ABOUT
Care is a ripple.
From intimate to global, from self-care, care of family and lover, friend and neighbor, town and city, state and country, the global world, care undulates out to our whole island planet and every species upon it. To care is to look after, provide for, to watch over, to grieve, to lament, to cry, to feel concern, to attach importance. In a year of political turmoil, war, and environmental devastation, how wide can our caring arms be embraced? Who can we give care to? What can we care about? What can we watch over? What and who can we be careful about? Who is deemed worthy of care? What is appropriate care? When is care invasive? Should we care? Can we not care? Do we have that luxury? How can we give protective attention, caution, concern, and prudence? Can we extend care beyond our bodily, familial, national, species, and earthly borders? AiOP 2024 asks how art can create spaces and actions of compassionate fearless care. Can we offer and enter them with joy and love?
Art opens a space of empathy – an invitation to see through the eyes and heart and mind of another. An act of hope and imagination – art can help us dream new ways and new worlds into being. We invite you to imagine together how we can bring care to one another and our fraught and fragile world.
Mission
Art in Odd Places aims to stretch the boundaries of communication in the public realm by presenting artworks in all disciplines outside the confines of traditional public space regulations. AiOP reminds us that public spaces function as the epicenter for diverse social interactions and the unfettered exchange of ideas.
History
Art in Odd Places began as an action by a group of artists led by Ed Woodham to encourage local participation in the Cultural Olympiad of the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. In 2005, after moving back to New York City, he re-imagined it as a response to the dwindling of public space and personal civil liberties – first in the Lower East Side and East Village, and since 2008, on 14th Street in Manhattan. AiOP has always been a grassroots project fueled by the goodwill and inventiveness of its participants.
People
Aga Sablinska
PR Strategist
Michelle Leidecker
Social Media Strategist
Raphael Sanche
Volunteer Coordinator
Thinkers in Residence
Gaby Collins-Fernandez
Joyce Yu-Jean Lee
Nicole Archer
Partners
Bureau of General Services – Queer Division is an independent, all-volunteer queer cultural center, bookstore, and event space hosted by The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center in New York City.
bgsqd.com
Pollinate is a community-driven art platform connecting individuals to practiced artists and rich creative experiences. The platform utilizes digital technologies to engage communities unifying the artist and art lover. Both on and offline, Pollinate works to elevate the art experience, making it accessible to the new generation of collectors. In collaboration with AiOP, Pollinate captures the story of each performance and installation to help amplify the narrative to all audiences, regardless of physical boundaries.
pollinate.co
Support
Art in Odd Places is fiscally sponsored by GOH Productions led by Bonnie Stein, Executive Director, and supported in part by public funds from the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the New York City Council, and the New York State Council on the Arts with support of Governor Kathy Hochul, the New York State Legislature, and private donors.
Thanks
And appreciation in no particular order to… Greg Newton and Donnie Jochum from the Bureau of General Services-Queer Division (BGSQD) at the NYC LGBTQ+ Center; Peter Wallach from 14th Street Framing Gallery; Nam Le from Pollinate; Josh Goldfein from Engine 16; Genji Siraisi, MOMENT NY; Philio Trevino, Alexis Offen & Mary Ellen McLaughlin, 14 Street Y; The amazing city of possibilities that is New York City; All of the artists, participants, and supporters of AiOP in New York City over the last 19 years who have built a legacy upon which we are honored to build upon; The democratic society that allows for the freedom to publicly engage with, express, and explore ideas through creative means.
Volunteers
