Cultural Space Subsidy Program Announces New Tenants

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Below-market studio space is awarded to five professional artists who embody DUMBO’s creative spirit.

Two Trees Management Co. today announced the incoming cohort of participating artists in this year’s Cultural Space Subsidy Program (CSSP), which awards three years of below-market-rate studio space to artists with a strong exhibition history or community focused practice. The incoming group of artists includes Dread Scott, Jenny Polak, Rowan Renee, Sara Rafferty, and Steffani Jemison.

Established in 2014, CSSP annually awards a set number of studios to applicants who best demonstrate their intent to contribute to DUMBO and the broader Brooklyn community while expanding or deepening their practice. The  program, which opens an application each June, prioritizes space awards to professional artists and arts, education, or community-focused groups. The awarded studio spaces range from 500 to 2,500 square feet, and offer access to freight elevators, communal conference rooms, high-speed internet, and, in most cases, high ceilings and natural light.

“DUMBO’s art community is an essential part of the neighborhood fabric,” said Ariel Willmott, Cultural Affairs Director at Two Trees Management. “It’s important to support artists who are vital to the city and its reputation as a global artshub by supporting accessible studio spaces. These five recipients embody DUMBO’s creative spirit, and we look forward to seeing what they produce in their new workspaces.”

CSSP artists can work toward advancing their careers with less financial constraint with space to work large-scale or to accommodate professional studio visits. Their presence contributes to the vibrant culture in DUMBO, home to art galleries, great retailers, and a creative community that’s drawn to the neighborhood’s historic architecture and access to the waterfront and parks. 

The five incoming artists are all significant contributors to contemporary art, some with ties to DUMBO and others who have participated in area residencies in the past. Below is a quick overview of each new recipient and their work:

Dread Scott is an interdisciplinary artist whose work encourages viewers to re-examine cohering ideals of American society. Working in a range of media including performance, installation, video, photography, printmaking, and painting, Dread’s work has been presented in venues ranging from museum galleries to street corners. He brings contemporary art to a broad public audience who are often an active element of his work.

Jenny Polak makes site and community responsive art framed around social justice. Her practice draws on her background in architecture and includes public and socially-engaged projects often examining immigrant-citizen relations.

Rowan Renee’s work addresses intergenerational trauma, gender-based violence and the impact of the criminal legal system through image, text and installation. Renee’s solo projects are influenced by community-based workshops with people affected by gender-based violence and mass incarceration.

Sara Greenberger Rafferty produces image-based works in paper, plastic, glass, metal, fabric, and video. Her work is driven by an ongoing examination of contemporary and mid-20th century visual culture and considers the ever-changing implications of photographic images in the digital era.

Steffani Jemison attends to the seam between conceptual precepts and embodied knowledge. Her multidisciplinary approach spans time-based, sculptural, and discursive mediums, informed by deep research into movement practices, literature, ethnomusicology, and the history of cinema.

Two Trees is committed to supporting initiatives that further the creative, cultural, educational, and civic discourse that is at the core of progress and growth for New York City. Two Trees and the Walentas family have long supported the arts and community development by subsidizing leading and emerging cultural institutions, artists, and community groups through the Cultural Space Subsidy Program and the Sharpe Walentas Studio Program; elevating DUMBO’s strong and vibrant arts scene through Art in DUMBO public events (First Thursday, DUMBO Open Studios, Shop the Studios), and making significant grants to area schools via Neighborhood School Grants. 

About Cultural Space Subsidy Program (CSSP)

Two Trees is dedicated to maintaining a diverse group of commercial tenants that exemplify the neighborhood identity as a place where creativity, entrepreneurship, and community engagement are celebrated. Recognizing that market rents are not feasible for all, the Cultural Space Subsidy Program makes space available at below market rent to be awarded to applicants that best demonstrate their capabilities and intent to provide a social benefit to DUMBO and the broader Brooklyn community. Leases are for a three-year term. The program is open to professional artists with a strong exhibition history or community focused practice, as well as arts, education, and community focused groups—primarily, but not limited to, 501c3 nonprofit organizations. 

About Two Trees Management 

Two Trees Management Company is a family-owned, Brooklyn-based real estate development firm best known for its singular role in transforming DUMBO from a neglected industrial waterfront into a vibrant mixed-use community, as well as the on-going creation of the Domino campus on the Williamsburg waterfront. Two Trees owns and manages a real estate portfolio worth more than $4 billion, including more than 4,000 market and affordable-rate apartments and over 3 million square feet of office and retail space in New York City. Since its founding in 1968, Two Trees has operated under the fundamental belief that successful neighborhoods offer a wide variety of uses and attract diverse groups of people, and that developers must play a fundamental role in cultivating livable streetscapes – because people prosper when neighborhoods bloom. In addition to the residential and commercial buildings across DUMBO, Williamsburg, Fort Greene, Brooklyn Heights, Hell’s Kitchen and Flatiron neighborhoods, other notable projects include Domino Park, The Plaza at 300 Ashland, The Refinery at Domino, River Ring, The Wythe Hotel and Jane’s Carousel.