The West Harlem Art Fund, Inc. is a public art and media organization based in the City of New York, founded in 1998. [1] Savona Bailey-McClain is its Executive Director and Chief Curator. [2]
The West Harlem Art Fund, Inc. is a public art and media organization based in the City of New York, founded in 1998. [1] Savona Bailey-McClain is its Executive Director and Chief Curator. [2]
The West Harlem Art Fund, Inc. provides exhibition opportunities to artists and creative professionals in public spaces located in Northern Manhattan. The organization is also involved in projects related to historical and cultural heritage and supports community involvement in local development. Its organizational symbol is the double crocodile from West Africa, which is ( one of the Adinkra symbols ). The term Funtunmmireku-Denkyemmirreku, which means unity in diversity, represents the organization's values. The West Harlem Art Fund, Inc. offers various forms of public art, including traditional exhibitions, photo installations, windows, digital and live performances, which can be commissioned or through agency programs. The organization is committed to promoting art in public parks and open spaces throughout New York City. [3] It also advocates for better maintenance, lighting, and landscaping for parks to local City and State officials.
The West Harlem Art Fund is an organization that has exhibited outdoor installations in various locations for many years. The organization's first installation, "Three Men Walking," was held in May 2003 and featured Kirsten Campbell's work, "Moving Beyond," in Historic St. Nicholas Park. Despite facing skepticism and negative stereotypes, the success of this exhibition helped the organization to produce more outdoor installations. Over time, the West Harlem Art Fund has exhibited in all four Historic Harlem Parks, smaller parks, lobby spaces, sidewalks, storefronts in Harlem, as well as in Times Square, DUMBO, Governor's Island, Queens, Bronx, and Lower Manhattan. Alongside these exhibitions, the organization has also produced concerts, historical re-enactments, theatrical and storytelling events. A diverse range of artists have been featured, including Barbara Siegel, Luisa Caldwell, Robert Hickman, Florencio Gelabert, Sandor Camille, Julio Valdez, Queen Esther, Jann Parker, Patrick Singh, Dianne Smith, Nora Mae Carmichael, Richard Gonzalez, Sai Morikawa, Scherezade Garcia, Iliana Emilia Garcia, Ellen Maynard, Kiki Smith, Vicki DaSilva, Kyuseok Oh, and Bentley Meeker.
Between 2005 and 2008, a project known as "Take Me to the River" was launched, with the goal of improving waterfront access and facilities for the West Harlem community along the Hudson River. The project was funded through the New York State Environmental Protection Fund, which was administered by the New York Department of State, Division of Coastal Resources, and the Office of the Manhattan Borough President. Phase I and II of the project raised a total of $550,000, which in turn led to an additional $40 million in funding from the City of New York for capital improvements that began in 2010. The improvements include new playing fields and picnic areas from 145th to 155th Streets, as well as a future public art walk.
During the fall of 2008, the West Harlem Art Fund collaborated with Vantage Properties to establish storefront installations and a temporary boutique in vacant commercial spaces along Broadway in West Harlem and Washington Heights. These installations provided a platform for emerging fashion designers to showcase their work for a limited period and brought a sense of hope to local community residents during a challenging period in the nation's history.
In 2009, the West Harlem Art Fund made a decision to further explore the concept of "pop-up" installations. The organization collaborated with Transportation Alternative for NYC Park(ING) Day and produced multiple installations in different areas of the city. Furthermore, the West Harlem Art Fund formed a partnership with the Humanities & Art Division at The City College of New York to co-sponsor public art installations on an annual basis at St. Nicholas Park, a historically significant location, starting in 2010.
In 2010, the West Harlem Art Fund, Inc. partnered with the MFA program at the City College of New York, the City University of New York to present the exhibition In Dialogue featuring the works of artists Marcie Revens and Scherezade Garcia in historic St. Nicholas Park. The organization also featured an installation called Ghost Net by the organization Trash Patch at the Tapestry Building in East Harlem during the summer. The timing of the Ghost Net installation was significant as it coincided with the discovery of an Atlantic trash patch and the BP Gulf oil spill off the coast of Louisiana. The Ghost Net installation offered the public an opportunity to envision what a real trash patch would look like underwater.
In March 2011, a public art exhibition was held in the heart of Times Square, featuring the Counting Sheep installation, created by Kyu Seok Oh. The West Harlem Art Fund, in partnership with the Times Square Alliance and the Armory Show, organized and presented the exhibition. Counting Sheep was the first outdoor paper sculpture installation in New York City and attracted a significant number of viewers and visitors between 45th and 46th Street and Broadway.
In 2012, an organization was chosen to create a public art installation for the Affordable Art Fair in Chelsea, which featured the work of Dominican artist Iliana Emilia Garcia. In 2013, the organization produced two shows in the Bronx at Bartow-Pell Mansion and at the Andrew Freedman Home on the Grand Concourse. [4] Later that year, the organization collaborated with New York Restoration Project to produce the public art series Playlab, which was held in four gardens in East Harlem. In 2014, the organization curated The H in Harlem, an installation by premier lighting designer Bentley Meeker, and the intervention series Under the Viaduct, which included works by various artists such as Vicki DaSilva, Peter Rogina, Cynthia Rudin, Henry Gwiadzu, Jonas Nilsson, Eva Olson, Carlton Bright, Eileen Cohen, Lady K Fever, choreographer Ellen Maynard, and digital students from New York University's ITP Program and Columbia University Sound Art Program.
The Robert F. Kennedy Bridge is a complex of bridges and elevated expressway viaducts in New York City. The bridges link the boroughs of Manhattan, Queens, and the Bronx. The viaducts cross Randalls and Wards Islands, previously two islands and now joined by landfill.
Socrates Sculpture Park is an outdoor museum and public park where artists can create and exhibit sculptures and multi-media installations. It is located one block from the Noguchi Museum at the intersection of Broadway and Vernon Boulevard in the neighborhood of Astoria, Queens, New York City. In addition to exhibition space, the park offers an arts education program, artist residency program, and job training.
The Harlem–125th Street station is a commuter rail stop serving the Metro-North Railroad's Hudson, Harlem, and New Haven Lines. It is located at East 125th Street and Park Avenue in East Harlem, Manhattan, New York City. The station also serves as an important transfer point between the Metro-North trains and the New York City Subway's IRT Lexington Avenue Line for access to the Upper East Side of Manhattan. It is the only station besides Grand Central Terminal that serves all three lines east of the Hudson River. Trains leave for Grand Central Terminal, as well as to the Bronx and the northern suburbs, regularly.
El Museo del Barrio, often known simply as El Museo, is a museum at 1230 Fifth Avenue in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is located near the northern end of Fifth Avenue's Museum Mile, immediately north of the Museum of the City of New York. Founded in 1969, El Museo specializes in Latin American and Caribbean art, with an emphasis on works from Puerto Rico and the Puerto Rican community in New York City. It is the oldest museum of the country dedicated to Latino art.
The Washington Bridge is a 2,375-foot (724 m)-long arch bridge over the Harlem River in New York City between the boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx. The crossing, opened in 1888, connects 181st Street and Amsterdam Avenue in Washington Heights, Manhattan, with University Avenue in Morris Heights, Bronx. It carries six lanes of traffic, as well as sidewalks on both sides. Ramps at either end of the bridge connect to the Trans-Manhattan Expressway and the Cross-Bronx Expressway.
New York City's 843-acre (3.41 km2) Central Park is the home of many works of public art in various media, such as bronze, stone and tile. Many are sculptures in the form of busts, statues, equestrian statues, and panels carved or cast in low relief. Others are two-dimensional bronze or tile plaques. Some artworks do double-duty as fountains, or as part of fountains; some serve as memorials dedicated to a cause, to notable individuals, and in one case, to a notable animal. Most were donated by individuals or civic organizations; only a few were funded by the city.
The Harlem River Lift Bridge is a vertical lift bridge carrying the Metro-North Railroad's Hudson Line, Harlem Line, and New Haven Line across the Harlem River between the boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx in New York City. The average weekday ridership on the lines is 265,000.
Public Art Fund is an independent, non-profit arts organization founded in 1977 by Doris C. Freedman. The organization presents contemporary art in New York City's public spaces through a series of highly visible artists' projects, new commissions, installations, and exhibitions that are emblematic of the organization's mission and innovative history.
The Park Avenue main line, which consists of the Park Avenue Tunnel and the Park Avenue Viaduct, is a railroad line in the New York City borough of Manhattan, running entirely along Park Avenue. The line carries four tracks of the Metro-North Railroad as a tunnel from Grand Central Terminal at 42nd Street to a portal at 97th Street, where it rises to a viaduct north of 99th Street and continues over the Harlem River into the Bronx over the Park Avenue Bridge. During rush hours, Metro-North uses three of the four tracks in the peak direction.
The Bronx Museum of the Arts (BxMA), also called the Bronx Museum of Art or simply the Bronx Museum, is an American cultural institution located in Concourse, Bronx, New York. The museum focuses on contemporary and 20th-century works created by American artists, but it has hosted exhibitions of art and design from Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Its permanent collection consists of more than 800 paintings, sculptures, photographs, and works on paper. The museum is part of the Grand Concourse Historic District.
The Andrew Freedman Home is a historic building in the Bronx, a borough of New York City. It was constructed for Andrew Freedman that has been renovated into an artists' hub consisting of an interdisciplinary artist residency, an incubator space, workforce development and community services. It is a New York City Designated Landmark. The money to build it was bequeathed by Freedman. Located at 1125 Grand Concourse in the Concourse neighborhood, the Andrew Freedman Home was designed as a retirement home for wealthy individuals who had lost their fortunes.
Martha Jackson Jarvis is an American artist known for her mixed-media installations that explore aspects of African, African American, and Native American spirituality, ecological concerns, and the role of women in preserving indigenous cultures. Her installations are composed using a variety of natural materials including terracotta, sand, copper, recycled stone, glass, wood and coal. Her sculptures and installations are often site-specific, designed to interact with their surroundings and create a sense of place. Her works often focus on the history and culture of African Americans in the southern United States. In her exhibition at the Corcoran, Jarvis featured over 100 big collard green leaves, numerous carp and a live Potomac catfish.
Xaviera Simmons is an American contemporary artist. She works in photography, performance, painting, video, sound art, sculpture, and installation. Between 2019 and 2020, Simmons was a visiting professor and lecturer at Harvard University. Simmons was a Harvard University Solomon Fellow from 2019-2020. Simmons has stated in her lectures and writings that she is a descendant of Black American enslaved persons, European colonizers and Indigenous persons through the institution of chattel slavery on both sides of her family's lineage.
Dianne Smith is an abstract painter, sculptor, and installation artist. Her work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in New York City's Soho and Chelsea art districts as well as, numerous galleries and institutions throughout the United States, and abroad. She is an arts educator in the field of Aesthetic Education at Lincoln Center Education, which is part of New York City's Lincoln Center For the Performing Arts. Since the invitation to join the Institute almost a decade ago she has taught pre k-12 in public schools throughout the Tri-State area. Her work as an arts educator also extends to undergraduate and graduate courses in various colleges and universities in the New York City area. She has taught at Lehman College, Brooklyn College, Columbia University Teachers College, City College, and St. John's University.
Savona Bailey-McClain is an American community organizer and art producer, and the director of the West Harlem Art Fund. Bailey-McClain has curated or organized exhibitions by Vicki DaSilva, Bentley Meeker, Tomo Mori. She has also spoken at the Silicon Harlem Technology Conference, and organized part of the NYCxDESIGN festival. Outside of art, she is the head of West Harlem Food and Beverage, a merchants association in Harlem, and served as a member of New York's Community Board 9.
Glendalys Medina's practice focuses on transcending the symbolic systems of language and image by investigating the role they play in forming identity. Medina is currently a professor at SVA’s MFA Art Practice program and lives and works in New York.
Abigail DeVille is an artist who creates large sculptures and installations, often incorporating found materials from the neighborhoods around the exhibition venues. DeVille's sculptures and installations often focus on themes of the history of racist violence, gentrification, and lost regional history. Her work often involves a performance element that brings the artwork out of its exhibition space and into the streets; DeVille has organized these public events, which she calls "processionals," in several U.S. cities, including Washington, D.C., Baltimore, and New York. Deville likes to use her own family as inspiration for her art work. She decided to use her grandmother as inspiration because of her vibrant personality, to help her articulate ideas from the neighborhoods of the Bronx. Deville is pleased that her art works are unique, as many people see trash as useless to them, while DeVille instead sees an opportunity.
Kameelah Janan Rasheed is an American writer, educator, and artist from East Palo Alto, California. She is a 2021 Guggenheim Fellow in Fine Arts known for her work in installations, book arts, immersive text-based installations, large-scale public text pieces, publications, collage, and audio recordings. Rasheed's art explores memory, ritual, discursive regimes, historiography, and archival practices through the use of fragments and historical residue. Based in Brooklyn, NY, she is currently the Arts Editor for SPOOK magazine. In 2021 her work was featured in an Art 21 documentary, "The Edge of Legibility."
Lina Puerta is a Colombian-American mixed media artist based in New York City. She was born in New Jersey and grew up in Colombia.
The New York Latin American Art Triennial is an event that takes place every three years. It is dedicated to presenting contemporary Latin American art in New York City.
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