Apply to Softbox

Interested in coming to Softbox as a resident? See information below!

1: Description of Program

Short term subsidized residency, 1-3 months, live/work warehouse space with option for hosting an event.

2: What supports/services are provided as part of the program? i.e. housing, studio space, food, stipend, etc..

Subsidized live/work opportunity at below market rental price. Opportunity to stage a small-scale event or performance in the space, possibilities include music or theater performance, film/video screening, relational projects.

Basic sculpture tools available: table saw, chop saw, hand tools. Private studio plus option to build larger site-specific work in space.

Information about events and resources provided by host as needed, access to host’s contact list for promotion.

3: What disciplines is the residency for? Visual Arts, music, architecture...

Unlimited, but there are restrictions on the use of space in terms of lighting, audience size, harsh chemicals and noise levels.

4: Who is eligible to apply?

Emerging or established artist, international welcome. This opportunity is ideal for an artist who is coming to New York to work on a project/performance, to research project possibilities and network, or relocating to New York and needing a short term place to live, work, and present projects.

5: Application procedure and Materials

Email application in prose form describing yourself, statement of need, proposal for use, time frame, web link to previous work and/or attached images, and 1 professional references available by phone. Feel free to attach CV or press.

Email or phone interview to follow initial review.

Applications accepted on a rolling basis, length of stay dependent on needs and availability.

contact: Jo Q. Nelson, softbox "at" joqnelson.com

Open house

The open house was a success. It was great to hear reactions and ideas from visitors, including 2 tour groups led by the Living Room curator, Chen. It feels like a big shift to talk about the project as actual, not theoretical, as physical rather than virtual.

One great thought posed by a sometimes boss Daniel Smith of Disign LLC: What is the principal "unit"? Are the pods subservient rooms within the overall space "unit," or are the pods the "units" and the space the "landscape."

Hosting came up over and over again as the overarching concept, explaining both the design and the program.


Panorama view of Softbox, all dressed up for Open House.


Setup for sweet corn from the Sunnyside farmer's market.


Visitors exploring guest pod.

The site

The building is on the borderline of Long Island City and Sunnyside, Queens. It is mostly occupied by textiles shops, each floor holding 2 shops. Our unit was leased by a tableware designer as the full 1/2 floor, subsequently divided up. Softbox was previously rented by a gift ware company for the past 6 years. There are several other smaller units leased out by artists with varying degrees of "live" in "live/work." The complex does not feel like the Soho warehouses of the 1960s which allowed a "marginal" existence, according to my sculpture prof Robert Morris. Rather, it has a feeling of entrepreneurial creative enterprise; potentially a necessary condition at this point to sustain space in New York.

Softbox rocks

Welcome to Softbox. Softbox is a 1600 square foot warehouse space in Queens, New York which came to me rough but will hopefully in phases come together as a live work/studio space as well as a testing ground for future projects.



The building is classic box warehouse with glass block window walls. I have been subletting a smaller unit on the same floor for the last couple of months. The glass block distorts and clarifies the color of light, making the room feel like a softbox.




It should be a slow moving and flexible project. I see it as progressing in phases, from the immediate clean up and temporary (tent city) phase to providing studio space for several friends, and eventually additions of plumbing and more permanent structures. Stay tuned...

Directions

Click here for google maps.

Take 7 train to 40th st/Lowery stop.
Walk north on 40th st. (city on your left) to 43rd ave.
Take a left on 43rd ave., past 39th place to 39th St. Miller bldg is on NW corner of 39th St. and 43rd ave. Enter in door to the left of Loading dock and come to 3rd floor in elevator or stairs.