ISSUE Project Room plays a vital role in NYC’s cultural ecology, facilitating the commission and premiere of new works and presenting a diverse array of artists working across sound, movement, film, performance and literature. Programming aims to bring recognition to artists whose important contributions fall beyond infrastructural boundaries of discipline or genre, elude audience expectations, or are otherwise underrepresented as a result of bias within the fields of art and performance, and broader histories of social and economic participation. Through the cultivation of innovative new work, ISSUE performs an essential research and development function that fosters a dynamic influx of ideas into the local, national, and international creative landscape.

History

ISSUE Project Room was established in 2003 by late visionary Suzanne Fiol in response to a dearth of art centers fostering creative practice. Through presentation in an array of homes in the East Village, Gowanus, and Downtown Brooklyn, ISSUE has evolved into “Brooklyn’s leading avant-garde venue” (The Wall Street Journal).

ISSUE has an extended history of bringing forth a diversity of programs, practices, curation and thinking. We give experimental artists and curators an opportunity to amplify topics in any way they see fit. A significant archive of performance documentation represents both an important link to the past, and a future resource for artists and audiences.

Since its inception, ISSUE maintained a flexible and ephemeral relationship with space and geography, occupying temporary homes including a garage in the East Village, a silo on the Gowanus Canal, and a third-floor loft in a former canning factory.

In 2008, ISSUE was awarded a long-term lease on a theater in Downtown Brooklyn. Offering a centralized location and an audience capacity more than double that of any previous space ISSUE had occupied, the 22 Boerum Pl. theater helped facilitate a degree of publicity and awareness unique for our community of under-recognized artists.

The 22 Boerum Pl. theater is located on Lenapehoking, the unceded homeland of the Lenape people. We pay our respects and honor the Indigenous Lenape Tribes & Leaders - past, present and future - who steward the land. We look to ensure that space uplifts and advances conversations about indigeneity, land and access through artistic discourse.

In late 2021, the 22 Boerum Pl. theater was generously donated to our organization by Two Trees Management. With ownership, ISSUE is proud to realize Suzanne Fiol’s vision of a permanent home for experimental performance in Downtown Brooklyn.

Curation & Partnership

ISSUE engages in a collaborative approach toward curation, organized by our core staff with participation from artists and independent curators including current and past recipients of the Suzanne Fiol Curatorial Fellowship. ISSUE's staff takes an active and discursive role in facilitating projects from conception to completion, informed by various perspectives spanning curatorial, administrative and technical departments.

ISSUE is deeply committed to partnering with like-minded organizations that support the creation and presentation of experimental performance practices while sharing resources, in service of artists and audiences.

ISSUE is in regular dialogue with local, national, and international experimental arts communities, and also invites curatorial mentorship from the Artistic Committee of ISSUE's Board of Directors and our Artistic Advisory Council. We do not take unsolicited inquiries for programming, however we welcome all to join at ISSUE events to meet, and engage in a dialogue with the ISSUE team.

Programs

ISSUE’s programs strive to support exploration, and artistic expression that can elevate advocacy, activism and open dialogue. ISSUE is committed to advancing engagement within our institutional processes, thinking and practices in order to enhance the impact of programs, administration and governance.

Offering opportunities for experimental multidisciplinary artists to develop and present challenging programming, the organization is focused on five key areas: cultivating new work by emerging artists through ISSUE’s Artists-In-Residence program; presenting inventive practices that have limited institutional support; commissioning artists to take substantial steps in their creative practice; bringing increased recognition to pioneering artists and enabling rare U.S. appearances by underrecognized international artists; and engaging emerging NYC curators to organize challenging projects through a Fellowship program.

Artists-In-Residence Program

Since 2006, the AIR series has served a central role in fulfilling ISSUE’s mission to support artists in the local community. The program encourages selected NYC-based artists to take unprecedented creative risks in reaching the next stage in their artistic development, providing residents with a stipend plus production, marketing and curatorial support to create and present up to 3 new works over the course of a year.

Emerging Practices

ISSUE is committed to presenting inventive practices that have received limited institutional support. Often arising from alternate contexts and communities, these disparate approaches and artistic forms benefit from focused opportunities for presentation at key stages of development. ISSUE provides resources for the cultivation of this artistry, as well as a platform for artists to reach new audiences, settings, and collaborations, often presenting work alongside influential pioneers.

Commissioning Work

ISSUE commissions local, national, and international artists to develop innovative new work that take substantial steps in their creative practice. ISSUE facilitates the development and presentation of artists’ new ideas, encouraging risk-taking and experimentation across disciplines. Special attention is given to ambitious and imaginative projects otherwise lacking in institutional support.

Pioneering & International Artists

ISSUE upholds the achievements of artists who remain under-represented in the contemporary landscape despite important contributions to the creative field, regularly facilitating rare performances of new and historic work by a diverse range of artistic pioneers. ISSUE also continues to actively facilitate opportunities for under-recognized international artists to present their work to NYC audiences - often enabling the first-ever U.S. appearances by a diverse range of cutting-edge artists.

Curatorial Fellowship

During the summer of 2016, ISSUE announced the launch of the Curatorial Fellowship. The fellowship program commissions an emerging NYC curator to organize challenging projects, serving a central role in fulfilling ISSUE’s mission to support an influx of new ideas into the community.

Affiliations

Coalition of Small Arts NYC
New Yorkers for Culture & Arts
Downtown Brooklyn Arts Alliance
National Independent Venue Association
New York Independent Venue Association