ideological, psychological and physical attacks against the AAPI community; staggering loss and sickness from the COVID-19 pandemic; and an overwhelming sense of isolation. Although we shut down our physical offices in mid-March, we continued working remotely to help alleviate the unprecedented level of disruption to artists’ practices, and loss of income and employment by providing them space and support during the COVID-19 pandemic. We created a benefit auction where proceed went to the artists, including LMCC alumni artists, and presented a socially distanced River To River Festival that explored the power of community and solidarity through four unique artist voices.

 

In 2020, we also spearheaded a new initiative with the Trust for Governors Island (TGI) and numerous Island-based organizations in response to the COVID-19 crisis and its devastating impacts across the NYC cultural landscape. Under the Governors Island Residency Initiative, participating organizations repositioned indoor spaces on the Island historically used for exhibitions and public programming as residencies or work spaces for artists and other members of the City’s cultural community in 2020. We transitioned a significant portion of The Arts Center at Governors Island’s facilities to accommodate between artists as a part of this open call.

 

When city COVID-19 restrictions lifted, we were thrilled to reopen The Arts Center at Governors Island to the public in June 2021, and present a carefully curated River To River Festival that took NYC history as its starting point. We welcomed visitors and artists to our Arts Center exhibitions, open Studios with artists-in-residence, and The Take Care Series, a set of monthly public programs that offer opportunities for audiences to experience art and one’s own creative potential on and beyond Governors Island. In addition, we supported artists through our grants and SU-CASA programs, and in our yearlong Arts Center Residencies.

 

As we approach LMCC’s 50^th anniversary in 2023, we remain committed to serving artists, audiences, and communities throughout Manhattan and visitors to our beloved borough; reexamining the structural inequities and white supremacy that underlie our own place of privilege, and continuing the work of reform. We continue to animate sites and spaces through the work of our artists in Manhattan’s office buildings, storefronts, public plazas and parks, waterfront esplanades and piers, national monuments, and so much more. Our projects address and respond to changing forces in urban life and the art world, and we continue to contribute to a thriving and culturally-enriched New York City.

 

Through listening, dialogue, advocacy, and activism, we participate in the necessary work to eradicate institutionalized racism. Our aim is to collectively build a more just, equitable, and inclusive society that supports and strengthens all people through the power of art and creativity – not just those who are privileged because of the color of their skin.