Making Space for Artists and Community at LMCC: LMCC 2020 Highlights
Making Space for Artists and Community at LMCC
As 2020 draws to a close, we look back at this year's most memorable moments connecting artists and community:
New York We Love You Art Auction
LMCC launched “New York We Love You,” an online benefit auction featuring artworks by NYC-based artists who are part of the LMCC community, including Camille Henrot, Julie Mehretu, Richard Mosse, Vik Muniz, Yoko Ono, Paul Mpagi Sepuya, and Arlene Shechet, among many others.
SU-CASA Virtual Open House
This year, so much of what has previously been essential to the SU-CASA program; the in person relationship between the artist and the senior center and the integration of arts programming into the safe and familiar space of the center, has not been possible, but what has remained is the power of exploring new skills, strengthening social connections, and finding additional modes of expression. During the SU-CASA Virtual Open House, we shared how each of our artists responded to this moment differently and developed unexpected ways of connecting with older adults at a distance.
River To River 2020: Four Voices
River To River, LMCC’s annual summer festival, was created in the aftermath of 9/11 with the intention to heal and celebrate New Yorkers’ resiliency through the power of art. Responding to this present moment, LMCC reimagined River To River 2020, inviting artists to create new works to offer to New Yorkers as we navigate these uncharted waters together.
With artists Asiya Wadud, Jean Shin, Muna Malik and Mona Chalabi, we read poems based on telephone conversations between strangers online and in the Seaport District; took a walk under a green plastic cornfield suspended above the grand staircase in the Winter Garden at Brookfield Place; folded an origami boat inscribed with your vision for a better society and placed it with the installation in Battery Park City; and visualized the diversity of people that form the heart and soul of the city we know and love at the Oculus.
Governors Island Residency Initiative
This year, LMCC, the Trust for Governors Island, and 18 Island-based organizations launched the Governors Island Residency Initiative in response to the COVID-19 crisis and its devastating impact across the NYC Cultural Landscape. This initiative endeavored to support artists living and working across New York City's five boroughs by providing free, temporary space to work on the Island.
LMCC welcomed 11 Governors Island Residency Initiative Artists for 2020: Sherwin Banfield, Juan Hinojosa, Kate Hughes, Ann Kim, Eleanor Kipping, Daniel Kukla, Erica Molesworth, Lovie Pignata, Tony Sjoman, Ian Tousius, and André Zachery.
Manhattan Community Arts Breakfast
In lieu of gathering in person, we celebrated the vibrancy of local arts and resilience with our public partners and broad network of cultural colleagues and artists and arts organizations supported by our Creative Engagement, Creative Learning, UMEZ Arts Engagement,and SU-CASA programs.
LMCC's Workspace Virtual Studio Visits
The public was invited to learn more about LMCC's Workspace 2019-2020 artists-in-residence in our virtual studio visits. During these live virtual sessions, artists Gabriel Garcia Roman, Beatrice Glow, Zac Hacmon, Sara Jimenez, Zaq Landsberg, Kevin Quiles Bonilla, Naomi Safran-Hon, Amy Lee Sanford, Sydney Shen, and Christine Wong Yap each presented their work, conducted fireside-style chats with one another, and answered questions from the live audience.
100 New Yorkers Drawing Competition
In the 100 New Yorkers Drawing Competition, River To River 2020 artist Mona Chalabi asked the NYC community to show us what their slice of New York looks like. The artist selected 10 of these images to be displayed alongside Mona's work in the Oculus at Westfield World Trade Center.
A Toast to Downtown
Our first virtual celebration was an unforgettable night celebrating our civic leadership honorees Jessica Lappin and Maggie Boepple; appreciating the artistry of LMCC alumni and honorees Amina Henry, Eiko Otake, and Paul Pfeiffer; breaking beyond the Zoom square with Mariana Valencia; toasting with Ivy Mix, and feeling alive with Morgan Basicchis.
2020 LMCC Grantee Events
This year, our grantees' projects planned to bring together hundreds of thousands of artists and community members for shared experiences. Many of LMCC's grantees were able to continue engaging online through virtual performances, festivals, screenings and more. It is our grantees' creativity and adaptiveness, and commitment to community and collaboration that has given us great hope this year.
And finally, you, our community!
YOU keep us going! In such a dark year, it brought us such joy and light to share art with you, to amplify the work of artists, to feel together even though we are far apart. We look forward with hope and optimism and to a whole year of art with you, whatever 2021 may bring.
Image credits: Blessing of the Boats, photo by Muna Malik; Asiya Wadud, ECHO EXHIBIT, photo by Ian Douglas. Jean Shin, Floating MAiZE, photo by Ryan Muir, courtesy of Brookfield Place; Mona Chalabi, 100 New Yorkers, photo by Ian Douglas; Still of Eiko Otake by Liz Sargent/Cyprian Films; The Center at West Park, Maria Camia, Object Movement Puppetry Festival, Creative Engagement 2020 Grantee; Beatrice Glow, LMCC Workspace 2019-2020, photo by Brian J. Green; Artwork for Manhattan Community Arts Breakfast by Mónica Robles, Creative Engagement 2020 Grantee; Still from Womxn Tango, by Luna Beller-Tadiar, NYC Women’s Tango Collective, Creative Engagement 2020 Grantee; Morgan Bassichis & Mona Chalabi in A Toast to Downtown; Christine Wong Yap, LMCC Workspace 2019-2020, photo by Brian J. Green. Sherwin Banfield, Governors Island Residency Initiative 2020, Photo by Salome Mindiashvili; Eleanor Kipping, Governors Island Residency Initiative 2020, Photo by Salome Mindiashvili; 100 New Yorkers Drawing Competition at The Oculus, Photo by Salome Mindiashvili; Julie Mehretu, “Mind-Wind Fusion Drawings #5,” 2019, courtesy of the artist and Marian Goodman Gallery, New York.