Fostering Emerging Artist Communities: A Cross-City Dialogue between Philadelphia and DC
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On the occasion of Transformer publishing its 20th-anniversary retrospective book, this exciting and thought-provoking panel discussion will bring the DC-based organization into conversation with peer art spaces from Philadelphia. Co-hosted by Transformer and Vox Populi, this enlightening conversation will delve into the ways in which artist-centered alternative art spaces support emerging artist communities and explore the ways in which these organizations can learn from each other and celebrate their shared values.
Furthermore, the panel discussion will, and create a stronger connection between the vibrant art scenes of both cities while appreciating the distinctive attributes of each city's artistic landscape.
PRESENTING ORGANIZATIONS
Asian Arts Initiative connects cultural expression and social change, using art as a vehicle to explore the diverse experiences of all communities which include Asian Americans. Located in Philadelphia’s Chinatown North, Asian Arts Initiative is a multidisciplinary arts center offering exhibitions, performances, artist residencies, youth workshops, and a community gathering space. Here, all of us can view and create art that reflects our lives, and think critically, creatively about the future we want to build for our communities.
Space 1026 is a collective of artists, musicians, makers, and dreamers. Formed in 1997, they established a gallery and studio spaces at 1026 Arch St. in Philadelphia’s Chinatown before moving to their current location on N. Broad St. in 2019. Space 1026 continues to provide studio spaces, print membership, and a gallery/performance space.
Transformer is a Washington, DC based 501 (c) 3 artist-centered, non-profit visual arts organization. Founded in June 2002 by artists & arts organizers, Transformer’s mission is to connect, elevate, and serve a diversity of emerging artists and arts leaders. Transformer develops innovative, multi-faceted exhibition and program platforms, both independently and through global partnerships, to present artists’ evolving ideas and work, advance new and best visual arts practices, and engage audiences with emerging contemporary art.
Ulises is a bookshop and curatorial platform dedicated to artists’ books and independent art publications that explores the relationship between publics and publications. Hosting projects, exhibitions, and residencies, Ulises’s open-ended programming explores publishing as an incubator for new forms of artistic, editorial, curatorial, and pedagogical practice. Ulises sees the democratic potential of publishing as a vehicle for activism, education, assembly, and exchange.
Vox Populi is a contemporary art space and artist collective, founded in 1988, that works to support the challenging and experimental work of under-represented artists with monthly exhibitions, gallery talks, performances, lectures, and related programming. For three decades, Vox Populi has played a unique role in the cultural life of Philadelphia by bringing our audience a diverse range of programming and providing a supportive environment in which artists can take risks and gain valuable professional experience.
Panelists:
Crystal Stokowski is a mother, activist, surfer, and autodidactic artist who primarily works with second hand, upcycled, & found materials. An alum of Space 1026 in Philadelphia, Stokowski also co-founded TPAIRR, an Artist in Residence program at her home located in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. TPAIRR offers an alternative approach to artist residencies by providing an unconventional application process and a complimentary space for connection, reflection, & inspiration. Stokowski is currently in her second year of organizing a free monthly Surf Film Night that benefits radical non profits locally and around the globe. Each event highlights artists in the community and presents films that impart a response to climate change and social injustices within mainstream surf culture.
Dave Kyu is the Director of Programs at Asian Arts Initiative. Dave began working with Asian Arts Initiative as an artist in its inaugural Social Practice Lab cohort in 2011, and led the organization through its first community planning process, creating People: Power: Place: a cultural plan for Chinatown North/Callowhill. Born in Seoul, South Korea, Dave is a graduate of the Tyler School of Art, and has received a Certificate in Principles of Innovation from Philadelphia University. Dave also ran the Neighborhood Time Exchange artist residency from 2014-2019 with the Mural Arts Program, has commissioned public art for the City of Philadelphia's Percent for Art Program, and is a co-founder of Practice Gallery. Currently, he is the co-editor of the Campfire Stories book series, and a member of the Philadelphia Assembly.
Raúl Romero is an artist based in Philadelphia, PA, working in sound, sculpture, installation and performance. He earned a B.A. in Communication from the University of South Florida and an MFA in Sculpture from Yale University School of Art. He works at the University of the Arts as Director for Special Projects, President's Office. At UArts, he runs the Inspiration Lab Artist-in-Residence program known as iLAB and also administers the Creative Research and Innovation Grants for UArts faculty and staff. Romero has been awarded the Velocity Fund and an artist fellowship from the National Association of Latino Arts and Culture and is a NALAC NLI 2023 Fellow. He is a member of Vox Populi Gallery and has been a resident artist at the Lenapehoking Waterspirit Residency at PEEC, and RAIR, Recycling Artist in Residence program in Philadelphia.
Victoria Reis is a curator, writer, and arts organizer who has been actively supporting contemporary visual artists and arts organizations within local, national, and international contexts since 1991. In 2002, Reis co-founded Transformer, an internationally recognized non-profit visual arts organization based in Washington, DC. Since 2006, Reis has been leading Transformer as its Executive & Artistic Director, developing and presenting substantial exhibitions and programs in support of emerging artists, innovative cultural production, and new & best practices within contemporary visual art. Reis has established comprehensive cultural partnerships & collaborations with an extensive range of arts, educational, and diplomatic organizations and institutions. She has launched and advanced the careers of several hundred artists. In May 2017, Reis expanded Transformer’s programming to include Siren Arts, an Asbury Park, NJ based summer residency program for emerging visual artists working within the performance art discipline. Siren Arts will be presenting its 8th season of programming summer 2024. Reis was a Founding Member of Common Field, a national network of art spaces and artist-led initiatives. She has been a member of ArtTable since 2000. In 2018, she joined the Board of Directors of Monmouth Arts, a non-profit arts organization supporting artists and arts organizations throughout Monmouth County, NJ.
Ricky Yanas is a Texas-born artist, educator, and curator living in Philadelphia. Working within a pragmatic tradition of problem finding, his work extends through a variety of disciplines (photography, documentary film, installation and archival investigation) with the aim to create inter-sectional/inter-historical spaces of inquiry, mutual engagement, and collaboration through collective art making and ideological exploration. Yanas' projects include “Extension or Communication: Puerto Rico” at Tiger Strikes Asteroid Gallery Philadelphia and Taller Puertorriqueno and “The Green Sun”, a collaboration with artist Kristen Neville-Taylor, that brings together practitioners from environmental and creative sectors to re-envision the role of energy in our lives - past, present and future. Most recently, he co-curated “An Exchange of Shifting Atmospheres”, with Leslie Moody Castro, at Tiger Strikes Asteroid Philly. The exhibition centered on the artistic collaborations between five artist pairs working in Philadelphia and Mexico City. Developed since the beginning of the pandemic, the final works offered a glimpse into subtle and latent themes shared across the borders of city and country during that unprecedented time. The second portion of this exhibition was on view at LaNao Gallery in Mexico City through July of 2023. In 2016, Yanas founded Ulises Books with Nerissa Cooney, Lauren Downing, Joel Evey, Kayla Romberger and Gee Wesley. Ulises will be opening its new storefront location at the Ray building on N. American St. in early 2024.