Some Serious Business has a 40-year legacy as a unique and vital force thatincubates emergent expressions in the arts, germinatesnew works and ideas, and presents diverse projects that traverse performance, literature, theater, dance, visual art, moving image, music, architecture and design, and social practice. From John Cage, Laurie Anderson, Jenny Holzer and Robert Wilson to Lydia Lunch, Umar Bin Hassan, Rachel Levitsky, Quintan Ana Wikswo, and many others, Some Serious Business is a catalytic hub for the discovery and nurturing of artists who push the boundaries of their fields.
Because SSB is not tied to one space or place,we collaborate with artists and thought leaders in the forefront of social and cultural innovation rather than mainstream or commercial appeal.
Please support our adventurous programs with a tax-deductible gift today!
Your gift is an investment in the future of independent art making without boundaries. It takes an adventurous community of fellow travelers to explore the puzzles, mysteries, messiness, challenges, dialogue, and peak experiences that create a culture of outspoken freedom of expression, political engagement, and artistic innovation. In 2016 alone, Some Serious Business has brought artists’ visions to life through a buzzing network of debut programming—with your support, these programs will continue to electrify our culture at this pivotal moment in time.
GERMINATION: Our SSB AWAY Artist Residency Program supported four artists’ retreats in Tuscany, Italy and Abiquiú, New Mexico. Arturo Vidich (choreographer, writer, visual artist, filmmaker), Jasmine Hirst (photographer, filmmaker), Rachel Levitsky (poet, publisher), and Arthur Kell (composer, musician, performer) spent weeks exploring new ideas, processes, theories, dreams, and artistic experiments.
INCUBATION: Our Comrade Truebridge: artist-to-artist salonhas held five kinetic gatherings for more than 200 artists in New York City and Santa Fe, New Mexico—presenting nascent work by artists including Christen Clifford (performance), Annesofie Sandal (visual artist), Alexandra Henry (filmmaker), and many more. Comrade Truebridge is an artist-driven workgroup, hive mind, and laboratory for invited artists to step outside the realm of marketplace and gatekeepers to share the preoccupying puzzles, experiments, mysteries, and conundrums of their works in progress, and engage deeply with peers to collaboratively identify strategies and resources for development and invention.
PRESENTATION:SSB Presentshas produced premieres and performances of new works by more than 25 artists at venues including Joe’s Pub at The Public (NYC), Howl! Happening (NYC), Radical Abacus (Santa Fe, NM), Meow Wolf (Santa Fe, NM), Knockdown Center (NYC), and other risk-taking spaces around the world. In 2016, SSB presented audacious, globally resonant projects including Lydia Lunch and Umar Bin Hassan’s politically and poetically outspokenNo Wave Out; Ted Riederer’sNever Records: Culture Not Conflict recording project in Amman, Jordan; a special event for Alexandra Henry’s groundbreaking documentary, Street Heroines, about female graffiti artists around the world; hybrid artists Quintan Ana Wikswo and Arthur Kell’sNonagon for the Dead Who Are Rising for Standing Rock and the Black Panthers; Mike Tyler’s book publishing poetry slam at Gleason’s Boxing Gym in Brooklyn; and supported Northern Youth Project’s Heritage Garden and For the Love of Land art project.
For SSB, art is not a numbers game! Your donation will allow us to continue to support artistically risk-taking, politically engaged, and globally insightful projects that prioritize artistic innovation over financial gain and present peak experiences for audiences and artists alike.
Some Serious Business is more than just an arts organization: we are a global community of adventurers—artists, curators, poets, presenters, performers, editors, authors, filmmakers, and donors like you. SSB is guided by a passionate belief that supporting the needs of visionary creators yields profound encounters and meaningful social change.
