Artist-Activist Services
Resources and workshops to support artists as activists as they work on the front lines, behind-the-scenes, and in networked solidarity to confront today’s political conditions.
Game Nights
Social events centered around games made by and/or facilitated by artists.
Artist Meals
gatherings
Gatherings
gatherings
Artist Meals: Evening Meal with BlackMass Publishing
gatherings
Art.coop: Art Worlds We Want
GROUNDWORKS
Why are artists on strike right now? What do we want instead? How are artists using their collective power to resist dominant systems of exploitation and build what we need to support our creative practices with care at the center? Over the course of 10 weeks, Art.coop will be holding space at CTHQ for “Art Worlds We Want.”
We believe it’s clear that artists need an economy rooted in solidarity if we are to overcome our status as exploited workers. Likewise, the solidarity economy movement needs artists if it is to prevail. We believe that culture—visual arts, music, culinary arts, literature, theater, television, Web content, and more—is the key to sparking the collective imagination of what’s actually possible when there is community control of our economy, culture, and spirits. There have never been radical movements without radical creators at the helm— we need artists to lead us towards reimagining, resisting, and building.
Join Art.coop in person at CTHQ for collective inquiry, discussion, network building, and practical ways to shift from individualism towards solidarity in your lifestyle and creative practice:
September 30 – Resist & Build: Land & Space in NYC
October 14 – Resist & Build: Visual Arts & Music
November 4 – Resist & Build in Journalism & Media
November 18 – Resist & Build in Fashion
Office Hours with Art.coop @ Creative Time (CTHQ) – weekly, Tuesdays from 11am – 3pm, beginning on October 17th until December 5th
Groundworks
groundworks
Resist & Build: Visual Arts & Music
groundworks
“I Can Beat You Up”: Angry Asian Womxn and Sisters in Self Defense
groundworks
Workshop with Trans Boxing
groundworks
Parallel Walks: Foraging in the city! What is it? How is it done? And is it worth it? with Journei Bimwala
Thursday, August 17
6:30-8:30 PM
Lower East Side and Creative Time HQ
Clinical herbalist and foraging practitioner Journei Bimwala led a short walk in the Lower East Side, focusing on the plants, weeds and trees that grow all around the streetscape. Within the short distance of a few blocks, visitors looked closely at urban greenery and learned to identify plants that are available for use in cooking, herbal remedies, and personal care. After gathering plants during the walk, visitors return to CTHQ for a hands-on workshop on how to prepare these plants for everyday use in an oxymel, a tonic that helps protect against the upcoming cold and flu season.
About Parallel Walks
Parallel Walks is a series of artist-led walks that take place in two locations, connected through a shared political, social, contextual, or geographic theme.
Parallel Walks
parallel walks
Parallel Walks: Creating A Community Forest: Artist Walk with Matthew López-Jensen
parallel walks
Parallel Walks: Creating A Community Forest: Artist Walk with Matthew López-Jensen
parallel walks
Parallel Walk with GrowHouse
parallel walks
Parallel Walk: Advancing by turning and turning
parallel walks
Parallel Walks: Creating A Community Forest: Artist Walk with Matthew López-Jensen
Saturday, August 12
12-1:30 PM
Mosholu Parkway, Norwood, The Bronx
Artist Matthew López-Jensen led a slow walk through and around the future home of the Mosholu Teaching Forest. López-Jensen is a “Super Steward” for this 20-acre site and he has been building a community coalition to help restore this landscape. The walk unpacked this complicated, years-long project and along the way the group assisted with some stewardship activity. The walk also visited important trees (like one of the oldest sassafras trees in New York City), looked at bedrock, talked about edible plants, discussed what makes a forest “healthy” and saw what happens when an urban forest is abandoned. López-Jensen also discussed the artistic layers that overlap with the project and the advocacy. The walk ended at the James Baldwin Outdoor Learning Center (JBOLC) Community Farmers Market.
About Parallel Walks
Parallel Walks is a series of artist-led walks that take place in two locations, connected through a shared political, social, contextual, or geographic theme.
Parallel Walks
parallel walks
Parallel Walks: Foraging in the city! What is it? How is it done? And is it worth it? with Journei Bimwala
parallel walks
Parallel Walks: Creating A Community Forest: Artist Walk with Matthew López-Jensen
parallel walks
Parallel Walk with GrowHouse
parallel walks
Parallel Walk: Advancing by turning and turning
parallel walks
Artist Meals: Evening Meal with BlackMass Publishing
BlackMass Publishing invited guests to gather for an intimate dinner in a small group, a family-style meal prepared by chef Nathanael Cox. As a way to set intentions for the evening, the artists prepared the following question for reflection: To gather is to love and to love is to gather what does a gathering mean to you?
About Artist Meals
This series of intimate artist-led meals celebrates the act of coming together to break bread, join conversation, and start something that lingers.
Groundworks
The Groundwork Series is oriented around four guiding themes: Cooperation and Collaboration, Access Ecology, Repair and Decolonization, and Aftercare. Starting in September 2023, artists working within and across these themes will spend time in CTHQ to imagine and consider multitudes of values-driven models for gathering. Artist engagements are followed up by reflections and recommendations on protocols, processes, and ideas that can shape public practice as well as the future of CTHQ in years to come.
Art.coop: Art Worlds We Want
groundworks
Resist & Build: Visual Arts & Music
groundworks
“I Can Beat You Up”: Angry Asian Womxn and Sisters in Self Defense
groundworks
Workshop with Trans Boxing
groundworks
Gatherings
Though not all organizing produces joy, there is joy in collective organizing. With these programs, we seek to celebrate the act of coming together, to start something that lingers.
Artist Meals
gatherings
Artist Meals: Evening Meal with BlackMass Publishing
gatherings
Game Nights
gatherings
Parallel Walks
Artist-led walks that occur in two simultaneous, separate places: one walk in New York City, and the other in a different part of the world. Both walks relate to each other through a shared political, social, contextual, or geographic theme.
Parallel Walks: Creating A Community Forest: Artist Walk with Matthew López-Jensen
parallel walks
Parallel Walks: Foraging in the city! What is it? How is it done? And is it worth it? with Journei Bimwala
parallel walks
Parallel Walks: Creating A Community Forest: Artist Walk with Matthew López-Jensen
parallel walks
Parallel Walk with GrowHouse
parallel walks
Parallel Walk: Advancing by turning and turning
parallel walks
Open Mic
Hosted by one artist or collective, guests share in-process or completed work in an intimate, open-ended and supportive setting.
