Common Practice New York
Inaugural symposium, conference and publication with the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College
2013–2014
Incubator Grant
Common Practice New York is an advocacy group that fosters research and discussion about the role of small-scale arts organizations in New York City. The founding members of Common Practice New York are Artists Space, The Kitchen, Light Industry, Participant Inc, Printed Matter, Triple Canopy, and White Columns. The first major initiative of Common Practice included a series of invitational roundtables on contemporary institutional practice organized in collaboration with students and faculty from the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College (CCS Bard), which took place during fall 2013. A public symposium developed in response to these seminars was held at Artists Space in May 2014 and resulted in a publication. VIA was a primary funder of this first effort, alongside the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and the Lambent Foundation/Fund of Tides Foundation.
Common Practice New York aims to collectively embody the question, What is our common practice and why do we value it? The group acknowledges a growing need for critical discussions that extend beyond the churn of organizational programming schedules and the rhetoric of mission statements. They aim to collectively examine how small-scale New York arts organizations are perceived and evaluated by audiences, artists, and funders; identify the challenges of operating in today’s climate; and revive discussions of obstacles and inequalities which have persisted since the rise of the alternative space. In doing so, Common Practice New York hopes to develop new knowledge and further a discourse on ethical positions for the presentation of art and ideas in the twenty-first century.
To learn more, visit Common Practice New York.
Images: Installation view of Danh Vo, Autoerotic Asphyxiation, Artists Space, 2010. Courtesy of Artists Space; Half Straddle, Ancient Lives, January 7–17, 2015, The Kitchen. Photo: Paula Court. Courtesy of The Kitchen; Documentation of Marie Karlberg and Leigha Mason, Infested, Artists Space Books & Talks, 2013, Courtesy of Artists Space; Printed Matter interior at 195 Tenth Avenue, 2014, courtesy of Printed Matter; Emily Roysdon, If Only a Wave, installation view. Photo: Rona Yefman. Courtesy of Participant Inc.
