Flux Factory, Queens. 2017

Building Stories is an exhibition of artistic activism by More Art’s 2016 Engaging Artists (in Residence) that pursue creative responses to housing justice movements, across the city, from Chinatown to Bedford-Stuyvesant. Each project takes a critical approach to the way cities and neighborhoods shape the lives of their inhabitants, and likewise, how inhabitants shape the environments they call home. The exhibition as a whole envisions the city as a living ecology of generative feedback loops between infrastructure (social, political and physical), individuals, and communities.

Premised on the belief that long-term socially-engaged art projects can make a positive impact on communities, More Art’s unique Engaging Artists Residency supports emerging artists and  builds relationships with grassroots organizations through its four month professional development and volunteer programs. Focusing on issues of housing rights, preservation, and tenant justice, 2016’s partner organizations included CAAAV: Chinatown Tenants Union, Movement for Justice en El Barrio, New York Cares, Picture the Homeless, Queens Neighborhoods United, among numerous others. 

In order to forge meaningful exchanges between all participants, the exhibiting artists work in numerous capacities that enrich their individual practices while placing primacy on the needs of partner activist organizations and their constituents. The work in the exhibition and the programs and live events that bring the show to life are primarily informed and inspired by experiences of artist’s working with neighbors to shape the direction and tenor of housing activism.

Featuring work by:

BRIDGET BARTOLINI
DANIELLE DELADE
ALEXANDER DWINNEL
JOHNATHAN GARDENHIRE
ANEETA MITHA
ILARIA ORTENS
ALDO SOLIGNO AND CYNTHIA TOBAR
PRISCILLA STADLER