NYC Performers in Sacred Places
Manhattan, Brooklyn, The Bronx, & Queens
Now accepting applications!
We have expanded our work into its next phase which will include four of the five boroughs and all types of performing artists! The very core of our work brings together artists and arts organizations looking for space with houses of worship who have space to share and are willing to share it with artists.
Partners for Sacred Places is excited to expand our Arts in Sacred Places work in NYC. We can’t wait to bring on performers from theatre and music as well as meet new dance makers. We are also looking forward to extending invitations to sacred places in The Bronx and Queens – finally extending beyond the borders of Manhattan and Brooklyn. This phase of our work will go through June of 2024.
Contact Karen DiLossi to schedule a one-on-one conversation about the program.
Three Training Sessions Offered:
Training Session #1 – June 2023
- COMPLETED!
Training Session #2 – November 2023
- COMPLETED!
Training Session #3 – May 2024
- Saturday, May 11 @ 9:30am-4pm* (in-person)
We are asking anyone interested in participating in our program to fill out one of our participation forms. (Sacred Places or Performing Artist)
NOTE for scheduling: We hope to be wrapped up before 4pm but promise not to go later than this time.
Partners’ experience and research has shown that many urban congregations are overwhelmed with the burden of caring for surplus space. At the same time, artists who are struggling to find adequate and affordable space in which to work, may not know that the former Sunday school wing of a local church could be available for office, performance, or studio space. Partners’ Arts in Sacred Places program (AiSP) was designed to capitalize on this challenge by facilitating mutually beneficial space-sharing relationships between arts organizations without a home and the city’s houses of worship with space to spare.
CreateNYC, New York City’s most recent cultural plan, lists affordability as one of its primary issue areas. The report notes, “the [arts] sector cannot continue to make the city great if the artists, scientific researchers, cultural workers, and nonprofit organizations that make up much of the cultural field cannot afford to do their work. The current supply of affordable places to live, work, exhibit, and perform falls far short of demand. This affordability crisis not only severely affects the well-being of the 250,000 New Yorkers that work in the cultural field, but it also threatens the city’s future as a global cultural center.” (CreateNYC, 12)
- Sacred places are community spaces and artists expand that definition.
- Artists avoid the costs of property ownership while sacred places can earn income to maintain their buildings.
- Sacred places are generally able to rent their spaces below market rate.
Partners is seeking at least 25 sacred places located in The Bronx and Queens to participate in this pilot project. Selected sacred places should fit the following criteria:
- Have a willingness to share your space with performing artists specifically.
- Are open to artistic freedom
- Artistic freedom means allowing the artists to develop and create their work without interference or influence from entities outside their creative process.
- Have large open spaces – useful for both rehearsals and potentially performance.
- Have the human capacity at your facility to handle the management of potential space sharers
- Have clergy and lay leadership interested in the arts and space sharing
Partners is inviting hundreds of sacred places to apply for 25 slots. We will be making the selections based on geography (The Bronx & Queens get priority), openness, denomination variety, accessibility, public transit options, and interior spaces that are functional for the dance community. It is preferable for any Sacred places interested in participating in the program to have their buildings surveyed prior to any training sessions. Please contact Karen DiLossi (kdilossi@sacredplaces.org or (215) 567-3234 x 16 to schedule a survey of your building.
The NYC Performers in Sacred Places program is focused on guiding both artists and sacred places towards sharing space with one another based on mission and vision alignment that creates a strong relationship foundation for long-term success. While we will advise, assist, and act as a resource to all participants, the program at this time, does not provide any financial support or negotiate any individual space sharing agreements. Our distinct hope is to empower both groups to create space sharing agreements that work for them.
In light of this project’s specific geographic parameters, we would like to acknowledge that the NYC Performers in Sacred Places program is taking place on the traditional land of Wappinger, Lenape and Canarsie people.
Partners is seeking performers of all kinds, dance makers, theatre artists, and musicians (individuals, co-ops, or organizations) to participate in this process. Selected artists should fit the following criteria:
- Have a willingness to make a creative home within a sacred place
- Are currently paying rent in another space or are ready to make that leap
- Have human capacity to handle the space sharing relationship
- Have artistic and management leadership interested in sharing space with sacred places
- Wants to have a creative home in four of NYC’s boroughs: Manahttan, Brooklyn, Bronx, and Queens
Partners is anticipating a large amount of interest from the NYC artistic community and would like to express that our slots are limited so as not to dilute the quality of our services. We are working with Dance/NYC and IndieSpace to make sure our process is in alignment with the transparent processes they have for their programs.
Proud to still be with our initial artistic partner, Dance/NYC, Partners remains committed to Dance/NYC’s values of justice, equity, and inclusion and will strive for those same values in our artist participant selections.
The NYC Performers in Sacred Places program is focused on guiding both artists and sacred places towards sharing space with one another based on mission and vision alignment that creates a strong relationship foundation for long-term success. While we will advise, assist, and act as a resource to all participants, the program at this time, does not provide any financial support or negotiate any individual space sharing agreements. Our distinct hope is to empower both groups to create a space sharing agreement that work for them.
Partners for Sacred Places began our NYC Dance in Sacred Places program in the Manhattan and Brooklyn Boroughs in 2019. We spoke with and inventoried 20 sacred places in those two boroughs to identify underutilized spaces that could be potential rehearsal, office, and/or performance space. Through a series of training sessions, we connected the sacred places with space to share with over 40 dance makers who are actively looking for space to rent in the hopes of crafting mutually beneficial space-sharing arrangements.
Little did we know what 2020 would have in store for all of us. By mid-March of 2020, things seemed to be progressing in a bad direction, NYC was shutting down and folks were told to stay in their homes. We were a one-day training session shy of completing our NYC work for Phase I but we decided to take a step back to re-evaluate our program in light of our new reality.
Seeing space sharing as potentially problematic in our socially distanced world- Partners took the time to reassess our work to align with the priorities of New Yorkers, we hosted two happy hour Zoom sessions. No agenda, no work expectation – just a check in with our friends in the Big Apple. We discovered that our work may have an even greater impact than before. With the possibility of losing some key dance maker spaces in NYC, our work opening up and drawing connections with sacred places may play a key role in maintaining and revitalizing the dance scene – keeping it alive by providing much needed affordable creation space.
Having pivoted to online sessions to complete our Phase I work, we strived to create meaningful online interactions where relationships can be initiated. As a result of our efforts, our work in NYC is being taken to Phase II. Starting in July 2020 through December 2021, the NYC Dance in Sacred Places program is looking for 30 additional sacred places in Manhattan and Brooklyn and up to 45 dance makers (city-wide) who are looking for creation space.
In Phase II, we added an additional 40 dancemakers and 20 sacred places to our list!
We are happy to announce our continued collaboration with Dance/NYC, New York Landmarks Conservancy, and Goldstein Hall Law Firm. The goal of this project is to create and foster sustainable, mutually beneficial space sharing relationships between dance organizations and sacred places. We also have developed a NYC Advisory Committee to help guide our process and progress, keeping us committed to serving the faith and dance maker communities therein.
Photo credit:
- Grounds that Shout! (and others merely shaking) Fist and Heel Performance group in “…they stood shaking while others began to shout” at Church of the Advocate. Photo by Daniel Kontz
Advisory Committee
Randi Berry, Executive Director, IndieSpace, Astoria, NY
Randi is an indie theater maker and artist with an arts advocacy and commercial real estate background. She is the co-founder of Wreckio Ensemble Theater Company, The Indie Theater Fund and IndieSpace. Randi has worked on over $11B in commercial real estate transactions and has created programs resulting in thousands of artists receiving funding, free real estate consulting services, rehearsal space and opportunities for professional growth. Select awards include: NYIT Indie Theater Champion, The Ellen Stewart Award, Indie Theater Person of the Year, member of the Indie Theater Hall of Fame and a Citation for Service by the New York City Council.
Randi BerryExecutive Director, IndieSpace
Savona Bailey-McClain Executive Director/Chief Curator, West Harlem Art Fund
Savona Bailey-McClain is Executive Director/Chief Curator of the West Harlem Art Fund, which has organized high-profile public arts exhibits throughout New York City for the past 20 years, including Times Square, DUMBO, Soho, Governors Island and Harlem. Her public art installations encompass sculpture, drawings, performance, sound, and mixed media, and have been covered extensively by the New York Times, Art Daily, Artnet, Los Angeles Times and Huffington Post, among many others. She is host/ producer of “State of the Arts NYC,” a weekly radio program on iTunes, Radio Public, Youtube, Mixcloud and other audio platforms. She is also a member of ArtTable and the Governors Island Advisory Council.
Savona Bailey-McClainExecutive Director/Chief Curator, West Harlem Art Fund
Ann-Isabel Friedman Director, Sacred Sites Program, The New York Landmarks Conservancy
Ann-Isabel Friedman has been with the Conservancy’s Sacred Sites Program since 2001, initiating a city-wide survey of historic religious properties in 2004. She holds an M.S. in Historic Preservation from the University of Pennsylvania and an A.B. in American Studies from Cornell University. Friedman joined the Conservancy after seven years at the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, where she was a deputy director of the Preservation Department.
Ann-Isabel FriedmanDirector, Sacred Sites Program, The New York Landmarks Conservancy
Ingrid Kapteyn Co-Founder, HEWMAN, Welcome to Campfire
Ingrid Kapteyn is an international performer, creator, collaborator, teacher, and student of listening with a BFA in Dance from The Juilliard School. She swings nine roles in Punchdrunk’s hit immersive show Sleep No More NYC, and she spent 2017 building and performing a new version of Sleep No More in Shanghai. As a performer, Ingrid has also worked with Brian Brooks, Danielle Russo, and The Metropolitan Opera, and she was an actor in MacArthur award winner Martha Clarke’s Angel Reapers at The Signature Theatre in 2016 along with Clarke’s ongoing GOD’S FOOL workshop.
As a choreographer and director, Ingrid has created, self-produced, and performed evening-length productions in New York and in China, including Humans Within Structure, Once we’re lit, and This Is Nothing Without You with her collaborative collective HEWMAN; POP with fellow Shanghai castmates; and CAMPFIRE and The Pigeon & The Mouse with co-creator Tony Bordonaro. She co-founded HEWMAN with Jason Collins and James Lindsay Harwell in 2014 to reimagine the traditional model of a dance company run by one choreographer by engaging individual artists with distinct voices to collaborate as equals in the creative process. She co-founded Welcome to Campfire with Tony Bordonaro in 2017 as a platform for the creation of sci-fi danceplays about intimate human connection.
As a teacher, Ingrid has offered master classes, workshops, and seminars internationally, including for Juilliard Global Ventures/Nord Anglia Education (in Shanghai, Dubai, Switzerland, Qatar, and NYC), New York University’s School of Medicine, FRESH Dance Intensive, University of North Carolina School of the Arts, and Princeton and Bucknell Universities. In 2016, she served as Assistant to the Artistic Director of Springboard Danse Montréal.
Ingrid KapteynCo-Founder, HEWMAN, Welcome to Campfire
Kate Toth Project Director, Bricks and Mortals
Kate Toth is Project Director at Bricks and Mortals, a project of Judson Memorial Church, which has the mission of providing creative, sustaining solutions to help houses of worship thrive amidst the costly and challenging landscape of operating in New York City. Kate has more than 15 years of advocacy, program development and fundraising experience from working as LGBT Liaison, running field campaigns across the Northeast, and in supportive housing. She holds an BA from NYU and an MSc from the London School of Economics.
Kate TothProject Director, Bricks and Mortals
Jason Labate, Senior Associate, Goldstein Hall PLLC
Jason Labate concentrates his practice in real estate and community development, nonprofit formation and governance, banking and finance, and corporate formation and governance. He also oversees Goldstein Hall’s Hudson Valley office and provides legal expertise for the Joint Ownership Entity (JOE NYC) program.
A frequent panelist and guest speaker on faith-based and nonprofit affordable housing development, Jason represents a range of for-profit, not-for-profit and public organizations.
Prior to joining Goldstein Hall in 2012, Jason attended Brooklyn Law School with a focus on economic empowerment and community development. He participated in Brooklyn Law School’s Community Development Clinic, where he advised local groups on not-for-profit corporate formation, corporate governance, and tax issues. He also interned with various government, nonprofit and private organizations including Staten Island Legal Services Homeowner Defense Project, and the New York City Economic Development Corporation. He was a Sparer Public Interest Law Fellow from 2009 – 2012.
Before obtaining his law degree, Jason worked in public service for seven years, including as the administrative director at a not-for-profit research center and as the director of program support and development at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH). He was a New York City Urban Fellow from 2004-2005 and a Mayor’s Graduate Scholar from 2006-2008.
Jason LabateSenior Associate, Goldstein Hall PLLC
Stephen Hill Artistic Director, The ChoreoJoey Project
Stephen Hill is a performer, choreographer, and dance scholar from Harlem, NYC. Hill has earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Dance at Lehman College. His specialization is in Jazz technique. Hill has previously danced as a guest artist for ModArts Dance Collective under the direction of Leah Tubbs as well as an apprentice for Forces Of Nature Dance Theater under Abdel Salaam. As a choreographer, Hill has collaborated with previous organizations AIM and BURDE to assist in directing and choreographing in Miami, FL. He has also choreographed Caribbean Musicals Ti-Jean and His Brothers with Ma’s Playhouse theater and Folk nativity with the West Indian Arts Project.
Stephen HillArtistic Director, The ChoreoJoey Project
Daphne Lasky Architect Board Member of Greenpoint Shul
Daphne Lasky is an architect working on public projects in New York City. Her work has been published in Lunch, Topos, and Plot, and presented at the Center for Architecture, D Center Baltimore, DesigNYC, Fowler Arts Collective, Calico Gallery, and the Van Alen Institute. She is a founding member of the Young Professionals Board of City Lore, the founder of Representation Matters, and a Board Member at the Greenpoint Shul. She received her B.A. in the History of Art and Architecture from Middlebury College, and her M.Arch from the University of Virginia.
Daphne LaskyArchitect
Board Member of Greenpoint Shul
Amanda Iglesias, Architectural Designer at Robert A.M. Stern Architects, NYC
Amanda Iglesias is an architectural designer at Robert A.M. Stern Architects in New York City. She is a trained dancer in classical ballet (Cecchetti method) and danced with the Performers Ballet & Jazz Company in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She received her B.A. in Studio Art from Wheaton College, where she danced, choreographed, and directed Zoe’s Feet, a dance troupe that explores the worshipful dimensions of movement. She received her M.Arch at Yale University, and was awarded the 2018 Bass Fellowship at the University of Cambridge to study the ecclesiastical architecture of Christopher Wren in London. She was awarded the 2019 ADAM Architecture Fellowship to study and document German and Danish post-war churches. She was co-awarded the 2020 RAMSA Prize to study Harlem architecture, history and placemaking. Her writing on sacred space has been published by Architecture Today, the New York Review of Architecture, Paprika!, and Christianity Today. She lives in an LPC Historic District in Harlem, attends Renaissance Church, and teaches beginner ballet at Greenhouse Arts Center in Harlem.
Amanda IglesiasArchitectural Designer, Robert A.M. Stern Architects
Colleen Heemeyer Deputy Director, Sacred Sites & Preservation Services, New York Landmarks Conservancy
Colleen Heemeyer is a graduate of Roger Williams University’s historic-preservation program. Working with the Sacred Sites Program and Technical Services, she loves seeing all the architectural gems New York State offers, and having a role in their preservation. She lives in a National Register Historic District in Brooklyn.
Colleen HeemeyerDeputy Director, Sacred Sites & Preservation Services, New York Landmarks Conservancy
Candace Thompson-Zachery Co-Executive Director, Dance NYC
Born in Trinidad and Tobago, now local to Brooklyn, NY, operates between the spheres of dance, cultural production and fitness and wellness, with a focus on the Contemporary Caribbean. She has had an established career as a performer, choreographer, fitness professional, cultural producer, teaching artist, community facilitator and Caribbean dance specialist. In addition to her work in these areas, she leads ContempoCaribe, an ongoing choreography and performance project and is the founder of Dance Caribbean COLLECTIVE, an organisational platform for Caribbean dance in the diaspora that spearheads the New Traditions Festival in Brooklyn, NY. She graduated from Adelphi University’s BFA program for Dance, and has presented, performed and taught at major venues including: Queen’s Hall (T&T), John F. Kennedy Center, New York Live Arts, Brooklyn Museum, and The Ohio State University. She was an inaugural member of the Dancing While Black Fellowship Cohort 2015/2016, was an awardee of Adelphi University’s 2017 – 10 Under 10 program, and a Dixon Place Artist-in-Residence for fall 2017.
As a cultural producer and strategist, Candace has worked with many organisations and artists bringing their works and visions to life. These include the Dance and Performance Institute of Trinidad and Tobago, WIADCA (NY), Sydnie L. Mosley Dances, Renegade Performance Group, most recently assisting Claire Tancons, a curator for the Sharjah Biennial 2019, on her performance series within the platform ‘Look For Me All Around You’. Ms. Thompson-Zachery is currently a candidate in the M.A. in Performance Curation program at the Institute for Curatorial Practice in Performance at Wesleyan University and recently completed the Executive Program in Arts & Culture Strategy at University of Pennsylvania with National Arts Strategies. Of tantamount importance to her is the vital role dance plays in our communities and she is eager to see dance artists of various styles, practices and traditions thrive in New York City.
Candace Thompson-ZacheryCo-Executive Director, Dance NYC
NYC Initiatives for our Sacred Places & Performers
Together with our NYC Performers in Sacred Places Advisory Committee, we have learned about three New York City initiatives to facilitate small outdoor gatherings for worship and the arts: Open Culture, Green Spaces, and Lobby Extensions. It is a lot to shift through so we created a blog-post to help synthesize the information in a way that makes it easy to understand what opportunities are available.
(Data from Summer 2021.)
Contact for more information:
Karen DiLossi, Director of Strategic Partnerships
kdilossi@sacredplaces.org
215-567-3234 x16
Sacred Place Participation Form
Performer Registration for this program has been closed.
Our Collaborators on this Project:
Dance/NYC, IndieSpace, and NY Landmarks Conservancy