Help Fund Black Creative Studio in Greenpoint, BK
What is Hard Closing?
Hard Closing is a collaborative studio space based in Brooklyn, New York. We focus on a wide variety of tasks from artist management/development, event curation, and community initiatives. We began as a recurrent music and video series, sharing the talents of many of New York’s emerging and mid-career artists, shot at Soft Opening Plant Shop.
With the imminent closing of Soft Opening, Hard Closing now has the opportunity to expand and create a hub for accessible studio space and creative cultivation for low income artists, or anyone looking to express themselves in new mediums. We are so grateful to be trusted with the care and future of the space that was Soft Opening, but we aren’t able to actualize this much needed community space without your help. We’re in need of funds to secure the space and acquire the necessary materials to develop a collaborative studio and share the space back with New York.
What do we plan to do with the space?
-Host pop up shops for artists, musicians, and vendors in order to build their exposure, form connections, and secure finances.
-Cultivate a safe and accessible creative environment for visual and sound artists to rent, ideate and execute creative projects and endeavors.
-Develop a series of workshops and a residency program to ensure space for personal, creative, and professional development for artists often marginalized in the art world.
Why should I help support Hard Closing?
Art and creativity are the driving factors of society, especially proven during the world’s recent pandemic. Many of us looked toward TV and music to settle our nerves and pass the time. Though art and creative expression are fundamental factors of society as we know it, they are elements that are constantly stifled and devalued. Even “traditional” galleries and studios are a part of the problem, gatekeeping and locking doors on people they don’t deem worthy of using their space. As a black owned studio we understand prejudice, and would like to create an area where that type of unkindness simply doesn’t exist. Your support helps to enable artists, and creates a safe space in a dangerous world.
What does my donation go towards?
Supplying the necessary 3 months rent and securing visual and sound equipment we need to reorganize the space so that it serves as a functional collaborative studio space.
Artists already attached to working in the space
+Richie Studios
+Ryan Adams
+Nicole Mayhorn Photography
+Du Tran Garments
+Sprngvlvt
+Stacy Desmond
+Early21stCentury
+Carole Dossavi
+Funerral
Who wrote this?
Hi, my name is Keith N’Dong and I’m a cofounder of Hard Closing. I am an interdisciplinary artist and professional music teacher currently living in Brooklyn, NY. I moved to New York in 2018 from Minneapolis, Minnesota where I used to curate art shows, perform live music, and teach private music lessons. I’ve performed and curated all over Minnesota and New York from, First Ave, The Cedar Cultural Center, H0l0, and Turk’s Inn to name a few.
What really drives me to do this work is the fact that the first art show I curated was actually in an airbnb. I had just left a meeting to discuss the potential showing of my visual works at a MN gallery, at which point the owner called one of my pieces “urban” and “very hip hop” and thus rejected the entire project. The piece in discussion was a simple, abstracted, digital collage....the only thing that could possibly be related to hip hop in that conversation was the color of my skin. After that experience I realized I needed to create my own space and opportunities, thus the airbnb show. That same energy carries over 5 years later, and now with your help we have the opportunity to create a space that is the antithesis of that distasteful experience.