This September, three New York-based nonprofits—Triple Canopy, an online magazine, Light Industry, a cinema, and The Public School New York, an open-source classroom with no curriculum—will launch a new arts-and-culture center at 155 Freeman Street, in the Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn. Together, our groups will organize performances, classes, artist talks, readings, panels, workshops, concerts, and weekly film screenings—all of which will be open to the public. Most events are free or cost less than $7—and we like it this way!

By contributing to our Kickstarter campaign, you can help us establish this truly alternative space, supporting our first year of programming and the work of the many innovative artists, writers, filmmakers, musicians, and educators with whom we collaborate.

Throughout 2010, Triple Canopy, Light Industry, and The Public School operated out of a formerly vacant storefront near Fulton Mall in downtown Brooklyn. We organized a robust and diverse series of nearly 100 programs, which attracted more than 5,000 people. They ranged from an installation of an interactive solar system by artist Matt Mullican; a staging of Melville's “Bartleby” by theater collective Group Theory; an evening with pioneering New York video collective Videofreex, producers of America's first pirate TV station; Urban Foraging, a workshop on the collection and preparation of wild weeds; and Disorganizing Sound, a class on improvised music facilitated by sound artists, musicians, and historians.

It’s tough being a nonprofit these days. Everything we do happens on shoestring budgets, and we get by thanks to the support of people who believe in what we’re doing; some are familiar faces, and attend one of our events every week or two, while others are strangers who live across the country, but nevertheless feel like they have a stake in our work and want us to keep going. In signing a five-year lease, we’re relying on the continued support of these people—which is to say we’re relying on you.

Please consider making a donation, however small. Give just $20 and you’ll receive access to a special issue of Triple Canopy put together and introduced by writer Rivka Galchen. For $50 you’ll receive a personalized email and Web project by artist Cory Arcangel. For $150 you’ll receive free access to all events at the space for one year. Those of you with the means to make a larger contribution will receive artworks donated by R. H. Quaytman and Paul Chan to support our first year of programming.

The opening of our space at 155 Freeman Street marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter for all three groups, and we hope you’ll be a part of it.

ABOUT US

Triple Canopy is an online magazine, workspace, and platform for editorial and curatorial activities dedicated to “slowing down the Internet.” The magazine acts as the locus for the collaborative production of artistic and literary projects, research work, public programs, and print objects that mine the legacies of the artist book, the avant-garde journal, the alternative arts space, and the magazine-in-a-box, while enriching those forms with new media—and, in doing so, charting an expanded field of publication.

“[An] excellent multimedia magazine that—however attuned its editors are to what the Web does well—hasn't forgotten what magazines also need to be: written.” —Wyatt Mason, Harper’s Magazine

Light Industry is a venue for film and electronic art, hosting a series of weekly events, oftentimes organized by guest artists, critics, and curators. We’re equally inspired by the long history of alternative art spaces in New York and the city’s storied tradition of cinematheques and other intrepid, independent film exhibitors. Our goal is to explore new models for the presentation of cinema through screenings, performances, and lectures.

“Light Industry … sets a new standard for programming energy, mapping out seemingly all of the permutations of cinematic invention.” —Stuart Comer, Frieze

The Public School is an open-source classroom with no curriculum, an open framework that supports autodidactic activities. Via the Public School’s website, members generate ideas for free reading groups, skill-based workshops, seminar-style discussions, lecture-driven classes, and other projects—then they schedule, take, and teach them together. The Public School has chapters in Los Angeles, Brussels, San Juan, and other cities around the world.