About this project

The hottest arts center this side of the East River needs some heat!

2009 was a milestone year for Flux Factory. After hundreds of people wouldn't let us shut our doors in 2008 as our building was claimed for a public works project, we took it as a necessary growth opportunity and renovated an old warehouse in Long Island City, Queens. The building is bigger, more centrally located, and has a gallery that gives us lots of room to promote the work of emerging artists.

Thanks to our broad community, dozens of volunteers helped us for months to breathe life into this new building, painting walls, setting up spaces, putting up lights, and all the glorious work that comes with rejuvenating buildings. But there was one thing we couldn't do ourselves -- get a proper HEATING SYSTEM. Ours was old and barely functioned, so we hired the extremely sweet Fire and Ice Heating and Cooling Company to get us through the winter. What would have cost us over $150,000 is now costing us a fraction, but it's still too rich for our blood. Your dollars would go directly to fostering a creative community that works for itself and helps others along the way.

Yes, we’re only a few weeks shy of the arrival of spring. We’re definitely through the thick of winter, but as there are more winters to come, this is a long term investment!

This is a selection of what's been written about us in the press:

"Quite possibly the coolest arts and education non-profit in New York City." - Juxtapoz

"A stronghold for the art-obsessed." -Soma

"A warehouse in Queens reignites New York City's reputation as the home of the avant-garde, but this time it has a sense of humour." - Dazed and Confused

"When people ask me what my favorite gallery is, I always answer Flux Factory [...] I do think that if ever there is a rebirth of a really definitely alternative counterculture, it will probably grow out of places like this, where creative people's innocent desire to carve out a space for themselves runs up against frustration with the Man's stupid, stupid bureaucracy." - Ben Davis, Artnet

Project location: New York, NY

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Flux Factory is a 501C3 registered non-profit arts organization. We support innovative and collaborative art works. The goal of the Flux is to create a forum in which Flux artists can collaborate with each other as well as others in an experimental lab that produces new works, especially ones that reflect upon and alters public space in dynamic ways. We are also a public and community space in itself. We provide artists and the larger community with an open computer center, performance space, silk-screen printshop, a public woodshop, and loads of educational programming. Once a month we open our space for a well-known salon evening where artists and intellectuals present both finished pieces and, more importantly, works-in-progress.

Our community has grown dramatically since 1994. We have given work and exhibition opportunities to over 500 artists, most of whom produce art that is not commercially lucrative. Beyond that, we offer 14 studio spaces for dramatically below market value, so that artists can not only work in the most important art nexus in North America, but also take part in an extremely welcoming community that supports each other. This unique artist-run residency program is the fruit of artists organizing and working for themselves, completely on a volunteer basis. Most of our employees are volunteers.

Since taking up shop in our new building we have partnered with several other artists collectives and non-profits, offering them office space in our building free of charge. We've also let almost a dozen theatre, dance, music, and other visual artists use our gallery to put on events, exhibitions, or fundraisers of their own. We have acted as fiscal sponsors on behalf of other organizations just starting out, and our staff have mentored several aspiring curators and arts administrators learn the ropes and put on exhibitions.

1. fluxfactory.org