NEW VENUES FOR NEW YORK ARTISTS
Learn how Turnout NYC is transforming arts access across the five boroughs
Confronting unequal arts access in
New York City.
Prior to the pandemic, people living in vulnerable areas already had limited access to cultural opportunities. Today, those scarce opportunities are at a higher risk of disappearing. Turnout NYC is creating a model for how to leverage public spaces as accessible venues for arts and culture.
Building a coalition of
artists and arts organizations.
Turnout NYC is led by Design Trust for Public Space, a nonprofit organization dedicated to activating and transforming shared public spaces to create a more just, equitable, and sustainable city, and SITU, an architectural practice centered on social and creative impact. Guided by an Advisory Committee of NYC cultural leaders, the venture prototyped flexible and semi-permanent outdoor venues—one in each borough— in collaboration with cultural partners from within each community.
Transforming underutilized public spaces
into vibrant cultural venues.
Beyond hosting a summer of creative events for New Yorkers, the five sites will support equitable access to the arts and provide infrastructure for artists, especially Black, Latinx, Asian, Indigenous, and other historically marginalized peoples. The initiative will purposefully seek to advance these venues as part of a larger effort to distribute open-source design knowledge and will create a replicable strategy for place-based interventions that advance equitable access to the arts.
LATEST PRESS
“Turnout NYC named finalist in Fast Company’s Innovation by Design Awards for 2023 in the social justice category!”
“The Best Things To Do in New York”
“It's all about creating equitable arts access across the five boroughs.”
“An arts initiative at the nexus of improving public space and creating new platforms for smaller arts organizations will roll out across the five boroughs during the summer.”
“New arts initiative by SITU and Design Trust for Public Space builds architectural kit-of-parts for public cultural venues”
“Turnout NYC is creating equitable arts access across the five boroughs with a season of concerts, performances, workshops, and more.”