Sunset Park Open Studios: Art for all!

More than 350 artists at over 25 locations will once again welcome the public into their spaces during Sunset Park Open Studios, running Oct. 17–19.

Junho Lee, founder and director of the New York Art Residency and Studios (NARS), launched Sunset Park Open Studios in 2019 to make art more accessible in South Brooklyn, opening the building that houses both NARS and J&M Studios, which he also founded. J&M rents studios to New York–based artists, while the NARS Foundation runs an international residency, curatorial fellowships, exhibitions, and education programs. What started with a few studios has since grown into a neighborhood-wide biannual event.

Jas Pinturas, a Sunset Park resident since 1996 and an artist at J&M Studios, joined Open Studios in 2023. Her illustrations, paintings, and mixed-media collages respond to political conditions past and present, exploring themes of immigration, health care disparity, and displacement.

“The visual and formal elements of my work are deeply connected to my experiences in childcare, teaching, community building, and Indigenous identity,” said Pinturas. “As a working-class artist, it is difficult for me to regularly show my work, discuss my practice, and connect with other curators or critics.” In addition to engaging with the wider art community, she said Open Studios lets her invite neighbors into her studio to see her work.

Artist Peter Walsh, taking part in his ninth Open Studios, also values the opportunity to reach a broader audience outside the professional arts circle. “That can be very good to take an accounting of how people are seeing what you are doing,” he said. “And you need that.”

Sunset Park is largely working class, and while art may not be a high priority for families trying to make ends meet, there is a desire to make it easier for the community to enjoy and take part in.

Art preserves culture and celebrates the neighborhood’s diverse migrant communities, said Pinturas. She believes students need more accessible art programming, while adults and seniors can benefit from additional creative programs and community spaces that bring people together.

Lee and his team at NARS have launched outreach programs at the Sunset Park Library to help fill that gap. An Animation Workshop runs Mondays from 4 to 5:30 p.m. through November, with another series starting in the spring. A free family workshop meets one Saturday a month, bringing art into a space close to home for kids and families.

They also started Sunset Park Wide Open (SPWO), a nonprofit committed to directly connecting with the community as Open Studios grows. “I think that’s something I’m always trying to think about, as someone who works in the arts, how to bridge communities with art institutions or art events in general,” said NARS Program Manager Carly Terreson. She said the goal is to bring art into everyday spaces like businesses, schools, and the library.

Art Cake, located in a converted 1920s factory that once served as a patisserie and paint distribution site — hence the name — offers affordable studios and an event venue. It has been part of Open Studios since 2019. “For our resident artists, it’s a meaningful opportunity to share their work with the broader community,” said artistic director Jim Condron.

As the broader community faces a volatile political and social climate, financial uncertainty, increasing costs, and general anxiety about the future, Walsh, whose current work explores AI, surveillance, and labor with abstraction, believes that Open Studios can bring art closer to the Sunset Park community and be something to help soothe and empower us onward.

“The arts can build community,” Walsh said. “When I go to other people’s art shows, or see other people’s art, or listen to their music, I think it gives everybody a strength to keep moving forward with all the difficult stuff that needs to get done.”

Sunset Park Open Studios will be held from Friday, Oct. 17 through Sunday, Oct. 19. Please check out the schedule and locations here: https://sunsetparkopenstudios.org/