About ISSUE Project Room

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.

Little Carnegie…it cultivates a studied unpredictability…
New York Magazine

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

ISSUE's original East Village location, 2003.

Steve Buscemi and Suzanne Fiol at the Gowanus Silo, 2006.

The Old American Can Factory, 2008.

Architectural detail from ISSUE's 22 Boerum Theater, 2008.

Staff

Board of Directors

Artistic Advisory Council

  • Yoko Ono, Honorary Chair
  • William Basinski
  • Rhys Chatham
  • Seth Cluett
  • Karen Finley
  • Sarah Hennies
  • Bob Holman
  • Shahzad Ismaily
  • Jim Jarmusch
  • Theodore (ted) Kerr
  • Joan La Barbara
  • George Lewis
  • Annea Lockwood
  • Alan Licht
  • Julie Martin
  • Meredith Monk
  • Stephan Moore
  • Aki Onda
  • Éliane Radigue
  • Matana Roberts
  • Julian Schnabel
  • Elliott Sharp
  • Leyya Mona Tawil
  • John Turturro
  • Anne Waldman
  • Robert Wilson
  • Pamela Z

In Memoriam

  • Jo Andres (1954-2019)
  • Paul Auster (1947-2024)
  • Tony Conrad (1940-2016)
  • Alvin Lucier (1931-2021)
  • Lawrence "Butch" Morris (1947-2013)
  • Hal Willner (1956-2020)

Suzanne Fiol (5/9/60 – 10/5/09)

Founder & Artistic Director

Suzanne Fiol was an extraordinary spirit, a force of nature and a prominent figure in the visual and performing arts worlds. As both a visionary artist and the founder of ISSUE, she created one of New York City’s premiere destinations for experimental culture and avant-garde performing arts— a legacy that will resonate for decades to come.

A native of New York City, Suzanne studied at Antioch College and completed her BFA at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, before returning home to acquire her MFA from the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York.

 

As a photographer, Suzanne has exhibited nationally and internationally. Her work was represented for several years by Ezra Mack and has appeared in many publications in the U.S. and abroad. Her photos can be found in many private collections and belong to permanent collections at The Art Institute of Chicago, The Brooklyn Museum, The Queens Museum and The Milwaukee Art Museum.

In 1985, Suzanne became Director of Sales at Light Gallery, NYC before launching the Donald Wren Gallery, NYC where she was named Director in 1987. She moved on to become the Sales Director at the Marcuse Pfeifer Gallery and the Brent Sikkema Gallery. During the fall of 2001, she met Jan-Willem Dikkers and Martynka Wawzyniak. Together they launched Issue Management, a photo agency that represents well-known art photographers such as Jack Pierson, Mitch Epstein, Richard Kern, Renee Cox and Marilyn Minter.

In February 2003, Suzanne founded ISSUE Project Room, an art and performance space on East 6th Street in the East Village. Shortly thereafter, ISSUE migrated to an iconic and beautiful silo in Brooklyn along the banks of the Gowanus Canal. Now located at 22 Boerum Place in the historic McKim, Meade, and White-designed 110 Livingston St. building in Downtown Brooklyn, ISSUE Project Room continues its mission as a performing arts center that provides artists and musicians with a dynamic environment in which to create innovative and challenging work. ArtForum has said, “Suzanne Fiol wanted to make a space for music, performance, and readings in a spirit of love and commitment and created one of the warmest and best-sounding venues in New York.” ISSUE has become one of the most beloved and important showcases for experimental culture in New York City.

On October 5th, 2009, Suzanne Fiol lost her courageous battle with cancer. She was loved deeply and missed by all.