Thrive Fest 2024
March 23 | 1-7pm | BRIC Arts Media, 647 Fulton St, Brooklyn
Join Brooklyn Arts Council (BAC) for “Thrive Fest 2024 - Get Money! Strategies, Portals, and Cyphers for Abundant Brooklyn Futures” presented with BRIC Arts Media!
BAC’s Thrive Fest is the first and only day-long symposium dedicated to increasing financial, professional, and wellness best practices for the over 17,000 creatives who call Brooklyn home. Thrive Fest builds capacity, networks, and sustainable communities through four strategic objectives: Thriving, Justice, Creativity, and Wellness. With a curated selection of funders, financial advisors and coaches, business leaders, and entrepreneurs, Thrive Fest attendees learn and exchange strategies, resources, and techniques for designing more lucrative and sustainable finances. Art activations and wellness installations woven throughout the day animate Thrive Fest with creative inspiration.
During the event, BAC will also be launching the Brooklyn Innovation Portal (BIP), a new interactive platform that will: connect artists to markets, audiences, patrons, collaborators, and each other; monetize creative services and content; and invest in Brooklyn neighborhoods by investing in Brooklyn artists.
Day-of programming includes:
Keynote Ignition Talk with Cey Adams
Thrive Talks
One-on-One & Group Coaching Sessions
Thrive Resource Lounge
Professional Development Content Screenings
Community Sound Bath & Cyphers, made possible by the support of the Open Society Foundations
Online Resource Guide: Thrive Brooklyn
Thrive Fest is a FREE event. Click here or the button below to view more program details and RSVP. Power up your abundance—come THRIVE with us!
ThriveFest 2024 is presented with BRIC Arts Media.
Image: L Morgan Lee Cabaret presented by National Queer Theater, 2023 BAC Grantee, with Musical Theatre Factory. Photo by Abigail Grubb. Thrive Fest 2024 “Community Sound Bath & Cyphers” is made possible by the support of the Open Society Foundations. Additional event support is provided by New York University (NYU) and Bloomberg Philanthropies.
BAC Grantee & Partner Events
art in dumbo’s First Thursday Gallery Walk
March 7 | Insider’s Tour: 6-7pm | Gallery Walk: 6-8pm
Art in DUMBO's First Thursday Gallery Walk returns next Thursday, March 7, from 6-8pm. Visitors are invited to explore all the galleries + beauty DUMBO has to offer at their own pace. This month includes Springs Projects, a new exhibition space, an open studio with Japanese artist duo exonemo at Soho gallery NowHere’s new residency program location, and the second installment of the DUMBO Projection Project, Brooklyn’s most expansive video art series ever happening simultaneously across three locations.
An Insider’s Tour is available for free and open to the public from 6-7pm. Registration is required.
CreativeStudy Live Q&A:
Budgeting Tactics and Tools for Creatives with Yanely Espinal of Next Gen Personal Finance
Creative Study is a 2022 BAC Grantee.
March 19 | 5-6pm ET | Virtual
Join author and educator Yanely Espinal, Director of Education Outreach at Next Gen Personal Finance, for a Q&A on budgeting tactics and tools for creatives. She will cover: why better budgeting is a key component to building your creative career; the best tools for managing the finances of your studio; what can you do right now to break an ongoing cycle of debt; and the most important money rules visual artists need to know.
HIVEWILD OPEN CLASS: SPRING SERIES
Hivewild is a 2022 BAC Grantee. Photo: Travis Emery Hackett
Fridays, Now - May 31 | 10-11:30am | The Floor, ground-level studio
Led by Hivewild choreographer Katherine Maxwell, class is an invitation to connect with the body while sourcing tools from intuition and education. As effort builds from personal curiosities to group tasks and games, class will culminate into phrase work built upon the resonating themes of the day. Phrases crafted are ever-changing but reliably athletic, detailed, fluid, and sensation-driven.
Events, Workshops, & Professional Development
“In/Between 2024: Cosmic Domestic” Exhibition
A few works from the In/Between 2024 cohort. Artist Credits (left to right, top to bottom): Azadeh Nia, Eiko Nishida, Lafina Eptaminitaki, Ruoyun Chen, Mari Nagem, Lee Jensen, Melika Abikenari, Vera Saldivar de Lira, Doi Kim.
On View: March 6-31 | New York Live Arts Lobby
Opening Reception: March 6 | 5:30pm | New York Live Arts Lobby
Statement from curators Martita Abril, Zahra Banyamerian and Yanira Castro: In selecting and bringing this work together from New York Foundation for the Arts’ 2024 immigrant artist cohort—we are considering our own visceral response to the urgent needs of people seeking asylum in New York City. What is sanctuary? Many of the works in Cosmic Domestic embed home in outer space, in our bodies, in temporary shelters, in dreams and vessels, in a crib and the MTA. These twenty artists, working in a variety of mediums, evoke the power of birth, family, and the courageous act of inhabiting.
“Poetry as Pedagogy: Poetry at the Intersection of Feminism and Black Power: Audre Lorde & June Jordan”
Caribbean-American writer, poet and activist Audre Lorde lectures students at the Atlantic Center for the Arts in New Smyrna Beach, Florida. (Photo by Robert Alexander/Archive Photos/Getty Images)
March 9 | 12pm | Museum of the City of New York
Explore Black Feminist poetry in New York in the 20th century, focusing on the writing and activism of poets Audre Lorde and June Jordan, and create your own inspired poetry. This workshop is the first in a series designed for educators of students in grades 6-12 – but open to all – that will “demystify” poetry as a way of teaching history and social studies and as an entry point to New York City cultural and social movements.
New York Civic Learning Week
March 11 - 15 | Virtual
Did you know all NY students have a right under the state constitution to an education that prepares them for engaged civic lives? Civic readiness is an important purpose of public education and a priority in New York State. DemocracyReady NY is offering a series of exciting free virtual events during Civic Learning Week. Sign up for as many as you wish. All events will be recorded and shared with registrants who cannot attend live.
92NY TEEN ARTS WEEK
March 11 - 17
Teen Arts Week celebrates the best of arts programing for teens around NYC! In collaboration with leading cultural organizations in all five boroughs, Teen Arts Week offers a full schedule of free classes, workshops, and performances for teens all over the city. These events enable teens to gain hands-on experience in different areas of the arts, engage with professionals in the creative industries, and explore pathways to future leadership within the context of the arts. The Teen Arts Week festival will feature free daytime, after-school, and weekend cultural events in areas such as art-making, literary arts, music, dance, theater, film & media, and college/career readiness. Registration for Teen Arts Week events will be open to anyone 14-18 with a valid school ID.
The Incubator for Executive Leaders of Color 2024
Deadline: March 13
The Incubator for Executive Leaders of Color, is a free program by New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) that will provide leadership training and community support for up to 16-18 arts administrators from April 2024 to September 2024. By fostering the professional development of leaders of Color, we aim to encourage the sustainability and success of their organizations, and the equitability and diversity of the arts industry. NYFA will work with facilitators from Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities. The curriculum will be designed through the lens of inclusion and racial equity, and we will work diligently with partner organizations and external consultants to ensure that we meet the needs of our participants.
Kizuna Dance presents “Father Absence | Mother Ma”
March 16 | 7pm | Gerald W Lynch Theater
For the company's 10-year anniversary in 2024, Kizuna Dance premieres a deeply personal work by Artistic Director Cameron McKinney. A way of processing his father’s death in 2022 — a man Cameron never met — “FATHER ABSENCE | MOTHER MA” brings a hyperphysical focus to the Japanese concept of “ma,” or possibilities inherent in the empty spaces between objects and bodies. Through a movement language that blends streetdance styles, capoeira, and contemporary floorwork, the work will explore the multiversity of loss and feelings of being left behind.
Kizuna Dance's residency and performance at the Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College are supported by CUNY Dance Initiative.
Adama Nanguin Coulibaly exhibition: “UNIVERSE THREADS”
March 19 | 6-9pm | Tim Grae Gallery
Join artist Adama Nanguin Coulibaly on March 19 at Tim Grae Gallery for the “Universe Threads” art exhibition,
Join the unveiling of "Universe Threads" an art series by Adama-Nanguin Coulibaly that explores profound connections and celestial narratives. The evening includes an artist talk, live painting, and wine and refreshments. This collection showcases Adama's artistic journey and delves into the mystical with "Mami Wata," an ode to an African Deity. Experience a dreamscape of resilience, love, and beauty in each piece.
Live painting will begin at 7pm and the Artist Talk will begin at 8:20pm.
Emmanuel Knight exhibition: "Magna Ax: A Creative Odyssey"
Now - March 29 | Bronx Library Center
Emmanuel Knight, a Brooklynite and rising manga artist, is thrilled to announce the unveiling of "Magna Ax: A Creative Odyssey," an intimate, family-friendly exhibition at the Bronx Library Center. Kicking off Black History Month at the library’s Latino & Puerto Rican Cultural Center, the exhibition is now open on Fridays, closing on March 29. This solo exhibition features Emmanuel Knight's original manga, Magna Ax, and tells the story of Knight’s artistic journey, from creating his first characters at the age of eight to the completion of the first volume about 20 years later. The exhibition will also offer a detailed look at the artist's creative processes.
The field — “Building a Home Base: Websites for Artists” with Nnenna Loveth
March 21 | 6-7:30pm | Virtual
Using social media sites can be a great way to share our craft and express our individuality. But what happens when the sites we rely on for our marketing and expression go down? In this workshop we will be learning what makes a good, sustainable website for an artist to use as their home base in case their work is erased elsewhere. Participants will learn: The benefits of having an artist website; How to make your website and work easy to find across social sites; What makes a professional website; Creating and keeping a domain name.
BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! Benefit Concert: “Michael Brun Presents BAYO”
June 15 | 7pm | Lena Horne Bandshell
Michael Brun is a music producer and DJ from Haïti who makes music to bridge the world. A talented multi-instrumentalist, Brun shifted from a medical career path to music, embracing DJing and EDM production at 16. Gaining acclaim with tracks like “Rise,” “Burn Forever,” and “Synergy,” and collaborations such as “Rift” with Dirty South, Brun’s work has consistently charted in Beatport’s top ranks. Now with “It’s Better Management” and “William Morris Endeavour,” Michael continues to rise in the music scene.
This is a ticketed BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! Benefit Show that supports BRIC’s free programming. BRIC’s free 2024 lineup will be announced soon.
Artist Opportunities
NEW INC Incubator Members OPEN CALL
Deadline: March 8
NEW INC is a shared workspace and incubator program supporting a multidisciplinary community of individuals and small teams. The year-long program is designed to support creative practitioners as they pursue a sustainable practice or bring a new business to life. In Year 11, running September 2024 - August 2025, each member or small team is invited to join a Track to build intentional communities around common themes and concentrate on relevant opportunities. This year, there are five Tracks for members to participate in: Art & Code, Creative Science, Extended Realities, Social Architecture, and Cooperative Studies.
Open Casting: A Spike Lee Joint
Date: March 9 | 5-11pm | BRIC, Main Ballroom
Central Casting New York is looking for all ages, genders, and ethnicities to work as PAID Background Actors on a new Spike Lee Joint. Attend the March 9 event to sign up with Central Casting to become eligible to work on this project. First, go to this link and select “create new login” to complete paperwork ahead of the event. You do not need to attend if you are currently registered with Central Casting. This event is for Background Actors signing up for the first time.
THE LOT ARTIST RESIDENCY 2024
Deadline: March 10, 2024
This is an opportunity for an artist to work in The Lot, an outdoor workshop space in Brooklyn, for two months beginning April 15, 2024. One artist will be selected to utilize the space, creating work that engages with the community and themes of sustainability. The artist-in-residence will have a dedicated workspace, a secure place to store materials, and 24/7 access to the space. Artists will be required to present one free public event over the course of the residency (they may work together or present events solo).
Creative Climate Awards 2024
Deadline: March 10 | 11:30pm ET
The Human Impacts Institute’s Creative Climate Awards (CCA) are an annual series of events that showcase artists creating climate-inspired, public works. The CCA program uses the arts and creativity to share knowledge, broaden the climate conversation, educate, and incite action. The CCA are a month-long festival of virtual conversations, screenings, artist talks, and a citywide exhibit in New York City.
The 2024 CCA will take place from April 22-May 20 with the theme “Solutions from the frontlines”. Through a month-long exhibition in the different boroughs of NYC, local and international artists will try to answer that question: how does art amplify solutions from communities most impacted by climate change?
2024 QUEENSBORO DANCE FESTIVAL - Call for dancers
Deadline: March 11
Call for Queens-based choreographers and dance groups of diverse cultures and styles for a summer (June-September) tour of performances, classes, and choreographer feedback taking place in indoor and outdoor public venues including theaters, parks, plazas, and streets across the borough. The Festival also features QDF Dancebacks (audience dance lessons), choreographer talkbacks, and QDF Class Xchanges (professional classes for the dance community).
Culture Push: The Fellowship for Utopian Practice
Deadline: March 12 | $2,000
Culture Push's Fellowship for Utopian Practice is a testing ground for new ideas that connect artistic practice, civic engagement, and social justice. Through the Fellowship for Utopian Practice, Culture Push serves artists by providing creative, analytical, and logistical tools in the creation of truly transformative projects. The Fellowship program is open to artists and other professionals working in any discipline who wish to expand the boundaries of their practice. Three Fellows are selected for each application cycle.
National Endowment for the Arts: Creative Writing Fellowships
Deadline: March 13 | $25,000
The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Literature Fellowships program offers $25,000 grants in prose (fiction and creative nonfiction) and poetry to published creative writers that enable recipients to set aside time for writing, research, travel, and general career advancement. Through this program, the NEA seeks to sustain and nurture a diverse range of creative writers at various stages of their careers and to continue to expand the portfolio of American art.
BRIClab Residencies
Deadline: March 14 | $2,500
BRIClab is a multidisciplinary residency program created to advance opportunities for visual artists and media makers through three focused tracks – Contemporary Art, Film + TV, and Video Art. BRIClab offers emerging to mid-career artists essential support and opportunities to share their work. All residents receive a $2,500 stipend, mentorship, skills-based learning and professional development, and documentation of their work. Additional support, in the form of funding, space, access to equipment and media classes, and other resources vary according to tracks.
NYC GREEN FUND GRASSROOTS GRANT PROGRAM
Deadline: March 15 | $1,000 - $40,000
Looking for funding to activate a local park or open space? The NYC Green Fund Grassroots grant program will provide funding support from $1,000 to $40,000 per year along with the option of two-year funding for returning grantees to better sustain projects long-term. The NYC Green Fund Grassroots grant program is intended to advance the viability of grassroots initiatives across parks and open spaces in all five boroughs and to foster a resilient network of equitable, public green spaces.
Asian American Arts Alliance: 2024 Jadin Wong Fellowship in Dance
Jadin Wong
Deadline: March 25 | $7,500
The Jadin Wong Fellowship recognizes an emerging Asian American dance artist whose work shows strong potential for greater achievement and who hopes to make a significant impact on the Asian American artistic community as a whole. The fellowship provides a cash stipend, mentorship, and career development opportunities. This award is a tribute to the life and work of renowned Chinese American actress, dancer, and comedienne Jadin Wong (1913–2010), a pioneer and innovator of Asian American performing arts. The award is made possible by the Jadin Wong Educational Fund at the New York Community Trust, established to continue her dream of supporting aspiring artists, musicians, and dancers of Asian descent.
Asian American Arts Alliance: 2024 VAN LIER FELLOWSHIP IN THEATER
Deadline: March 25 | $7,500
The Van Lier Fellowship program aims to advance the careers and creative practice of Asian American artists living in New York City. This program supports early-career arts practitioners whose work shows outstanding promise in the fields of theater, music, and visual art to further develop their talent and to help establish them in the professional arts community. Created by the will of Sally Van Lier, the New York Community Trust carries out Edward and Sally Van Lier’s legacy of arts appreciation by supporting arts groups and training programs to provide education, training, or other support to young artists.
New York Public LIbrary: Picture Collection Artist Fellowship
Deadline: March 29 | $2,000 - $5,000
The New York Public Library’s Picture Collection, part of the Wallach Division of Art, Prints, and Photographs, is pleased to offer the Picture Collection Artist Fellowship to support artists or scholars engaged in the research, development, and/or execution of a new creative or scholarly work based on the Collection’s holdings. Since 1915, the Picture Collection has been an essential resource for artists, designers, illustrators, filmmakers, and many others who have relied on its voluminous holdings for inspiration.
The Franklin Furnace FUND for Performance Art
Deadline: April 1 | $2,000 - $10,000
Initiated in 1985 with the support of Jerome Foundation, Franklin Furnace annually awards grants to early career artists selected by peer panel review to enable them to produce major performance art works in New York City. Artists from all areas of the world are encouraged to apply; however, artists selected by the panel are expected to present their work in New York City. Full-time students are ineligible.
Fire Island Artist Residency (FIAR)
Deadline: April 1
Fire Island Artist Residency (FIAR), the first residency in the United States exclusively for artists identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, non-binary, intersex, two-spirit or queer, annually accepts applications for its prestigious and internationally recognized summer program. Now in its 12th season in the secluded beach community of Cherry Grove, NY, an historic LGBTQ settlement of Fire Island, emerging artists will share a live/work space for a four-week program marked by intimate studio visits with, and public lectures by, renowned leaders in contemporary art, scholarship, activism and curation.
Brooklyn Museum open call: “The Brooklyn Artists Exhibition”
Brooklyn Museum. (Photo: Paula Abreu Pita)
Deadline: April 4
The Brooklyn Museum launched a major open call for a forthcoming exhibition celebrating the Museum's 200th Anniversary. Opening October 4, 2024, and filling the Museum’s Great Hall, “The Brooklyn Artists Exhibition” will feature artworks in all mediums, spotlighting artists who have lived or worked in Brooklyn during the last five years (2019–24). Prepare to be dazzled: the exhibition will bring together an unprecedented number of Brooklyn artists, surpassing any previous showcase in the Museum's history.
Creative Capital Open Call
Deadline: April 4
The Creative Capital Award provides unrestricted project grants which can be drawn down over a multi-year period, bespoke professional development services, and community-building opportunities. Creative Capital welcomes innovative and original new project proposals in visual arts, performing arts, film/moving image, technology, literature, multidisciplinary, and socially engaged forms. Their goal is to fund individual artists creating conceptually, aesthetically, and formally challenging, risk-taking, and never-before-seen projects.
Anonymous Was A Woman Environmental Art Grants
Deadline: April 16 | Up to $20,000
The Anonymous Was A Woman Environmental Art Grants (AWAW EAG) will support environmental art projects that inspire thought, action, and ethical engagement. Projects should not only point at problems, but aim to engage an environmental issue at some scale. Proposals should illustrate thorough consideration of a project’s ecological and social ethics. Projects that explore interdependence, relationships, and systems through Indigenous and ancestral practices are encouraged to apply.
Film Submission: Nou Akoma Nou Sinèrji Haitian Dominican Transnational Film Festival and Symposium
Early Deadline: April 26
Regular Deadline: June 28
Nou Akoma Nou Sinèrji Haitian Dominican Transnational Film Festival and Symposium aims to showcase art and films from emerging and accomplished industry professionals of the Haitian Dominican African Diaspora to authentically reflect our community’s diverse experiences and backgrounds. Its four-day programming Oct 2024, promotes cultural diversity through various art genres, including dramatic, documentary, experimental, short films, podcasts, and panel discussions.
Jacki Apple Award in Performance and Artist Projects
Deadline: April 30 | $10,000
Franklin Furnace is honored to present the inaugural Jacki Apple Award in Performance and Artist Projects, celebrating the enduring impact of Jacki Apple on the New York art scene. This award will be an annual award given over the next ten years and reflects Jacki Apple’s commitment to championing artists, demonstrated through her multidisciplinary career as a writer, educator, radio host, and artist since the early 1980s.
“The Right to Have Rights” Open Call for Artwork & Proposals
Deadline: May 12
Dominicans Love Haitians Movement is proud to present its second annual Nou Akoma Nou Sinèrji Haitian Dominican Transnational Symposium theme: “The Right to Have Rights.” Inspired by the essay collection The Right to Have Rights and the theory of political theorist Hannah Arendt. We invite artists, performers, panels, and podcasts to submit artwork and proposals related to the the underpinnings of rights and their divestment: belonging, disallowance, invisibility, dignity, exclusion, uprootedness, vulnerability that center Haitian and/or Dominican voices and stories.
Resources
DCLA FY24 Cultural Development Fund Impact Survey
Deadline: March 11
Dance/NYC and A.R.T./New York in partnership with Carrie Blake have released the FY24 CDF Impact Survey for all NYC arts and cultural institutions that applied for the the Department of Cultural Affairs’ Cultural Development Fund (CDF) for FY24. The goal of the survey and subsequent analysis is to create a critical tool for organizing and advocating for equitable public funding.
Whistle’s Free Curriculum: “Disrupting Harm in Dance”
Whistle workshop at Taz im August. Photo by Dajana Lothert
Whistle, an international platform that aims to confront gender-based violence in dance, has released “Disrupting Harm in Dance,” an online self-directed course offering information and tools for dancers, performers, and adjacent professionals to work more safely together. Created by dancers, it serves as a starting point for individuals and communities to instigate change—drawing from real-life experiences, professional research, expert opinions, and trial-and-error applications.
What We're Reading
“Brooklyn Paramount Theater To Reopen in March”
by BK Reader
“The Diversity of South Brooklyn, Memorialized in 200 Portraits”
By Stephanie Keith | Brooklyn Magazine
“Against All Odds, New York’s Artist Buildings Have Survived”
By M.H. Miller | New York Times Style Magazine
“Museums Are Reframing the Legacy of Black Art in 2024—Starting with the Harlem Renaissance”
by Jaelynn Walls | Artsy
Cover Image: “ChamberQUEER 2023: We Refract”, featuring Darian Donovan Thomas (violin, electronics, vocals); Jules Biber (cello, vocals); Yoshi Weinberg (flutes, vocals); Rajna Swaminathan (mrudangam, vocals); Aviva Jaye (folk harp, electronics, vocals); Brian Mummert (hand percussion, vocals); Alexis C Lamb (percussion, vocals). ChamberQUEER is a 2023 BAC Grantee. Photo by by Sean Salamon.
Empowering Artists. Empowering Communities.
The arts are a lifeline to sustain wonder, inspiration, healing, and a sense of community in our lives. Please join Brooklyn Arts Council in our mission to empower Brooklyn artists and arts organizations that bring life and joy into our home borough.