A CREATIVE NONPROFIT
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About Us
Ideas
The Center
Rebalancing the world
we're in through joy,
creativity & action.
From the musicians getting us to sing or cry in our kitchens to the organizations making sure people have homes, have food, have a viable future– It’s creativity that carries us through.
And it’s the creative leap that works to transform, challenge and inspire us, that needs support. Especially now. That’s what we support at Holes in the Wall Collective. Through all of our work.
The giant spoon in Prospect Park 2020
We’re like a residency meets an incubator meets a cultural institution meets a joybody on the dance floor getting everyone to dance.
CREATIVE RESIDENCIES. COMMUNITY SUPPORTED ACTIONS. PUBLIC ENGAGEMENTS.
The interactions and solitude at Holes in the Wall residency came at a pivotal moment in my curatorial career and has shaped not only the project I was working on but every project since.
Nicole Soukup
assistant curator of
contemporary art, MIA
6 years in the city. 3 years on the land. 150+ Creative Residents. 40+ Events.
12 states & 7 countries. 7,000+ people.
Over $10k given to 30+ non-profits.
And we're just getting started.
We don't just do one thing. On purpose.
"Popcorn Rock" by Kristyna and Marek Milde- Exquisite Corpus: the Maize 2016 • Photograph by Vida Lecari @vida_l_photo
BALANCE
Most of the problems in the world are about something being out of balance. The result of placing value of some things over others, some people over others, some results over others. We think revaluing creative thought and action is essential to rebalancing our planet. Yet even great ideas can make a mess if there's not a diversity of people and perspectives to hold, challenge & check them.
For ourselves, the earth
and each other.
Rude Mechanical Orchestra- whatNOWwhat Change the Climate Benefit 2017 at the Industry City Distillery • Photograph by Deb Klein
JOY
The cultivation of joy is an embodied philosophy of Holes in the Wall Collective. It’s active, it risks the dance, the leap, the newness like love sending shockwaves through the chest, the power of a sea-swell, the movement of a thousand people in the street. It is both fuel and the offering of creativity, especially when accompanied by struggle, difficulties, oppression…
To leave traces of
liberation.
Suminagashi workshop with artist Linh Truong at the 9th st Community Garden- 360 Residency 2019
CREATIVITY
Creativity is a leap. For us creativity is not just about artistic practice, marketing, or fingerpaints– it’s the process in which anyone in any field takes a leap that transforms something and has value. On the canvas, the stage, the page... and in the boardroom, the classroom, the clinic. With the rate of so much destruction around us, we need all the creativity we can get.
To bring together a
collective intelligence.
whatNOWwhat 2016 at the Industry City Distillery • Photograph by Deb Klein
ACTION
The road ahead is full of obstacles. It can sometimes feel like we're too late, we've already missed the boat, that nothing will ever change. Things that can't be immediately measured aren't always valued and people who think differently are often stigmatized instead of celebrated. Yet we keep on. All of our work is rooted in the possibility of transformation.
That's what makes us
Holes in the Wall Collective.
My obligation is not to make political declarations but to make HOLES IN THE WALL...that means that my activity must leave behind traces, examples of liberty. It's not the same about leaving complaints about the subject of freedom...YOU MUST ACTUALLY GET THINGS DONE.
-Jerzy Grotowski
WHO WE ARE
Holes in the Wall Collective holds space for creative thought & action, committed to the idea that creativity is our best remediator for the future.
We don't just focus on one issue on purpose because siloed 'solutions' to humanity's most pressing issues can create more problems and less resolution. Artists, activists, scientists, educators, farmers and policy makers need time & space for collaboration & creativity in their work.
We’re the place where ideas take root, where creativity has room to grow legs and be accountable to itself and others. We support people who think outside the box, who move things forward by understanding how we got here, who work to re-examine and reimagine the world around us.
Like an accordion, we expand with each project to include a collective of collaborators, volunteers and creative minds.
WHAT WE DO
We give people across sectors time & space to innovate and incubate their work, bringing them together through meaningful and transformative feedback. We give the public ways to joyfully engage with complicated subjects.
Over the last six years, we have reached over 7,000 people with our work– producing 40+ public engagements, hosting 150+ creative residents around the country and the world, and directly supporting 60+ other nonprofits.
After a four-year residency at the Industry City Distillery in Brooklyn and three years running a sustaining Creative Residency Program in rural PA, Holes in the Wall Collective is taking our next big leap to build a Center for Creative Research, Reflection & Action in the Catskill region, of New York– while remaining active in NYC.
The Teaspoon Brigade– collective fundraising with as many people as possible.
Our Remote Residency– not just for artists
Build the Center for Research, Reflection & Action
Our Monthly CSA: Community Supported Action
Help out on the ground