THE FOOTLIGHT BAR RIDGEWOOD PATCH
THE FOOTLIGHT BAR RIDGEWOOD FULL

During our two years there we partnered with over sixty artists and organizations on exhibitions, pop-up installations, artist and curator talks, film screenings, magazine launches, dinner parties, drag shows, and, well, parties. My next space was GLORIA’S at its original location as a storefront in Ridgewood, Queens. As the old Silent Barn adage goes, “spaces are temporary but people are forever.” As luck would have it, a fire broke out during the first event I organized and all residents were forced to move out that night. As with many places in Williamsburg at the time, the building was eventually purchased by The Man who promptly evicted us.įollowing that, I was an artist-in-residence at the Silent Barn in Bushwick, which functioned as a concert & performance venue, bar, studio space, theater, gallery, recording studio, residency program, library-more or less whatever you needed it or wanted it to be. The gallery itself was fairly small but the freight elevator opened onto the street and was perfect for performances-a highlight was Azikiwe Mohammed’s Oh Fo Sho Pizza Sto, a pop-up pizza parlor where we melted the cheese with a blow torch.

That was my first opportunity to consistently program the same space, which was a blast. Because I had no idea what I was doing, the show featured twenty artists and four performers for one night on my birthday during Bushwick Armory Week, which is something I’d like to think I’ll never do again.Ī couple of years later I met Vanessa Liberati of Gitana Rosa Gallery and took over her Williamsburg project space as the Associate Director when she moved the gallery to Chelsea. Upon moving to New York, I threw events at a number of different spaces around the city, the first of which was a group show I put together as an excuse for all of my friends to meet. I would consider Eclectic to be the first space I ran, albeit in conjunction with many other people. Can you give us some insight into the many projects and spaces you have run over the years? Your latest project is Gloria’s, which was located in Ridgewood, but recently relocated to Chinatown during the pandemic. When we spoke on the phone, I was so intrigued by the history of spaces and projects that you have spearheaded and run over the years. Lawrence also gave me a great piece of advice that has very much influenced my practice: If it looks real people will think it’s real. You used to manage studios for Lawrence Weiner and David Byrne-how have those experiences impacted your perspective on running a space?īoth positions provided me invaluable work experience, of course, but I think the most inspiring part of the roles was just being around artists who were just that-artists.

THE FOOTLIGHT BAR RIDGEWOOD FULL

In what was likely a backlash to the monotonous suburban landscape of my upbringing, I moved into a series of the weirdest spaces I could find, including but not limited to: a former gallery space above a tire repair shop on Atlantic Avenue a floor-through loft in Williamsburg with two kitchens, three full bathrooms, and sixteen roommates an old elementary classroom with access to a deconsecrated church but no shower, the reno of which is now the most expensive apartment in Bushwick Gitana Rosa Williamsburg Project Space that had a shower but no kitchen the artist collective and concert venue Silent Barn a storefront-turned-artist-studio in Ridgewood, Queens, with a shower in the kitchen and, finally, for now, a long-vacant former employment agency in Chinatown.

I dropped out of Wesleyan after my sophomore year, moved back home to Arizona where I worked as a concert production manager and graduated from ASU, and then made my way to New York.

THE FOOTLIGHT BAR RIDGEWOOD PATCH

We threw shows and parties in the ballroom on the first floor (including our annual sex party during which a penis balloon popped in my eye, landing me in a very cool eye patch for the rest of the night.) I lived on the second floor, just above the stage, so I was always kind of “at the show” whether I liked it or not. After graduating high school I went to Wesleyan University for a couple of years and was a member of the Eclectic Society-essentially a gender-inclusive frat-where about twenty of us lived in a huge Greek revival building. I grew up in the suburbs of Phoenix with cool parents, a late curfew, and a fake ID and, as such, often found myself at alternative spaces and clubs during my formative years. Can you tell us a bit about your background, and how you got interested in running a space?

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