34 THE QUEENS COURIER • MAY 16, 2019 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
The 9th Annual LIC Arts Open Festival
MAY 15 -19 2019
OPEN STUDIOS MAY 18-19
EVENTS AND EXHIBITIONS
WED-SUN
There is a huge amount of art of all disciplines from Photography
to Ceramics to Painting to Neon to Sculpture Dance, Music, and
Events, Installations and Parties at this years LIC ARTS OPEN 9.
Once again, The Factory and Plaxall Galleries have hundreds of
artists with a wonderful range of art on view. Don’t forget, however,
to visit some of the smaller spaces and studios like Joel Voisard,
Edward Butler. Make sure to make time to stop by Studio 34,
Flux Factory, and Local Project Art Space. This year new studio
buildings have joined including Departure Studios and Radiator.
Welcome to the 9th Annual LIC
Arts Open Festival. Whenever this
time of year comes around, we
always remark that its truly
incredible that a little idea that
started as a chat between two
friends has grown to be an
important event for Queens that
many people now look forward to.
In 2004 our Executive Director,
Richard Mazda, spoke to local
activists and neighbors, Kenny
Greenberg and Diane Hendry, who
were running a fabulous art space
Art-O-Mat on Vernon Blvd. When
Richard came across this space
and met Kenny and Diane for the
first time along with local artist
Kristy Schopper who was manning
the storefront gallery, he saw
what he thought was an opportunity.
During a short conversation,
Mazda proposed an arts festival
having founded the Camberwell
Arts Week in London in 1996. The
initial response was not necessarily
enthusiastic due to previous
experiences and a community that
back in 2004 was not as inter-connected
as it is now.
It took another 7 years before the
idea came around by which time
zoning laws had changed, the
Olympics had been given to the
UK and the building boom in LIC
was already happening apace.
The festival has helped to establish
that this is a vibrant artist
community and also helps to
remind the business community,
developers and newcomers that
this is a very important component
of the cultural life of this
amazing area.
We have made a few changes to
the festival this year including
putting our ‘10x10’ Project on
hiatus. We hope to bring this
project back later this year as a
stand-alone event.
We hope that you enjoy this years
festival and ask that while you
visit the various exhibitions, and
Open Studios that you will tag us
with the following hash tags:
@licartsopen, #licartsopen9,
#queens and where possible
please tag the artists with their
handles on Instagram, Facebook
and other Social Media.
Salut!
Richard Mazda
Executive Director
/WWW.QNS.COM
