About
OUR MISSION
ISSUE Project Room is a pioneering art and performance center dedicated to providing artists with a dynamic environment in which to create and perform new and challenging work according to their vision.
OUR VISION
We are building a platform where possibilities can manifest openness for change, new perceptions and experiences; a platform where stimulating ideas can be exchanged, discussed and exposed.
ISSUE is dedicated to the artist, with a particular focus on those whose work moves culture forward through experiment and investigation. Events at ISSUE expose audiences to groundbreaking work, and foster an extended community dialogue.
OUR STORY
ISSUE Project Room began in 2003 on the Lower East Side with special concert curated by ISSUE’s late founder Suzanne Fiol and musician Marc Ribot honoring the work of Franz Casseus, the father of Haitian Classical music. Performances by Debbie Harry and the Jazz Passengers, Elliott Sharp, Anthony Coleman and dozens of others soon followed. Responding to the needs of artists in the community, Suzanne committed herself to developing ISSUE into a year-round performance space where artists could present their most challenging new work.
By 2005, ISSUE was presenting 100 arts events annually featuring pioneering artists from all disciplines. It had outgrown its Lower East Side location, and moved to a unique space in Brooklyn: a two-story silo in the post-industrial margin of the Gowanus Canal. At the Silo, ISSUE’s programming expanded to include site-specific works that incorporated a custom-designed 16-channel hemispherical speaker system created by sound artist Stephan Moore. Success in the space, both critical and programmatic, was tremendous, but after two years its rent was doubled and ISSUE was forced to move on.
In 2007, ISSUE moved to the Can Factory, and there it continued to thrive and emerged of one of Brooklyn’s leading cultural catalysts, bringing 10,000 people to the Gowanus area of Brooklyn each year.
By 2008, ISSUE was supporting new work by more than 200 innovative arts each year, and entered and won a competition for a twenty-year rent-free lease in a remarkable space in Downtown Brooklyn — a historic 4,800 sq. ft. theater, located in the McKim, Mead, and White building at 110 Livingston Street. This tremendous award was a strong recognition of the crucial role it plays in shaping the future of Brooklyn and maintaining New York City’s status as a cultural leader.
Tragically, in late 2008, ISSUE’s founder Suzanne Fiol was diagnosed with cancer. She lost her courageous battle in October 2009.
From 2009-2010, committed to achieving the founder’s vision of creating ISSUE into a permanent home for experimental arts culture, the Board, staff, and artist community continued to evolve and expand ISSUE’s programming while searching for a new leader.
In the fall of 2010, ISSUE’s Board engaged Ed Patuto, a nonprofit director of 20 years with experience working in experimental arts exhibitions, fund raising, and arts institutions on the West Coast.
In winter 2010/2011, ISSUE began and completed a concept visioning process for 110 Livingston to develop our vision for use of the space, concept renderings, and thorough cost estimates. The full project will total $3.7 million. To date, ISSUE has raised $2.3 million to fund a first phase of construction, and is now raising $425,000 to complete the engineering and architectural designs.
If we can successfully raise these funds by December 2011, we will be able to move forward swiftly with designs and begin construction with the City in 2012. The City’s construction will take approximately one year, and we estimate opening in fall of 2013.
“Little Carnegie…it cultivates a studied unpredictability…” – New York Magazine
On January 25, ISSUE Project Room will inaugurate its new space at 110 Livingston with Gaudeamus Muziekweek, a four-day festival celebrating groundbreaking and challenging new music by emerging composers from around the world. Working in partnership ...
ISSUE is starting off the New Year with a change of scenery. That's right, Issue Project Room is moving out of our space at the Old American Can Factory and into 110 Livingston in Downtown Brooklyn. We've had a great run at the Can Factory,...