The Kitchen will present weekend programming for the Westside Cultural Network's second annual Westside Fest, a gathering of museums, parks, performing arts centers and cultural institutions celebrating a cultural village along Manhattan's western waterfront. Bringing together cultural hubs within a half-mile of historic Manhattan, the festival will offer free admission, special indoor and outdoor programming, crafts for children and families, arts-making activities and performances for all ages.
On Friday, July 12th (6-8pm), The Kitchen and Westbeth will co-host the festival's kickoff party, an ode to the two institutions' current intersection, thanks to their overlapping 50-year history as centers of New York avant-garde art, which led The Kitchen to find a similar organization in Westbeth as its temporary home. The event will take place in The Kitchen's loft at Westbeth (163B Bank Street, Loft 4th Floor) and will feature music, drinks, poster sales, and the opportunity for attendees to take home a significant symbol of The Kitchen's storied and influential past.
On Saturday, July 13, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., The Kitchen will host a free, public Tai Chi workshop led by Kitchen artists Chuck Martin and Westbeth resident Mitch Moses. That same day, from 1 to 6 p.m., The Kitchen's poster sale will continue at a table in Westbeth's Art & Craft & Vintage Market in the Westbeth Courtyard. (Westbeth's Market also returns on Sunday, July 14.)
Westbeth programs include Penny Jones & CO. Puppets' “Peppi's Pop-Up Dragon,” a fun puppet show for kids of all ages set inside a giant pop-up book (Saturday, July 13 at 11 a.m.); self-guided Open Studio Tours offering a glimpse into famous artists' live and work spaces (Saturday, July 13 and Sunday, July 14 from 1-5 p.m.); and a theater production of “You're Never Too Old to Play,” an improvisational storytelling acting workshop for seniors in the Westbeth Center for the Arts (Saturday, July 13 at 7 p.m.).
Amid an extensive renovation of The Kitchen's growing Chelsea home base, The Kitchen's participation in Westside Fest signals a recommitment to the community and an aim to expand its already multigenerational audience. It also highlights The Kitchen's interconnectedness with the various boundary-breaking arts institutions and movements that have emerged in Lower Manhattan since its founding more than 50 years ago. Since its temporary relocation to Westbeth Artist Housing, The Kitchen has strengthened its commitment to transparency, flexibility, and collaboration by embracing a “no walls” approach to its organizational identity and programming, emphasizing its existence in dialogue with others that exemplify and support its experimental creative practice and educational framework.
The Kitchen is part of the Westside Cultural Network, which also includes the Center for Art Research and Alliance, Chelsea Factory, Dear Chelsea, The High Line, Hill Arts Foundation, Hudson River Park, Joyce Theatre, Little Island, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center, New York City AIDS Memorial, Poster House, Print Center New York, Rubin Museum of Art, The Shed, Westbeth Artist Housing, West Village Rehearsal Corp, White Columns and the Whitney Museum of American Art.
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