Open Arts LES | October 1-11, 2021

Open Arts is a community-wide arts open house – ten days during which our local cultural organizations invite neighbors get to know what they do and how to engage with their programs.  All programs are free and many offer unique opportunities to meet and get to know the folks making art in the LES.

Open Arts LES 2021 includes:

Open Arts LES 2021 Schedule 
subject to change*

Garden Tunes | October 1, 6-7pm
Art Loisaida Foundation , in partnership with Carmen Pabon Del Amanecer Garden & LUNGS, 117 Ave C

Live musical performance featuring Jim Flynn on Irish harp presenting Irish and American songs as part of the LUNGS Harvest Arts Festival.  Artist and staff Q&A to follow performance.

Visit MOCA |  October 1- 3 & October 8-10:  11-6pm | October 7: 11-9pm
Museum of Chinese in America| More Info 

MOCA will offer free admission to the public to our core exhibition, With a Single Step: Stories in the Making of America and our special exhibition, Responses: Asian American Voices Resisting the Tides of Racism.

Czech and Slovak Tales with Strings |  October 1- 3, various locations and times
GOH Productions, in partnership with Czechoslovak American Marionette Theatre | More Info 

Internationally known Czechoslovak puppeteer, storyteller, and author Vit Horejs performs Czech & Slovak Tales with Strings, a one-man marionette show of fairy tales replete with kings, clever village maidens, witches, and spirits. Horejs’s century-old, hand-carved puppets speak in a dozen voices, dance, play violin, swim, and fly.

Oct 1, 5pm at Childrens’ Magical Garden (Norfolk Street)
Oct 2, 3pm at De Colores Community Garden, East 8th St (between Ave B & C)
Oct 3, 3pm at El Jardín del Paraíso (East 4th Street, between Ave C & D)

Explore the Museum at Eldridge Street | Friday, October 1 & Friday October 8, 10-3pm | Tours at 11am & 1pm
Museum at Eldridge Street | More Info 

Free admission and docent tours. Attendees can meet with the Director of Visitor Services and Program Management to talk about the Museum.

Day in the Park with 0H10 | Saturday, October 2
First Street Green Art Park, 33 E 1st Street

more details coming soon

Legacy Fatale | October 2-10
First Street Green Art Park, 33 E 1st Street

more details coming soon

A Day with ICP | Saturday, October 2
International Center for Photography | More Info

Open Arts LES Pay by Donation Admission | 11-1pm
Donation based admission! Advanced donation tickets can be purchased online at icp.org or at the museum that Saturday morning.

Community Exhibition Tour: Gilliab Laub: Family Matters and Diana Markosian: Santa Barbara | 10am
Sign up for an early access community walking tour of ICP’s new Fall exhibitions Gilliab Laub: Family Matters and Diana Markosian: Santa Barbara. Learn more about the exhibitions through conversations led by ICP’s Managing Director of Programs, David Campany, and Sara Ickow, Senior Manager, Exhibition and Collections. Masks will be required for all participants.

Film Cameras from the ICP Collection |  11-2pm
Join ICP faculty member Kristin Holcomb to learn about analog photography! View film cameras from ICP’s school collection, and discover the analog photographic processes that produced the series of oversized photos that will be printed and on display in the museum lobby.

LES Local Business Street Photography Scavenger Hunt Photo Walk |  1-2pm
Join photographer, community activist, and Lower East Side native, Destiny Mata, for an imagemaking walking tour of the LES! In this hands-on workshop participants of all ages will learn about how to elevate their photography skills using the imagemaking device most accessible to them. Bring your SLR, DSLR camera, your smartphone, or dust off those Polaroids and Holgas!

Explore the Ukrainian Museum!| Sunday, October 3, 11:30-5 pm.
Ukrainian Museum | More Info 

Free admission to the galleries! Staff will be on hand every hour on the hour to introduce the museum and answer visitor questions.

Kehila Kedosha Janina Guided Tour | Sunday, October 3, 11-4pm
Kehila Kedosha Janina | More Info

Free special guided tours of the landmark synagogue and museum. Discover the immigrant experience of this unique community and the devastation they experienced during the Holocaust. Explore the past, present, and future of Greek Jewish life on the Lower East Side and across New York City.

Virtual Open House | Monday, October 4, 6pm
New York Theatre Workshop | More Info

NYTW is hosting an Virtual Open House! Learn about community programs and artist gatherings for this 21/22 season! NYTW staff will share information about the upcoming season’s productions, our ticket initiatives for artists and LES residents, and the various ways audiences of all ages can engage with the theatre’s community programs. In the second half of the Virtual Open House, attendees will participate in a sample activity from NYTW’s popular Networking Nights.

Explore The Tenement Museum | October 7, 5pm, 5:30pm, 6pm
The Tenement Museum  | More Info 

Free, 30-minute guided tours of the museum. Explore the museum’s historically restored apartments and learn about the real Lower East Side families who lived here in the 19th and 20th centuries, and connect to the past and present of migration history in the neighborhood.

Chen Dance Center Open Rehearsal | Friday, October 8, 1-2:30pm
Chen Dance Center | More Info 

Outdoor rehearsal of the company and opportunity to speak with staff and artists at Extra Place (1st Street between 2nd Ave & Bowery).

Stoop Performances | Saturday, October 9, 5pm
KGB Bar and The Red Room, 85 East 4th Street

Jazz and punk music, spoken word and Bellydance, with an MC providing a verbal history of the historic building.

Open Arts Outside | Saturday, October 9, 2-4pm
Avenue B, between 8 + 9th Street

Get to know more about local cultural organizations: workshops, performances, art activities and more!

Artists Alliance Inc. 
Artists Alliance presents a new interactive work by AAI alumnus Ricardo Miranda Zúñiga entitled “FinTech for the Precariat.” FinTech for the Precariat is a desktop application set in a fantastic cityscape populated by Greed, Lust, Gluttony, Envy, gig workers, and 12 voices from New York City’s financial spectrum.

Arts for Art | 3pm
Arts for Art will host a demonstration workshop featuring the Creative Vision Ensemble, youth band

Chen Dance Center | 2:30pm
Dance excerpts by H.T Chen & Dancers: A Lantern Procession and the Bian Dance Celebration Dance.

Earth Celebrations 
Earth Celebrations presents spectacular Climate Solutions Costumes along with an information booth for upcoming programs, workshops and pageant engaging the LES community to create visual art and performances for the 5th annual ECOLOGICAL CITY – Art & Climate Solutions Action project.

East Village Community Coalition
Learn more about WhatsOpenEv! — an online map of open small business in the neighborhood!

Educational Alliance Art School
Drawing Wide-Eyes Open – Artist workshop led by Alex Pimienta.
An approach that sees the world with a fresh attitude. Participants don’t need to have previous experience in drawing, just need to be open to getting intimate in touch with the environment around them and start to put attention to what they really see

Loisaida Inc. 
A photo-op for your sneakers!
As part of the Loisaida Artistic Residency Program; photographer Ebony Cawthorne will be setting up a photo booth (for your sneakers) at Avenue B – Open Arts Outdoor by FAB. Ebony’s project; Tied Together; takes an in-depth look at five New York City youth as they unpack the attraction of sneaker culture in their communities and address the urgency of foundational financial literacy. This short documentary style film will be accompanied with a podcast that goes into the making of the film and how the youth learn about different stages of filmmaking and production.

Museum at Eldridge Street
Get to know more about the Museum at Eldridge Street + fun arts activities!

New York Theatre Workshop
Learn more about New York Theatre Workshops upcoming season and program opportunities

Ping Chong and Company
Join in conversation with Ping Chong and Company artist Jaime Sunwoo about the significance of SPAM (the canned meat) in Asian American communities, in the context of her new play in development *Specially Processed American Me.* Explore the creative process behind the piece, which investigates one of America’s most misunderstood foods through music, shadowplay, and cooking.

Swiss Institute
Artist led workshop

The Performance Project at University Settlement
Learn more about program and community opportunities offered by The Performance Project at University Settlement.

Village Preservation
Village-related art activities and lots of information about advocacy for preservation in our neighborhoods!

Participating Organizations – 2020