Fall is always one of the busiest seasons for the arts and it can be a pretty daunting task to try and keep up with all of the exciting programming happening all around the city. Here's a list of some of our favorite events, lectures, and screenings happening this month. Hope to see you there!
SEPTEMBER 28th—30th
Friday—Sunday
BUSHWICK OPEN STUDIOS, throughout Bushwick, Brooklyn: Now in its twelfth year, this free, open-to-all three day festival celebrates the sprawling heart of New York City's thriving art scene. With an estimated 250 venues and artists studios participating, BOS is a fantastic opportunity to meet new up-and-coming artists, check out studio spaces, and scope the scene in a super fun, free-spirited, and remarkably unpretentious way. Check out the Arts in Bushwick website for schedule updates and a forthcoming map!
SEPTEMBER 29th
Saturday
RED HOOK REGATTA, Pioneer Works, Brooklyn: Those of us just looking for a pleasant time on the water over the weekend may direct their attention to Red Hook's Valentino Pier for the fourth annual Red Hook Regatta, hosted by local cultural anchor, Pioneer Works. Because really, what's a better way to spend the last Saturday of September than to watch a bunch of little DIY boats race to the finish, traversing the rough waters of the Red Hook Channel? The free event will feature catered food by Snack Bar and half-time entertainment including DJ sets by Red Hook Record Shop owner Bene Coopersmith, a dance performace by Flagpoles finest and activations by Pioneer Works' Science Studios and BioBus.
SWALE GARDEN TOUR, Governor's Island, Manhattan: Established in 2016 by artist Mary Mattingly, Swale is a floating food forest built atop a 5,000-square-foot barge, welcoming the public to harvest herbs, fruits, and vegetables for free. To celebrate the project's first land-based expansion on Governor's Island, Swale teamed up with the good folks at New York's Atlas Obscura Society to create a series of curated workshops and a tour of the new garden grounds. The $60 ticket provides guests with complimentary wine and beer, as well as a plant dye lab led by textile artist Callen Zimmerman, and a tea demonstration using plants harvested from the Swale gardens. All proceeds from the event will go to benefit Swale's educational programs.
OCTOBER 3rd
Wednesday
NINTH STREET WOMEN: Mary Gabriel in conversation with Deborah Solomon, 6:30 PM at the Whitney Museum of Art, Manhattan: In an evening that can basically be summarized as two badass and groundbreaking women talking about five other badass and groundbreaking women, Pulitzer finalist and National Book Award winner Mary Gabriel will be discussing her newest book, Ninth Street Women: Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, Grace Hartigan, Joan Mitchell, and Helen Frankenthaler: Five Painters and the Movement That Changed Modern Art with WNYC art critic and New York Times contributor Deborah Solomon. There can never be enough occassions or places for strong women to be heard.
OCTOBER 4th
Thursday
DIS: A Good Crisis, 7:00 PM at the New Museum, Manhattan: It's been ten years since the 2008 financial crisis wherein so many of our current socio-economic and political schisms find their divisive roots. Reflecting on this moment in history with three new video works are the consummate subverters at DIS. Scripted in collaboration with economist Moritz Schularick and writer and editor Drew Zeiba, these new works explore the extent to which we may regard the 2008 financial crisis to be considered within the lens of Winston Churchill's apocryphal post-WWII remark, "Never let a good crisis go to waste.”
OCTOBER 6th
Saturday
COMMUNITY CELEBRATION: Something to Say, 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM at the Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn: Hosted by a phenomenal group of artists, the Brooklyn museum invites you to join them in an afternoon of family-friendly workshops accompanied by music, snacks, and... ice cream! Workshops include lawn sign–making with Hank Willis Thomas and For Freedoms, a language exercise with Kameelah Janan Rasheed, and community karaoke with Brooklyn Hi-Art! Machine. The event is free but RSVP is encouraged.
24-HOUR LIVE RAGAS FESTIVAL, 5:00 PM (Saturday) to 5:00 PM (Sunday) at Pioneer Works, Brooklyn: Roughly translated as "to color the mind," this epic music marathon celebrates the vast world of Indian classical music. Each hour-long set will be performed live by a tag-team of over 60 world class musicians and performers, celebrating what the New York Times has called the "Raga Renaissance, flowering in Brooklyn." Tickets are available in advance for individual days starting at $30, while a 24-hour will set you back $60.
OCTOBER 10th
Wednesday
YTO BARRADA, 7:00 PM to 8:30 PM at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn: The internationally renowned Moroccan-French artist will be speaking at Brooklyn's Pratt Institute. Though the lecture is geared toward students, the event is free and open to the public and is a fantastic opportunity to hear from this multifaceted and fascinating artist.
OCTOBER 11th—13th
Thursday—Saturday
nora chipaumire: #PUNK 100% POP*NIGGA, The Kitchen, Manhattan: Zimbabwean artist and performer nora chipaumire is a presence you'd be daft to ignore. Currently based in New York City, chipaumire has been creating works that explore, challenge, and embrace African stereotypes and the black performing body. The Guggenheim fellow will be enacting a three-part work conceived of as a live performance album inspired by chipaumire’s formative years in Zimbabwe during the 1970s, ’80s, and ’90s. Each section explores distinct sonic ideologies—punk, pop, and Congolese rumba—confronted and celebrated through the artists Patti Smith, Grace Jones, and Congolese vocal performer and animator (atalaku) Rit Nzele. It's sure to be a riot. Tickets are available online for $25 general admission and $20 for members.
OCTOBER 14th
Sunday
Indigenous People's Day, 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM at the Queens Museum, Queens: In celebrating culture, resilience, and contemporary activism, the Queens Museum will be hosting a day of workshops, performances, conversations, and presentations. Highlights include a natural fibers knotted hammock-making workshop that pays tribute to the Arawak or Taino people of South America and the Caribbean, an artist talk with mixed media artist Camille Hoffman and Two Clouds, a Ramapough Lenape tribal member and full-time water protector at Split Rock Sweetwater Prayer Camp. The event will also premier the result of an artistic laboratory created by New York based choreographers Cristina Cortés and Donna Ahmadi in a piece titled, KIWE/UAQUE. The event is free and open to the public.
OCTOBER 21st
Sunday
FALL OPEN HOUSE, 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM at MoMA PS1, Queens: Marking the opening of Bruce Nauman: Disappearing Acts, the first comprehensive retrospective of the American artist in over 20 years, artist, composer, and performer Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste will be performing a reinterpretation of Steve Reich’s sculptural performance-composition Pendulum Music. Nauman was among one of the original four participants of this piece when it first debuted at the Whitney Museum of Art back in 1968. Toussant's interpretation promises both attention to the legacy and history of the piece as well as liberty in exploring its new contemporary possibilities. The event is free and open to the public.
OCTOBER 22nd
Monday
LEGAL BASICS EVERY ARTIST SHOULD KNOW, 7:00 PM to 8:30 PM at Powrplnt, Brooklyn: It's free (though a donation is highly encouraged) legal advice, need we say anything more? Space to this event is limited so be sure to RSVP!
OCTOBER 24th
Wednesday
MAYA LIN IN CONVERSATION WITH MARTIN FILLER, 8:00 PM at the 92nd Street Y, Manhattan: Architect Maya Lin has made waves in commemorative architecture and public sculpture both literally and figuratively with her phenomenal earthwork Wave Field (2007-08) at Storm King sculpture park and her controversial and revolutionary Vietnam Veteran's Memorial in Washington D.C., respectively. Discussing her work and the challenges she faced as an Asian American woman in the fields of art and architecture is New York Review of Books contributor Martin Filler who has also written the recent book, Makers of Modern Architecture, Volume III, which features Lin on its cover. Tickets to the discussion start at $35.
OCTOBER 27th
Saturday
HALLOWEEN BALL with SUSANNE BARTSCH, 8:00 PM to 11:59 PM at MoMA PS1, Queens: Now in its seventh year, MoMA PS1 is once again collaborating with New York nightlife legend Susanne Bartsch for its annual Halloween Ball. Featuring performances, DJs, and the most elaborate and outrageous costumes in the city, Cirque de Musée will be a raucous menagerie of wondrous beasts, fantasy revels, and vaudevillian magic. Tickets start at $20.
