2020: The Year in Review
Wow! This truly was the best year ever!
Just kidding. We know it was... challenging... to say the least.
We do, however, hope Culture Lab LIC provided joy and restored some sanity in the midst of an extremely challenging time for our community.
Here is a look back at Culture Lab's 2020.... (see, it wasn't all bad!)
PERFORMANCES
Starting in late May, we moved our programming outside to our 18,000 s/f parking lot. All performances were free to the public and we opened a beer and food venue by the waterfront. Through these events we raised enough funds to pay all the artists and technicians and help us keep operating over the winter months. Huge thank you to our tireless volunteers!
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Free Parking Lot Concerts, 5 nights a week from June through November, with over 50 bands performing
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Outdoor Comedy in partnership with Creek and the Cave, featuring top-tier talent including Michael Che and other SNL contributors.
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Live recording of new musical album for SUSS.
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Baroness livestream of their the new album Gold & Gray.
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Friday night Culture Lab Sessions winter livestream series featuring local musicians.
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LIC Performance Art Festival in partnership with Local Project and NY Cultural Alliance.
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Chiquitettas Current and Former Reigning Miss Bushwig, drag performance.
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Queensboro Dance Festival Outdoor Performances
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Sheepmeadow Dance Theatre’s Virtual Season II with a live streamed production of “The Nutcracker” and “Body Tides,” in collaboration with 10k Productions.
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Margot & The Midnight Tenants music video, directed by Tana Sirois with cinematography by Eurica Yu.
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Joyce Miller “The Handmaid’s Dianetics I” Produced with Planet Connections Zoomfest
ART EXHIBITIONS
We were off to such a strong start! The Plaxall Gallery had rotating art exhibitions in all three of our gallery spaces from January through April. Of course, the pandemic made a strong entrance and put an end to all that, but hey, you can't stop art, right? We moved some of our exhibitions online, and installed others with limited audience capacity in regulation with COVID guidelines.
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Dreamscapes created and curated by Carol Crawford, with Long Island City Artists.
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Six Perspectives curated by LIC-A Member Chuck Baker, with Long Island City Artists.
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Life Interrupted curated by Orestes Gonzalez (Plaxall Gallery) Online Exhibition mounted in partnership with Queens Library’s Memory Project and Long Island City Artists
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Claytopia curated by Matt Nolen with Long Island City Artists.
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Back to the Table curated by Puneeta Mittal & Nancy Bruno with Long Island City Artists
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Artists Navigating 2020. Exploring how Long Island City artists have been continuing to create during COVID-19. Collaboration with Queens Library and Long Island City Artists
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Someone Will Remember Us, Even from Another Time, curated by Lisa Di Donato with Long Island City Artists
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Her Vote by Caroline Voagen Nelson with Long Island City Artists
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Space & Light, curated by Jonathan Sims in collaboration with the Holocenter NYC
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2020 NYC Home Movie Day outdoor screening for The Queens Library
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What the Light Saw, Karen Fitzgerald solo exhibition of new work with Queens Council on the Arts and New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.
ARTISTS RESIDENCY PROGRAM
Our artists in residence program provides artists with exceptional talent and altruistic missions with free studio, rehearsal and performance space to create and develop new work.
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Culture Lab Emergence Residency Program, providing rehearsal space for seven artists/companies to create new work throughout the winter to present in Spring 2021.
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Ongoing Artist In Residence program, consistently providing studio and rehearsal space to sixteen artists in the mediums of fine art, music, theatre, dance and film.
EDUCATION
Our educational programs definitely slowed down during, COVID19, but thanks to our amazing partners, we were able to continue with some fantastic (safe) educational programs.
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Sing LIC children's music lessons.
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ArtStrong children's art classes.
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Claire’s Creative Adventures online and live youth art classes, tours and workshops.
COMMUNITY
A huge part of our mission is to provide free space to other nonprofit organizations. We support them with technical needs, community outreach, staffing, scheduling and most of all, keeping this amazing space available for their use!
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In May in response to COVID food insecurities, Culture Lab turned our front gallery into a food relief pantry serving vulnerable members of our community through LIC Relief
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Lifeline Groceries Delivering over 60,0000 pounds of food from our parking lot to 2,885 families weekly.
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Distributing 2000 donated PPE masks to local business.
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10,000 donated books through the Fresh Air Fund to needy communities.
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Dancing with the LIC Stars Fundraiser - Proceeds support LIC Relief.
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Youth Bike Event: Bike sale for children with free helmets from Vision Zero.
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Community Little Library book exchange with Community Board 2 Arts & Culture Committee, Eventscape, Plaxall
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Provided space for AA meetings multiple times a week.
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Delivered Plaxall food packaging to support food relief efforts in partnership with John Brown’s Smokehouse.
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New York Census Training - Provided training space from June through August for out-of-work residents to be trained by the census office to collect census information.
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Served Up organization providing thoughtful discussion, live music, food and beverage in a socially distanced setting ran their programming out of our parking lot.
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Curiosity Lab - a black-owned marketing agency, dedicated to creating narrative changing communications sparking thoughtful conversations.
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Freelancing Females - A community of 300K entrepreneurial women hosting a pitch competition.
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After Queerful Consideration - Live podcast inspiring thought around Queer in the Media
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3rd Annual Better World Festival - Video Recap
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Queens Homebrewers Guild Meetings
AND...
We were IN THE NEWS, a lot! Check out the articles and videos from The NY Times to our local press.
We want to give a HUGE thank you to the Plaxall family, who donate this amazing space to us, and to Hunters Point Parks Conservancy, our fiscal sponsor.
And of course, THANK YOU to our artists, and to everyone who has come out during these challenging times to support the arts, our community and Culture Lab LIC!
Make sure to follow us @CultureLabLIC on all social media, so you can see what's coming up on 2021.
Onward, with love!
-The Team At Culture Lab LIC