Queens Tribune

The Queens Museum of Art will host a free event this Saturday aimed at bringing together borough artists and cultural groups for an afternoon of networking and information.

The “Queens Arts Connection,” a collaborative effort between the Queens Council on the Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts and QMA, will run from 1 to 6:30 p.m. and feature 19 arts organizations based in New York City that will share information about their programs, presentation spaces and funding sources.

These organizations include Actor’s Fund of America, Flushing Council on Culture and the Arts, Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning, National Writers Union, Poets & Writers and The Field.

The event, which is produced every two years, is open to the public and will also include an informal networking reception, live music and a raffle.

According to QMA, artists will also participate in portfolio reviews with QMA curatorial staff and, with advance registration, a peer-sharing slide/video/reading slam.
The afternoon will also provide an opportunity for dancers to attend an application session for the sixth annual QMA and Topaz Arts’ Dance in Queens summer residency and performance series, and to sign up for work sample reviews with Paz Tanjuaquio of Topaz Arts.

“Often, as an artist, you’re working in isolation, and that’s really across disciplines – whether you’re a dancer, a painter or new media artist,” said QCA Artists Services Director Chris Henderson. “And what this event does is it gives people an afternoon where there are going to be up to 200 artists and they’ll be able to just meet and greet and share stories and share resources on how to really make it as a creative person, which is very difficult to do – to make a living off of your art, very few people are able to do it.”

Henderson said the “Queens Arts Connection” will provide valuable services to the borough’s art scene, which he characterized as “in flux.” Many artists who can’t afford creative spaces in Manhattan or Brooklyn, Henderson explained, are heading across the river to Western Queens. And immigrant artists are settling into the borough’s “ethnic enclaves” and setting up shop without any real base to support them.

“That’s really where we come in,” Henderson noted. “We help connect them with other artists through events like this.”
QMA Public Events Director Prerana Reddy echoed Henderson’s notion of the event’s role as a medium through which artists can connect. She also said that in addition to the artists, QMA and the creative community will benefit tremendously from the relationships forged on Saturday.

“I think the networking and sharing of resources, sharing of feedback is really vital for artistic development,” Reddy said. “By fostering that, I think we create a stronger artistic community in Queens and we are part of that community.”

For more information on the “Queens Arts Connection” visit queensmuseum.org or queenscouncilarts.org.