Genesis Project

Genesis Project was a unique, month-long, artists' residency program catering to body-based artists who identify as working between disciplines and/or seek to integrate other disciplines into their performance practice through individual experimentation and open-source collaboration. The project was modeled after Genesis Project, Dublin, Ireland, which began in 2004 when dance artists Julie Lockett and Ella Clarke, in conversation with seminal post-modern choreographer Deborah Hay, asked the question, “As an artist, what do I need?”  Since then, Genesis Project has been recreated in different cities across the US. In August 2008, Genesis Project, Los Angeles was hosted by the gallery, Sea and Space Explorations, and was directed by Hana van der Kolk with assistance from Arturo Vidich. In 2009 the residency was hosted by Basekamp, a non-commercial studio and exhibition space in Philadelphia. In 2011 the residency was directed by Culture Push Co-Founder, Arturo Vidich in New York

The aim of the New York residency was to re-imagine the format of artist residencies. Genesis Project facilitates an environment wherein creativity is the act of investigation rather than production. The residency offers 5 artists work space for daily solo practice. It is the intention of Genesis Project to sharpen the potency of each artist’s daily practice while advocating the exchange of increasingly necessary interdisciplinary skills.

The project was hosted by 319 Scholes in collaboration with Culture Push. Each artist received a small stipend and a subsidy for local transportation. In addition, each artist was asked to raise $400-$500 (or more) from within their own communities of colleagues, friends, or family to subsidize their own living costs, including transportation and food. Institutional and/or government funding is also permitted. Fundraising will provide participants with an opportunity to articulate their artistic needs and to promote their involvement in the residency. It is anticipated that donors will be invested in Genesis Project and that the residency will cast a wider net of influence, functioning as a service not only for the resident artists but also for their communities.