Arts in Bushwick is an all-volunteer organization; our mission is to promote and support local artists, serve the community at large through arts education and creative accessibility, and organize all residents and stakeholders in Bushwick to fight development-driven displacement and work toward an integrated, sustainable community.

OUR MODEL Our Structure All of the projects and activities of Arts In Bushwick are developed, directed, produced and operated by motivated artists and community residents who volunteer their time, skills and resources to achieve our shared goals and vision. Our organizational structure allows everyone, from the individual artist or community member to larger arts organizations and community groups, to participate in our process, promotional efforts, and activities. We hold open community meetings every week or two, and our organization is non-hierarchical; we are accountable only to each other. Our structure encourages artist-self-promotion and self-direction, and collaboration among artists and all residents of our neighborhood. Breaking Even Community organizing and bridge-building is not about profit for the organizers. Rather, it is about making connections, giving our energy to the people around us, and working together to support our friends, our neighbors, and the community at large.

We encourage all artists who benefit from our promotional efforts to give us their time, rather than their money. Arts In Bushwick events are successful because of the skills and energy of the people involved, and the in-kind support of local businesses. We’re committed to keeping all of our events low in cost and high in cultural capital. We believe that simply throwing money at something often exacerbates problems, and rarely solves them. We break even, and we’re proud of it.

OUR COMMUNITY WORK Community Organizing and Advocacy We believe that the arts community in Bushwick is aware of the issues we face around space, housing and development, and cultural barriers between new and long-time residents. Unfortunately, many artists in our community feel disempowered to affect the trajectory toward rapid development-driven displacement, based on observation of historical trends in New York City, and a lack of community organizing. We’re here to change that perception. It is not impossible to protect our housing, the housing of our neighbors, and the future of our community; it is not hopeless to think that we can create change. Historically, neighborhoods where communities living and working side by side exist in an oppositional relationship, particularly as relates to zoning and development, have seen the worst outcomes in relation to gentrification and displacement. Developers have a lot of resources and political connections – the best chance for Bushwick to overcome this advantage, maintain some level of sustainability, and affect our future as a neighborhood is to stand together, align our needs and goals to develop a mutually beneficial agenda, and advocate for ourselves as a unified community. Art in Service

We’re determined to make the arts accessible to long-time residents, and to use the arts in service of all communities within our integrated neighborhood. Art is a way for people to express themselves, connect with each other, and come to understand themselves as individuals and as a collective whole. Bushwick artists have expressed interest in working with the long-time resident community, particularly children, but have had difficultly making the necessary connections to do this. We at Arts In Bushwick have begun to work with a number of community groups, and are beginning to make these partnerships a reality. Better neighborhood integration and bridge-building encourages and facilities artists and other community residents making art together, enriching the lives of individual Bushwick residents and the cultural vitality of the neighborhood.

OUR WORK WITH AND FOR ARTISTS Artist Promotion Arts In Bushwick provides artists with a network of unique resources and career opportunities. The benefits of involvement with AIB are enormous.

• All of our events are artist-driven and low-cost
• Our website and promotional materials are beautifully designed and professional, with artist promotion as a priority
• Our media is clear, accessible, and simple, and
• We provide mass exposure and traffic to artists, art activities and the creative economy of Bushwick.

In 2007, the Bushwick Open Studios and Arts Festival provided hundreds of artists with the opportunity to show their work in their own spaces, without being subject to curatorial critique (thus decreasing the emphasis on showing only “saleable” work). Our website and promotional efforts resulted in thousands of visitors who, with the Bushwick Open Studios map in hand, made their way through over one hundred unique spaces. Our role in artist promotion is to create a structure to coordinate our activities for the benefit of individual artists and arts organizations in our community, to develop community arts activities that benefit artists and attract audience, and to give artists’ creativity and self-promotion the best possible exposure and presentation in our neighborhood and beyond. Connection, Communication and Collaboration Among Local Artists

The vast majority of artists, musicians and performers and reap personal and professional benefits from connections, communication and/or collaboration with other artists. Whether these connections are within or across disciplines, Arts In Bushwick believes that fostering community among artists can enhance each of our work individually, and the community of artists in Bushwick as a whole. In addition, many artists and community members in Bushwick are involved in producing and promoting arts activities, and it is to the benefit of both artists and producers to connect and operate in an environment of mutual support and collaboration. To this end, we hope that our organization and our activities will serve as an open and welcoming environment for artists and producers to meet, network, build these connections, and potentially make and/or show work together.