Featured Member Project

Featured Member

“In Harm’s Way” by Dan Tague This is the title piece for Tague’s upcoming show. Photo credit: Lower Manhattan Cultural Council

In last winter’s edition of Arts Link, you read about Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s (LMCC) effort to reach out to Gulf Coast artists in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Now approaching the anniversary of the disaster, we bring you the results of this life-changing project.

A total of 15 artists displaced by the hurricane were each given an eight-month residency and studio space in Lower Manhattan, in addition to other services necessary to continue their art. “The LMCC has given me the opportunity not only to continue working, but also to push my ideas into new and unexpected directions,” according to resident artist Christy Speakman. “From the LMCC, I received financial resources as well as a sense of community, and most importantly, a space at a time in my life when I needed a sense of territory more than ever.”

Though the residency period is complete, the artists are not finished with what LMCC started. Dan Tague has curated In Harm’s Way, an exhibit opening mid-September in New York, that will feature other artists from the Gulf Coast—many of whom came from LMCC’s residency. The show is an extension of the emotions of Hurricane Katrina: anger, animosity, cautious optimism, and hope. For the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, the Gulf Coast Residency and exhibition have inspired a larger conversation: an international gathering called What Comes After: Cities, Art and Recovery, about how humans use art and culture to heal in the wake of catastrophe. Thanks in part to LMCC's efforts, for 15 artists the healing has begun.