At Storefront for Art and Architecture, we remain in a liminal space – between vulnerability and resilience, between grief and hope, between pausing and planning. Amidst all the noise, we have begun a process of recalibration, one that we know must be both bold and iterative.

 

 

A few weeks ago, we shared the news that Storefront will interrupt its previously planned activities for On Maintenance, a new program presenting works that reflect upon our current time. Throughout the program, we’ll explore and challenge the notion of maintenance and its many manifestations in our public and private spaces. This begins next week with the relaunch of StorefrontTV; read more about the season and the episode, and tune in here.

 

 

Today, on Juneteenth, we join in commemorations that honor liberation and that remember the ongoing struggles for justice and equity by black people in the United States and worldwide. We believe that transformative change, although unrealized thus far, is possible, and we stand in solidarity with the affirmation that Black Lives Matter. To learn more about Storefront’s preliminary response, you can read our initial statement to members and supporters below. More is forthcoming.

 

 

 
Today, we are writing to you as a member, patron, or friend who has generously supported Storefront for Art and Architecture over the past few years, and in many cases well before. Thank you for your support.

 

Over the past week, Storefront’s staff members have been vacillating between modes of sadness, anger, restlessness, and hope. As a small team of non-black people of color, we have all individually experienced forms of discrimination and systemic racism in our own lives, and this moment, while it is and should be centered on the particular forms of injustice and oppression faced by black people, resonates with us in ways that are both expected and surprising. We’ve been reflecting upon our own relationships to privilege, institutional racism, allyship, and empathy. We recognize the need to claim responsibility and ownership of our biases and those of our respective communities, and to habitually speak out in support of black lives, especially in the spaces where we have agency to effect change.

 

As a result of these conversations, we believe that silence is unacceptable, and we are heartened by the many expressions of solidarity from organizations and individuals who strive to do better. We also recognize that any institutional statement that asserts that Black Lives Matter is only meaningful insofar as it comes with action, and that any action must in part include a deep interrogation of our policies and methodologies. We commit to developing an action plan that implements changes in the areas of board and staff composition, labor practices, compensation, artist selection, and more. These interrogations are not easy, but they are essential and overdue, and we welcome the challenge of learning, listening, engaging, and self-questioning that they require.

 

In doing so, we have been reflecting upon Storefront’s history. As a friend of the organization, you may know that Storefront was founded in 1982, in a New York City that was very different in many ways from the one we currently inhabit. Despite a narrative of growth embedded in capitalist optimism and rhetoric, there were devastating manifestations of inequity that are still so painfully visible today. The most vulnerable populations experienced homelessness, police brutality, discrimination based on gender identity, gentrification-led displacement, and more — issues that persist, and that disproportionately impact black, brown, and indigenous communities.

 

Storefront was born into this context, cultivated by artists, architects, and creatives who sought to infuse the realms of art and architecture with civic engagement and activism, and to address the complexities of our built environment from alternative perspectives. This was done through exhibition making, of course, but also through actions, campaigns, and collective gathering for discussion and debate. The result was the creation of a space that was in the service of publicness, as well a diverse community of artists and architects who explicitly sought to question the status quo, and who did not hesitate to be critical, subversive, or incisive in their words and actions. We seek to uphold the spirit of this history, but in doing so, we know that we must also work in ways that are more self-critical, more aware, and more just. 

 

As a friend of Storefront, we hope to continue to earn your support beyond that which is financial, and we also hope to be able to engage with you directly to take action. We want to hear from you about how and what you’re doing.

 

One small effort to start our collective conversations is that we are putting together a list of resources from our members and friends. So many of you have been sharing important information about organizations seeking donations, solidarity funds, compilations of resources, critical readings, and more. If you’d like to participate, we ask you to send us your suggestions for 1) an action, 2) a fund or way to donate; 3) an organization doing key work, 4) a work of art and/or architecture, and 5) a text (i.e. article, book, poem, etc.) that resonate with you in these times. We will compile these, credit them, and share more broadly. We have begun this with the list below.

 

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José Esparza Chong Cuy

Action: #8cantwait

Organization: Black Gotham Experience and Sweet Water Foundation

Artwork: Color(ed) Theory Series by Amanda Williams (see Amanda’s TED Talk here)

Text: “Remember, No One Is Coming To Save Us” by Roxane Gay; Nobel Lecture by Toni Morrison

 

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Action: Repeal 50-A to Stop Hiding Police Disciplinary Records (read more here)
Monetary Support: Directory of Community Bail Funds
Organization: Color of Change and Soul Fire Farm
Artwork: Deconstructed Anthems by Ekene Ijeoma (see artist interview here)
Text: “Non-Black People of Color Perpetuate Anti-Blackness Too” by Sean Dajour Smith; A Litany for Survival by Audre Lorde

 

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Jessica Kwok

Action: Mapping Police Violence
Monetary Support: Queer Detainee Empowerment Project
Organization: Showing Up For Racial Justice and HOUSING
Artwork: rootkits rootwork by Devin Kenny (read more about the exhibition here)
Text: Women, Race, & Class by Angela Y. Davis; The End of Policing by Alex S. Vitale