Abrons Arts Center

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About

Abrons Arts Center is a non-profit interdisciplinary contemporary arts organization located in Manhattan's Lower East Side neighborhood. Abrons presents performances, exhibitions and arts education programs and is a core program of Henry Street Settlement, a social services organization that was founded in 1893 by reformer and activist Lillian Wald. Abrons is an Off-Broadway performance space that showcases emerging and underrepresented artists in a variety of forms and in 2014 received the Obie's The Ross Wetzsteon Award. .

History

In 1914, philanthropist sisters Alice Lewisohn (1883–1972) and Irene Lewisohn (1892–1944) bought a lot on the corner of Grand and Pitt Streets on New York City's Lower East Side and opened the Neighborhood Playhouse in February 1915. The modest three-story red brick structure, designed by architects Harry C. Ingalls and F. Burrall Hoffman, Jr., showed both motion pictures and theatrical performances.

By 1920, the Playhouse became known for its avant-garde productions, often incorporating dance, music, and poetry, and for its popular revue, The Grand Street Follies. Many early 20th and 21st century modern dancers and artists found a professional home at the Neighborhood Playhouse, including Ernest Bloch, Kurt Schindler, Louis Horst, Martha Graham, Alwin Nikolais, John Cage, Merce Cunningham, and Twyla Tharp.

The Playhouse acting company and school officially moved to a new location in midtown Manhattan in 1927 and the building was renamed the Henry Street Playhouse.

The 1975 addition to the Abrons Arts Center was designed by architect Lo-Yi Chan of the firm Prentice & Chan, Ohlhausen. Construction of the building, originally called the Arts for Living Center, began in 1971. It was conceived during the wake of the Vietnam War and the end of Lyndon B. Johnson's administration where the concept of the Great Society and the war on poverty were central. Its namesake came from the Louis and Anne Abrons Foundation's early support of arts programs. The architects designed the space with the idea of making an arts space that was responsive to the Lower East Side community and in alignment with Henry Street Settlement's belief that the "arts were part of the whole community, the health of the whole community." The architects sought to sensitively respond to the scale, proportion and mass of The Playhouse Theater's older structure without imitating its neoclassical style and to create open spaces for public access and interactions.

Governance & Community

Governance

Abrons Arts Center is a program of the Henry Street Settlement, a 501(c)3 charitable organization whose mission states "that access to the arts is essential to a free and healthy society. Through performance presentations, exhibitions, education programs, and residencies, Abrons mobilizes communities with the transformative power of art."

Abrons Arts Center is the arts pillar for Henry Street Settlement which serves approximately 50,000 people each year and is overseen by a 40-member board of directors. Clients throughout Henry Street Settlement include low-income individuals and families, survivors of domestic violence, children and adults from ages 2 through 21, individuals with mental and physical health challenges, senior citizens, and arts and culture enthusiasts who attend performances, classes and exhibitions at Abrons Arts Center.

Community

Abrons Arts Center is located on Manhattan's Lower East Side, in Community District 3 (CD3). The neighborhood is a historic hub for new immigrants, characterized by a vibrant diversity of cultures and ethnicities, as well as rapidly growing income disparity and gentrification. Abrons serves our local Lower East Side Community to meet the needs and interests of its residents.

Abrons works with local public schools throughout the Lower East Side and is embedded in Henry Street Settlement's other social services departments.

Notable Programs

• 1917: Harlem Renaissance journalist, teacher, playwright, and poet Angelina Weld Grimké's play "Rachel" is performed at the Neighborhood Playhouse. Originally funded by the NAACP and known as one of the first plays by a Black playwright with an all-Black cast performed for an integrated audience, "Rachel" primarily aims to educate white audiences about the truth of racial violence in America.
• 1938: It was the site of the premiere of Aaron Copland's opera The Second Hurricane, directed by Orson Welles.
• 1948: Alwin Nikolais was appointed director of the Henry Street Playhouse, where he formed the Playhouse Dance Company, later renamed and known as the Nikolais Dance Theatre. It was at Henry Street that Nikolais began to develop his own world of abstract dance theater, portraying man as part of a total environment. Nikolais redefined dance as, "the art of motion which, left on its own merits, becomes the message as well as the medium". It was also at the Henry Street Playhouse that Mr. Nikolais was joined by Murray Louis, who was to become a driving force in the Playhouse Company, Nikolais' leading dancer, and longtime collaborator.
• 1954: Paul Taylor's Jack and the Beanstalk made its first appearance in The Playhouse Theater. With ​​music by Hy Gubernick, set and costumes by Robert Rauschenberg and lighting by Marc May.
• 1970: The New Federal Theatre (NFT) was founded by Woodie King, Jr., originally funded by the Henry Street Settlement along with a small grant from the New York State Council on the Arts. The theatre has maintained its production and training programs at Henry Street Settlement's Abrons Arts Center.
• 1976: For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf premiere was Ntozake Shange's first work and most acclaimed theater piece. It consists of a series of poetic monologues to be accompanied by dance movements and music, a form Shange coined as the choreopoem. This work was subsequently performed at The Public Theater and then to Broadway.

Notable Artists

• Martha Graham

• Alwin Nikolais

• John Cage

• Merce Cunningham

• Dizzy Gillespie

• Twyla Tharp

• Ernest Bloch

• Kurt Schindler

• Louis Horst

• Agnes de Mille

• Doris Humphrey

• Charles Weidman

• Okwui Okpokwasili

• Annie B-Parson

• Denzel Washington

• Justin Vivian Bond

• Simone Leigh

• Nora Chipaumire

• Shirin Neshat

• Tito Puente

• Paul Taylor

• Woodie King Jr.

• Mat Fraser

• Julie Atlas Muz

• Julius Eastman

• Ntozake Shange

External Sites

ARTnews, T. E. of. (2019, November 18). 9 art events to attend in New York: Marta Minujín, Harald Szeemann, 'experimental painting,' and more. ARTnews.com. Retrieved June 2, 2022, from https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/9-art-events-to-attend-in-new-york-marta-minujin-harald-szeemann-experimental-painting-and-more-12837/

Bahr, S. (2021, August 3). Abrons Arts Center's fall season celebrates trailblazers. The New York Times. Retrieved June 2, 2022, from https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/03/theater/abrons-arts-center-fall-season.html

Cassell, D. L. (2020, November 5). Lorelei Ramirez brings the fine art of virtual comedy to twitch. Hyperallergic. Retrieved June 2, 2022, from https://hyperallergic.com/585801/lorelei-ramirez-art-is-easy-twitch/

Escoyne, C. (2021, December 9). 3 shows we're hoping to catch this month. Dance Magazine. Retrieved June 2, 2022, from https://www.dancemagazine.com/onstage-december-2020/

Herman, G. (2020, February 11). Manhattan shoe store's Neighborhood Portraits on display in Les Exhibition. amNewYork. Retrieved June 2, 2022, from https://www.amny.com/entertainment/arts-entertainment/manhattan-shoe-stores-neighborhood-portraits-on-display-in-les-exhibition/

Kerpen, C. (2021, June 29). Doing good and doing it well: Advice from 3 inspiring women in Philanthropy. Forbes. Retrieved June 2, 2022, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/carriekerpen/2021/06/29/doing-good-and-doing-it-well-advice-from-3-inspiring-women-in-philanthropy/

Kourlas, G. (2021, April 14). A choreographer diving into grief looks to whales. The New York Times. Retrieved June 2, 2022, from https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/14/arts/dance/mayfield-brooks-whale-fall.html

Libbey, P. (2019, July 12). Abrons Arts Center's coming season to explore difficult topics. The New York Times. Retrieved June 2, 2022, from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/12/theater/abrons-arts-centers-season.html

McGuinness, M. (2018, June 15). Everyone's fine with Virginia Woolf, Abrons Arts Center, New York - consistently hilarious. Subscribe to read | Financial Times. Retrieved June 2, 2022, from https://www.ft.com/content/8a25ff7a-6e50-11e8-8863-a9bb262c5f53

NBC New York. (2022, March 13). News 4 latino: Indigenous history in Latino culture. NBC New York. Retrieved June 2, 2022, from https://www.nbcnewyork.com/our-voices/news-4-latino-indigenous-history-in-latino-culture/3596483/

The New York Times. (2021, August 12). 3 art gallery shows to see right now. The New York Times. Retrieved June 2, 2022, from https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/12/arts/design/-art-gallery-shows-reviews.html

Peterson, P. (2021, January 29). A new photo exhibit looks at decades of FBI surveillance on American citizens. BuzzFeed News. Retrieved June 2, 2022, from https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/piapeterson/puerto-rico-fbi-files-photos-carpetas

Raez, C. F. (2021, April 8). Lacoste x Polaroid: Ellen Von Unwerth Photo exhibit. Flaunt Magazine. Retrieved June 2, 2022, from https://flaunt.com/content/lacoste-x-polaroid-ellen-von-unwerth

Recipients of 2019 Bessie Awards announced. The online edition of Artforum International Magazine. (2019, October 15). Retrieved June 2, 2022, from https://www.artforum.com/news/recipients-of-2019-bessie-awards-announced-81031

Report: Jerry Stiller left money to Abrons Arts Center and Henry Street Settlement in his will. Bowery Boogie. (n.d.). Retrieved June 2, 2022, from https://boweryboogie.com/2021/01/report-jerry-stiller-left-money-to-abrons-art-center-and-henry-street-settlement-in-his-will/

Satenstein, L. (2019, October 28). Meet the duo crafting poems from the nonsensical slogans of bootleg T-shirts. Vogue. Retrieved June 2, 2022, from https://www.vogue.com/article/https/wwwvoguecom/article/shanzhai-lyric-poem-by-alexandra-tatarsky-ming-lin

Satenstein, L. (2019, October 28). Meet the duo crafting poems from the nonsensical slogans of bootleg T-shirts. Vogue. Retrieved June 2, 2022, from https://www.vogue.com/article/https/wwwvoguecom/article/shanzhai-lyric-poem-by-alexandra-tatarsky-ming-lin

Seibert, B. (2018, January 16). On artists and audiences at American realness. The New York Times. Retrieved June 2, 2022, from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/16/arts/dance/american-realness-festival-review.html

Seibert, B. (2021, February 9). What's A Dance Theater without an audience? The New York Times. Retrieved June 2, 2022, from https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/09/arts/dance/dance-theaters-without-live-performance.html

Shannon, O. (2022, March 11). Faith Ringgold's story quilts, a minimalist vacuum, and other design finds. Curbed. Retrieved June 2, 2022, from https://www.curbed.com/2022/03/faith-ringgold-story-quilts-new-museum-minimalist-furniture-grt-cheryl-miller-collection-lubalin.html

TodayShow. (2021, February 5). Lunar New Year celebrations this year aim to help struggling Chinatowns. TODAY.com. Retrieved June 2, 2022, from https://www.today.com/food/lunar-new-year-celebrations-year-aim-help-struggling-chinatowns-t208213

Untapped New York, Lambert, A., Madrigal, I., & Scott, M. (2020, February 27). Lost photos from a Lower East Side shoe repair revealed in neighborhood-wide exhibition. Untapped New York. Retrieved June 2, 2022, from https://untappedcities.com/2020/02/27/lost-photos-from-a-lower-east-side-shoe-repair-revealed-in-neighborhood-wide-exhibition/

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