Brooklyn-based architectural design practice SITU and the Design Trust for Public Space have announced the launch of Turnout NYC, a community-oriented initiative that aims to transform underutilized spaces into vibrant and accessible venues for arts and culture, while highlighting underrepresented New York City-based artists.
The venture, supported by a $2 million grant from the Mellon Foundation, sets out to assist small arts organizations produce public programming despite the ongoing impacts of the pandemic. It will establish flexible and semi-permanent outdoor performance venues, one in each borough, in collaboration with cultural partners within each community. Set to launch this summer, Turnout NYC will host 150-200 events, featuring up to 1,500 artists throughout the season.
“Prior to the pandemic, people living in vulnerable areas already had limited access to cultural opportunities. Today, those scarce opportunities are at a higher risk of disappearing,” said Design Trust for Public Space Executive Director Matthew Clarke. “Building on Design Trust’s experience in activating and transforming underutilized public space throughout the five boroughs, Turnout NYC will create a replicable strategy for place-based interventions that advance equitable access to the arts.”
The program will support equitable access to the arts and provide infrastructure for artists, especially Black, Latinx, Asain, Indigenous, and other historically marginalized peoples. Through the guidance of an Advisory Committee of New York City cultural leaders, including Queens Theater Executive Director Taryn Sacramone, National Black Theater CEO Sade Lythcott, Lucy Sexton of New Yorkers for Culture and Arts, Ted Berger, and other New York-based creatives, Turnout NYC has established partnerships with neighborhood-based Community Cultural Partners across the five boroughs.
In the opening season, the partners include the Brownsville Community Justice Center in Brooklyn, the Point CDC in the Bronx, Alice Austen House in Staten Island, Uptown Grand Central in Manhattan, and the Queensboro Dance Festival in Queens. With these partners, the Turnout NYC team conducted a series of community workshops, site visits, and meetings to understand the needs and priorities at each site. In doing so, SITU developed a kit-of-parts that is designed to be easily reconfigurable for a wide variety of programs and adaptable to a range of site conditions.
The four primary elements include a modular stage, a site marker, a bench, and a ramp, which each have the capability to store within them secondary placemaking components such as folding furniture and signage. When not in use for a Turnout NYC event, the kit is designed to be left outside as plaza furniture and utilized by local community members. Following this inaugural summer season, the kit will be used as a placemaking tool year-round.
“This initiative demonstrates how, in being flexible and creative in how we think about traditional performance venues, we can design our public spaces in ways that enrich New York City’s artistic and cultural life, across all neighborhoods,” said SITU Founding Partner Basar Girit.
Programming for Turnout NYC will be continuously announced and updated on the program’s website here.
1 Comment
This is "Urban Design" at it's BEST!
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