The Art of Land panel discussions marks the closing of Life Between Buildings at MoMA PS1 and the launch of Activist Estates of the Lower East Side, a digital exhibition organized by Nandini Bagchee and Libertad Guerra of The Clemente.  Both MoMA PS1 and The Clemente are sited in decommissioned public school buildings with unique trajectories as institutions committed to supporting artists and their communities.  Drawing on this shared history, a presentation on January 14th at MoMA PS1 explores how artists and cultural organizations have reclaimed municipal buildings to creative ends, intersecting with and navigating the forces of gentrification.  On January 15th, The Clemente hosts a conversation on the impact of arts and cultural workers in the Community Land Trust movement in New York City.

The urban historian and architect, Nandini Bagchee, and Curator and Executive Director of The Clemente Soto Velez, Libertad Guerra, have teamed up to launch a digital exhibition and public resource, a spin off of the eponymous book, Counter Institution: Activist Estates of the Lower East Side by Bagchee. This digital exhibit, accessible at AELES.org, makes the contents of the book and its research publicly accessible and complements it with an interactive map identifying the areas’ historic buildings, coded across themes and modalities of anti-war organizing, ecological and im/migrant centers, and artistic/anti-authoritarian nodes. 

To learn more about The Art of Land panel discussions please visit: https://www.momaps1.org/events/185-the-art-of-land

Institutions Beyond Institutions: Reimagining Architectures of Bureaucracy

January 14th at 3 p.m.

MoMA PS1

Free with RSVP

The Art of Land: Cultural workers and the Community Land Trust movement in NYC

January 15th at 2 p.m.

The Clemente

Free with RSVP

Organization Descriptions:

The Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural & Educational Center Inc. is a Puerto Rican/Latinx multi-arts cultural institution rooted in NYC’s Lower East Side/Loisaida. While focused on the cultivation, presentation, and preservation of Puerto Rican and Latinx culture, we are equally committed to a multi-ethnic / international latitude, determined to operate in a polyphonic manner that provides affordable working space and venues to artists, small arts organizations, emergent and independent community producers that reflect the cultural diversity of the LES and our City.

MoMA PS1 Artist-centered and community-driven, MoMA PS1 embraces boundary-breaking ideas and experimental practices. A place where audiences can encounter and engage with new art and perspectives, the institution has offered insight into artists’ worldviews for nearly 50 years. Driven by a commitment to realizing artists’ visions, our programs explore the ways in which creative expression can inspire connection.