Engaging Community through Youth Involvement in New York City

Working with our strategic partners, Flux Factory and Eyebeam Gallery, Brooklyn high school students have the opportunity to interact with and receive training from international artists and community organizers through the Artist-in-Community program.
Meet our current Artist-in-Community, Ottjörg

fD's Artist-in-Community program is offered in partnership with Flux Factory, an artist-run residency program and non-profit arts center that commissions collaborative projects and Eyebeam, an art and technology center that provides a fertile context and state-of-the-art tools for digital research and experimentation, in Queens and Manhattan respectively. Each year, the Artist-in-Community initiative invites a socially-engaged artist to experience the diverse offerings of NYC through a multiborough process of youth engagement, community organizing and innovative exhibition. Artist-in-Community (AiC) is a pilot project of the fD network by which nominations for the visiting artist and/ or community organizer are solicited from throughout the network. This allows the network partners to participate in placements outside of their local area while providing the NYC program with trusted referrals.

In 2008 The Townhouse Gallery (Cairo) nominated an Egyptian artist, Doa Aly, for the Artist-in-Community (AiC) position; in 2009 UfaFabrik (Berlin) nominated a German artist, Ottjoerg A.C.; and for 2010 the AiC position is offered to an artist from the Euro- Med region working in any media whose focus is youth and community. fD's 2010 Artist-in-Community is offered as a part of the Res Artis Awards program at the Biennial of Young Artists from Europe and the Mediterranean in Skopje, Macedonia. fD and Res Artis are intersecting networks.

Additionally fD convenes its own events, such as the 2007 Censorship Show and 2008 'Off the Wall' Festival of Art and Human Rights, and supports our partner-led events, such as the China LGBT Film Festival (NYC) with Asia Catalyst and the EXILE exhibit at Townhouse Gallery during the 'Forced Migration in a Changing World' conference (Cairo).

freeDimensional was founded in New York City in 2005 with offices at the Pratt Center for Community Development and the Magnolia Tree Earth Center during 2006 and 2007 (and a residency program at the Carlton Arms Hotel from 2007-2009). In order to stay abreast of global issues and the suppression of independent voices, freeDimensional established four more regional hubs in Cairo, Sao Paulo, Berlin and Pondicherry. These offices provide on-the-ground support for local initiatives that link partner centers to activists and human rights organizations. The network-in-residence approach is an office rotation strategy to build ownership and horizontally distribute decision-making across the network. Office rotation is determined during the annual meeting when network members make plans for the following year, including activities of the regional hubs and hosting of freeDimensional's administrative functions.

After three years of informal collaboration, The Flux Factory in Queens has become the official NYC hub center and will host an fD office as well as the Artist-in-Community residency program starting in 2010.

History

Center for International Art in Community was the first freeDimensional network-in-residence office, housed at the Pratt Center for Community Development as a part of the neighborhood planning process for Bedford-Stuyvesant in Central Brooklyn. fD was hosted at Pratt because our programs responded to specific youth interests that arose through the community-driven planning process, including the development and support of after-school programs. During this period, the Artist-in-Community (AiC) concept was born.