Artists Space

About

Founded in 1972 in downtown Manhattan, Artists Space fosters the artistic and cultural life of New York City as a primary venue for artists' work in all forms. An affinity with emerging ideas and artists is central to our institution, as is attentiveness to the social and intellectual concerns which actively inform artistic practice. We strive for exemplary conditions in which to produce, experience, and understand art, to be a locus of critical discourse and education, and to advocate for the capacity of artistic work to significantly define and reflect our understanding of ourselves.

info@artistsspace.org
212 226 3970
11 Cortlandt Alley, New York 10013
Wednesday - Saturday, noon - 6pm
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Still image with VHS distortion depicting the exterior of a building, and a sign with the Artists Space logo: white text on a black background with a large "A" on top of a thin white square, with "ARTISTS SPACE" written below. The sign marks a red door on a dark building façade.
Still from CNN’s coverage of the NEA controversy surrounding the exhibition Witnesses: Against Our Vanishing, recorded by Marion Stokes. Aired on 11/09/1989. [Still image with VHS distortion depicting the exterior of a building, and a sign with the Artists Space logo: white text on a black background with a large "A" on top of a thin white square, with "ARTISTS SPACE" written below. The sign marks a red door on a dark building façade.]

Artists Space is a W.A.G.E. (Working Artists and the Greater Economy)
 certified organization.

Artists Space was founded in 1972 by arts administrator Trudie Grace and critic Irving Sandler as a pilot project for the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), with the goal of assisting and presenting emerging and unaffiliated artists. Artists Space quickly became a leading organization in the downtown alternative arts scene in New York, which also included burgeoning institutions such as the 112 Workshop (later renamed White Columns), and the Institute for Art and Urban Resources (which became P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center).

A black-and-white photo of a group of protestors holding various signs. One asks, "Obscene Art?" under a crucifixion image. Another states "Helms impedes the 1st amendment"
Demonstrations outside the opening of Witnesses: Against Our Vanishing, Artists Space, 1989. [A black-and-white photo of a group of protestors holding various signs. One asks, "Obscene Art?" under a crucifixion image. Another states "Helms impedes the 1st amendment"]

During its first years, all of Artists Space's exhibitions were organized by artists presenting the work of other artists. Other early efforts to engage and help artists included the Emergency Materials Fund, which assisted artists with the presentation of their work at an established nonprofit venue, and the Independent Exhibitions Program, which supported the needs of artists who were involved in the production and presentation of work outside the context of an existing institutional structure. Through the decades, Artists Space has adapted to the shifting needs and concerns of artists and audiences in and outside of New York.

A black-and-white image of a woman, wearing all black clothing and sunglasses, standing with her arms raised. An image is projected on the wall behind her, with a description reading "A Cambodian boy stands near the side of a road in Ban Laem, Thailand . . . and Cambodian civilians are turned back yesterday near Thailand . . .". Above her head, there is a cartoon thought bubble, with the text "14. We defend each other / (you certainly didn
Adrian Piper, It's Just Art, Artists Space, April 29, 1981. [A black-and-white image of a woman, wearing all black clothing and sunglasses, standing with her arms raised. An image is projected on the wall behind her, with a description reading "A Cambodian boy stands near the side of a road in Ban Laem, Thailand . . . and Cambodian civilians are turned back yesterday near Thailand . . .". Above her head, there is a cartoon thought bubble, with the text "14. We defend each other / (you certainly didn't come to an art performance to hear a lecture on current events)".]

Artists Space has been the site of provocative discussion and experimentation within contemporary artistic debate, from the postmodern image (Douglas Crimp’s Pictures, 1977) to identity politics (Adrian Piper’s It’s Just Art, 1981), to institutional critique (Michael Asher’s Untitled, 1988) to the AIDS Crisis (Nan Goldin’s Witnesses: Against our Vanishing, 1989), and Artists Space has introduced countless artists to a wider public, amongst them Joan Jonas, Cindy Sherman, Jeff Koons, Sherrie Levine, Louise Lawler, Laurie Anderson, Barbara Bloom, John Miller, John Baldessari, Jack Smith, Andrea Fraser, Haim Steinbach, Tim Rollins, Lyle Ashton Harris, Ashley Bickerton, Peter Halley, Lari Pittman, Group Material, Stuart Sherman, Barbara Kruger, Laurie Simmons, Anthony McCall, Fred Wilson, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Mike Kelley, Judith Barry, Michael Smith, Robert Longo, Jenny Holzer, Pope.L, Hito Steyerl, Danh Vo, and Cameron Rowland.

A stylized map of SoHo and TriBeCa, stretching in latitude from West Houston Street to White Street, and in longitude from Hudson Street/West Broadway to Broadway. Each past location is marked by a red dot, indicating its address and years active, alongside a photo of the space
Artists Space's locations, 1973-2019. [A stylized map of SoHo and TriBeCa, stretching in latitude from West Houston Street to White Street, and in longitude from Hudson Street/West Broadway to Broadway. Each past location is marked by a red dot, indicating its address and years active, alongside a photo of the space's exterior.]

We begin a momentous new chapter of Artists Space as we open at 11 Cortlandt Alley, our sixth location in downtown New York since 1972, and our most substantial home to date. It was far from a given, amid the tumult of New York real estate, that Artists Space would stay downtown, and we are truly grateful to have been able to secure and renovate this magnificent space to continue our vital work in this city.

Located in the heart of the downtown community where the organization has always flourished, our new home, meticulously renovated by Artists Space board member Martin Cox of Bade Stageberg Cox, offers almost 8,000 square feet of exhibition and program space on two floors of an historic Tribeca building. The design is faithful to the character of the lofts that made downtown Manhattan a vital home for artists and adds a new street-level entrance on Cortlandt Alley to complement the building’s existing entrances on White Street.

An integral presence in the artistic life of downtown New York, Artists Space opened at 155 Wooster Street and subsequently moved to 105 Hudson Street in 1977, 223 West Broadway in 1984, and 38 Greene Street in 1993. To further its dual mission of presenting ambitious exhibitions, as well as film and performance, and serving as an essential site of social and intellectual activity, the organization opened a second Books & Talks space in 2012 at 55 Walker Street. With the move to 11 Cortlandt Alley, our two-floor space allows Artists Space to reunite these streams of activity into a polyphonic whole and support the widest range of artistic work under a single roof.

11 Cortlandt Alley Building Founders

Visionary

Eleanor Cayre
Barbara Gladstone
Eleanor Heyman Propp
Allan Schwartzman

Leader

Shane Akeroyd
Stephen Cheng
Claire Distenfeld Olshan
Lonti Ebers
Lucy Freeman Sandler in Memory of Irving Sandler
Carol Greene
Alex Logsdail
Stavros Niarchos Foundation
Maja Oeri
Anonymous

Founder

Murray A. Abramson
Julie Ault
Candy Barasch
Daniel Buchholz & Christopher Müller
James Cahn & Jeremiah Collatz
Martin Cox
Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation
Stephanie LaCava
Mónica Manzutto & José Kuri
Friedrich Petzel
Steven Schindler
Mari & Peter Shaw
David Simkins
Marsha Soffer
Andy Stillpass
Diana Wege
Thea Westreich & Ethan Wagner
Helene Winer
David Zwirner

Founding Artists

Yuji Agematsu
Richard Aldrich
Harold Ancart
Ed Atkins
Darren Bader
Trisha Baga
Barbara Bloom
Cecily Brown
Nicolas Ceccaldi
Moyra Davey
Trisha Donnelly
Jana Euler
Tomoo Gokita
Rachel Harrison
Charline von Heyl
Alex Hubbard
Jacqueline Humphries
Aaron Flint Jamison
Rashid Johnson
Joan Jonas
Sanya Kantarovsky
Jutta Koether
Jeff Koons
Michael Krebber
Louise Lawler
Margaret Lee
Sam Lewitt
Mathieu Malouf
Nick Mauss
Lucy McKenzie
Albert Oehlen
Laura Owens
Charlemagne Palestine
Adrian Piper
Pope.L
Seth Price
Walter Price
Josephine Pryde
Sam Pulitzer
RH Quaytman
Carissa Rodriguez
David Salle
Richard Serra
Amy Sillman
Josh Smith
Haim Steinbach
Hito Steyerl
Cheyney Thompson
Rirkrit Tiravanija
Tom of Finland
Stewart Uoo
Peter Wächtler
Kara Walker
Kelley Walker
Jeff Way

Lambent Foundation Fund of Tides Foundation
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation
The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in Partnership with the City Council
The New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature
I.A. O'Shaughnessy Foundation
Helen Frankenthaler Foundation
The Cowles Charitable Trust
Milton and Sally Avery Foundation

Staff Jay Sanders Executive Director & Chief Curator jay@artistsspace.org Kelly Taxter Deputy Director kelly@artistsspace.org Danielle A. Jackson Curator danielle@artistsspace.org Stella Cilman Assistant Curator stella@artistsspace.org Rezarta Seferi Exhibitions Manager & Producer rezarta@artistsspace.org Nusheen Ghaemi Administrative & Program Assistant nusheen@artistsspace.org Kate Temple Director of Education kate@artistsspace.org Witts Installation Manager witts@artistsspace.org Website: Laurel Schwulst Ensemble Identity: Eric Wrenn Office
Board Cindy Sherman, Honorary Lifetime Member Eleanor Cayre, President Steven Schindler, President Andy Stillpass, Treasurer Liam Gillick, Secretary Shane Akeroyd Negar Azimi Jonathan Caplan Stephen Cheng LaToya Ruby Frazier Carol Greene Rachel Harrison Ebony L. Haynes Joan Jonas Philippa Polskin Seth Price Eleanor Heyman Propp Allan Schwartzman Rirkrit Tiravanija David Joselit, Emeritus Amanda Sharp, Emeritus

Expanded Art Ideas, Artists Space's arts in education program, encourages both mainstream and special education students in New York City’s public schools to develop a personal artistic voice and to utilize their individual creative capacities by providing them with the skills to communicate, document, and publicly exhibit their innovations and talents. EAI's six core programs: Portfolio Development, BRIDGE Photography, Art and Literacy: Poetry, Threads of History, Listening to the LES, and Artists in/Ed Space—augment middle and high school classroom curricula in the visual and language arts. Since its inception, the program has closely adhered to New York State standards for teaching visual arts and most recently with New York City’s Blueprint for Teaching and Learning in the Arts: Visual Arts Benchmarks. Alongside our core programs, we produce publications and exhibitions of student work, and guide students through applications for Scholastic Awards and entry into specialized arts high schools.

Many accomplished artists and poets have added valuable content and program innovations to our core courses. Two of these projects were initiated at New York's Thread Waxing Space in 1994 under the direction of Ellen Salpeter, Director, Chrysanne Stathacos, Educator and Director of Education, and Gloria Holwerda-Williams, Senior Educator. In June 2001, Chrysanne Stathacos joined Artists Space as its Director of Education and brought Expanded Arts Ideas to Artists Space under the direction of Barbara Hunt McLanahan. We would like to acknowledge the work of the following educators who have helped to shape these projects over the years:

Chrysanne Stathacos Gloria Holwerda-Williams Miriam Schaer Nancy Friedman Stefania Heim Joy Episalla Annie Bien Rafael Sanchez Lauren Lesko Jennifer Pond Octavius Neveux Ester Partegas A Constructed World (Geoff Lowe and Jacqueline Riva)
Sara Jane Stoner Marco Vera / Mexicali Rose Kate Temple Claudia Sohrens Sophie Green Mary Simpson Susan Hamburger Stephanie Costello Robert Sember Esperanza Cortes Desirée Alvarez Nia Nottage Rebecca Teich Sonya Derman

Expanded Art Ideas is supported by The Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation; NYU Community Fund; The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council; The New York City Department of Education; New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature and to the Friends of Artists Space Expanded Art Ideas program.

With special thanks to all of the students, teachers, and school administrators for their ongoing dedication, and to the International Print Center New York for co-hosting a spring 2019 intensive for Portfolio Development students at P.S. 140.

T 212 226 3970
F 212 226 7036
11 Cortlandt Alley, New York 10013
Map, Accessibility

info@artistsspace.org

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    A woman stands in the middle of a room, surrounded by a crowd of people. She is speaking on a microphone, gesturing with her left arm, and standing on a carpet covering a raised section of the floor.
    Shelley Hirsch, It's Get Better IV, organized by Stewart Uoo, Artists Space, 2016. [A woman stands in the middle of a room, surrounded by a crowd of people. She is speaking on a microphone, gesturing with her left arm, and standing on a carpet covering a raised section of the floor.]