FLUX Art Space is a New York City nonprofit arts organization, established in 2002 as a 501(c)(3), dedicated to experimental work, digital arts and community education. After a period of reflection and restructuring, FLUX is reemerging in 2027 with a new board of directors, an updated mission and the same founding spirit.
We are currently completing the administrative steps to restore FLUX good standing with the relevant federal, state and city authorities, so that it can resume full operations and accept public support. We are grateful to everyone who has stayed connected to this work, and we invite you to join us as supporters, collaborators and friends.
FLUX Art Space beginnings in 2002 and select youth programs:
Mission (2002)
FLUX Art Space is a 501 (c) (3) arts organization that presents and exhibits digital art and interdisciplinary projects by both established and emerging artists, providing an artistic forum for underprivileged and underexposed sections of multicultural communities in NYC.
Goals:
• To provide a multicultural, multimedia platform upon which artists can present their works to a wide range of communities in NYC;
• To enable the underprivileged and underexposed communities of NYC to experience the processes of art through digital art, whilst supporting the communities and advocating their need for access to technology;
• To stimulate economic growth in underprivileged urban sectors by raising the cultural profile of those sectors, thereby attracting businesses and contributing to the creation of new jobs.
Youth Programs Ideology:
Art allows students to think creatively which aids them in problem solving and exploiting technology in our fast growing Digital Age. Art, in our view, can be improved and fostered through the use of technology. FLUX Art Space provides programs that guide young people through the creative process to a familiarity with digital art. Our programs include, but not be limited to, collaboration with institutions such as museums and art galleries; national and international art centers; workshops with independent internationally renowned artists offering instructions of new art technology subjects; apprenticeship or exhibition of some of the more serious-minded youth; lectures, round tables and symposiums by prominent, accredited artists, etc.
We fully appreciate that in order to encourage young people to participate in our programs we must have a user-friendly style and format. Therefore, in parallel with all art projects & events, we produce lectures, artists’ talks, workshops and conferences. At the core of our strategy is a desire to see art incorporated in community-based projects that will have a self-sustaining life, generating a creative community dynamic.
FLUX Art Space programs are flexible, allowing individuals to grow creatively. Workshops provide for free and spontaneous self-expression. Exciting activities guided by professional artists and art educators center on digital arts and technology. This process permits young people to learn and express themselves at a pace and rhythm that suits them individually and collectively.
The role of the artists and art educators is to stimulate the creative process and not impede it with too much hands-on involvement. With younger students, care is taken to guide them gently through the use of technology and to shape the format to their specific learning needs and abilities.
FLUX Youth Programs (2002):
Exquisite Corpse™
Exquisite Corpse™is an international exchange FLUX media project-based program, lead by internationally renowned artists, where American and International youth (aged 13 - 17) will collaborate on creative conceptual art project through digital technology. Initially, participants in participating countries will agree on the conceptual idea of the project and the form (theatre, poetry, music, video). In the following days/weeks they will email their work back and forth, adding to each other’s ideas. The resulting artwork will be exhibited on FLUX Art Space web site and participate in new media exhibitions both nationally and internationally. Exquisite Corpse™ will also aim to grow into a physical exchange program.
Exquisite Corpse™is a unique international exchange program. Exquisite Corpse™will create an international network of youth participating creatively via digital technology, offering a positivistic world-view and creating international alliances where beforehand none had existed. The ultimate mission of Exquisite Corpse™is to become an annual international exchange program, where economic hardship will be no longer a barrier for youth to participate in international exchange, communication, and digital culture.
ReDesign™
ReDesign™ is a FLUX media program where participants interested in particular arts discipline (i.e. theatre, fine arts, film, architecture, graphic design, etc.) will experience a yearlong wide variety of individual projects lead by professional artists and creative professionals. Some of these projects will include but not limited to: guest speakers, peer critique project workshops, field trips, round tables, weekly presentations by participants in the program, think-tanks, constructive analysis, etc. ReDesign™ is the umbrella term for a wide variety of creative fields programs that will ultimately lead youth to creative professional careers and give them an exceptional opportunity for personal success and hands-on experience: ReDesign™ Architecture, ReDesign™ Fashion, ReDesign™ Contemporary Art, ReDesign™ Animation, ReDesign™ Graphic Design, ReDesign™ Advertising, ReDesign™ Theatre, etc. All ReDesign™ programs will have build in their structure six months long internship component during which participants will re-design an existing concept/product depending on the nature of the particular ReDesign™ program he/she participates in. In a fundamental sense as young consumers, it is important to examine what is ‘need’, what is ‘want’, and how are they created and manipulated today in our society. At the end of the six months long internship, youth will have the opportunity to present the creative team with their re-designed concept/product. The creative team will have the responsibility to grade participants’ presentations as well as their overall performance in the particular ReDesign™ program.
ReDesign™ programs will develop within participants a strong sense of personal investment and responsibility - youth will be part of and observe first hand the process of developing creative ideas & products from the early stages of conception to the end stages of realization. ReDesign™ aims to develop awareness and understanding of the potential of art where previously none had existed. ReDesign™ will prepare youth for many exciting creative professions.
Curate & Critique™
FLUX Curate & Critique™ program, is intended for youth seriously interested in art criticism and contemporary art curating. Participants will have the opportunity to create virtual digital art exhibitions using FLUX web site and review each other’s work & ideas. FLUX plans regular outings to arts events (museums, galleries, cultural institutions, etc.) and a series of lectures and workshops. Prominent figures in the area of cultural criticism and contemporary art curating will be invited to participate and provide guidance and feedback on participant’ writing and curating. In addition FLUX will organize other educational activities involving art professionals such as art administrators, nonprofits board members, art installers, art managers, dealers, art collectors and patrons, etc. in order to expand students’ knowledge and understanding of the art world and contemporary art business.
Curate & Critique™ program is designed to attract students that represent minority voices to the filed of art criticism and curating, providing early entry to the art world and art business to underprivileged and underexposed youth. Curate & Critique™ will expose digital art to youth and vice versa while initiating a platform for positive and constructive forum among teens on contemporary art and art practice.
Digital Word™
Youth participating in Digital Word™ program will examine and participate in community based artwork lead by a community-based artist. Participants will be given the task to explore the relationship among graffiti, rap/hip-hop, poetry slam, graphic design, and digital artists. Youth will research the history of each medium, interview leading forces within each category and write a conclusive paper at the end of the program. The knowledge of these various artistic disciplines will be grounded by weekly seminars, workshops and presentations/talks by poets, graffiti artists, rappers, digital artists, etc. Students will organize and produce their own digital art project including all of the above mentioned art mediums of expression which will be exhibited on FLUX Art Space web site.
Digital Word™ provides broader public appreciation through providing access to all forms of digital art and culture. Creativity and self-expression must be encouraged as much as the teaching of basic computer skills. Introducing youth to the artistic process through the digital art medium is as important as other aspects of learning. Digital Word™ prepares youth with the necessary skills for the increased reliance on technology as a tool for self-expression and self-realization in tandem with its purpose for data finding and communication.
Access™
The Digital Divide has clearly become another method of describing demographic criteria. FLUX Access™ program aims to initiate greater awareness of a different problem - the Creative Divide, which is a consequence of the Digital Divide problem. FLUX provides new platforms for change through the involvement of youth in the fight against the Digital & Creative Divide. FLUX programs help teens to be well informed and educated about these contemporary issues while show them alternative ways of working towards digital equality through creative means and expression.
Through Access™ participants will be given the task to create both business and creative proposals to end the Digital Divide in all of its forms. The initial phases of the program will consist of participants researching the problem. Youth will use all information/data available to them on the Internet in combination with various forms of survey they develop and implement in order to collect sufficient data and form a cohesive presentation of the present social need. Students will then analyze all information and start the second phase of the project – developing a strategy/plan of action in order to reach their objective in a unique and idiosyncratic way. Each plan of action will be presented at the end of the project to a diverse audience composed by sociologist, grass-roots activists, business leaders, digital artists, and other professionals. Each participant plan/strategy will be showcased and then archived on FLUX web site. Participants’ individual projects will vary from documentary film and photographic representation of the problem to video or computer game dealing with Digital & Creative Divide issues. In addition, participants will produce Public Announcements and advertising campaign, which will include the concept and the production of magazines and newspapers advertisement, graphic design, art directions, copyright, etc.
Matrix>Games™
“The fact is, when kids videogames they can experience a much more powerful form of learning than when they’re in isolated facts. Learning isn’t about memorizing isolated facts. It’s about connecting and manipulating them.” James Paul Gee, a reading professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is the author of What Video Games Have to Teach us About Learning and Literacy.
Youth will work with leading artists, animators and special effects professionals in the creation of innovative socially conscious computer games, animation & sci-fi film production.
Media Venture planning/Media Managers training
FLUX has created an innovative, project-based media management program designed for youth interested in starting a media venture, becoming media managers/arts administrators and working within the entertainment and media business sector.
FLUX Media Venture program exposes youth and vice versa to the entertainment, information, and communication arts industries. The program is specifically designed to provide students with the foundation, skills, and competencies required to both understand and function within any media venture. FLUX Media Venture program combines reading, writing and studying the arts industries with actual managerial experience. The initial phase will consists of students focusing their efforts on creating a comprehensive business plan for a media-related venture designed to satisfy a need, realize an opportunity, or address a challenge within a given media industry. In the second phase, students will implement aspects of their business plans and in the third phase they will develop and implement a marketing plan to promote their respective media ventures. Leading professional in the entertainment, information and communication arts industries will be a constant for lectures, discussions, feedback and hands-on experience.