About
Photo, left: Rossetti©Phocus. Right: Peter Gannushkin
Our Story
Downtown artists have long collaborated to create performance spaces where they can push the boundaries of their art. To fulfill that common desire, in 1996 they launched the internationally acclaimed Vision Festival, an annual gathering of musicians, dancers, spoken-word and visual artists. For thirteen years, the Festival has been an anchor for a creative community forced to move from venue to venue, from the early days of Context Studios to the closing of Tonic in 2007. Faced with the failure of the market and the disinterest of policy-makers, the artistic community of the Lower East Side comes together again today, self-organizing to open a permanent home where it can share its resources and carry forward its distinctive cultural heritage.
Arts for Art, a multi-discipline arts organization, has put avant-jazz on the map with the Vision Festival. Rise Up Creative Music and Arts (RUCMA) is a grassroots organization of musicians and artists, established by Arts for Art in 2007, to address creative, political, and practical concerns regarding the cultural life of New York City. It is an outgrowth of a movement that originated with the closing of Tonic, Sin-é, CBGB, etc. Together these organizations are reaching a broad spectrum of innovative artists to empower and create solutions. They have cultivated partnerships and initiated diverse performance series' in new locations. They have also partnered with schools and after-school programs to introduce students to the world of improvised music and innovative arts.
The Community Development Initiative, launched in January 2008, is dedicated to the development of a cultural nexus and physical site for the creative arts in Downtown New York. It will be comprised of the arts community, the business community, and the community at large. The CDI is currently organizing a special gala fundraising event. For event information and tickets, please see our events page.
Our People
Board Members
Patricia Nicholson Parker
Lewis Barnes
Jo Wood-Brown
Whit Dickey
William Parker
John Schiek
Bradford K. Smith
Advisory Board
Francis Greenberger - CEO Time Equities
Jan Jaffe - Ford Foundation
Alain Kirili - sculptor
Hiroko Takada
Phil Hartman - The HOWL Festival / Two Boots Pizza
Thomas Buckner - vocalist & head of Mutable Music
Wendy Oxenhorn - Director of the Jazz Foundation of America
Rick Theis - CEO, Amaru Interactive
George Wein - CEO, Festival Productions, Inc. a division of The Festival Network, LLC.
Joe Chonto - Musician, Producer/Host of weekly TV series SOME REAL MUSIC on NYC public television, Documentary Filmmaker
Roberto Barahona - Director, Jazz Department, Radio Beethoven, Santiago - Chile.