We are thrilled to announce our second round of organizational grantees: The Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP), The Laundromat Project and freeDimensional. The Center for Urban Pedagogy and The Laundromat Project were selected to receive project support in the amount of $20,000 each, and freeDimensional has been selected to receive $20,000 in general operating support. 

A Blade of Grass’ stake in socially engaged art is organized around two key concepts: amplifying the role of artists as leaders and change agents, and assisting artists who operate in everyday life—particularly at an ambitious scale. Through an open application process, A Blade of Grass awarded three, one-time grants to New York City based public charities that are finding new audiences and purposes for contemporary art by actively engaging communities. Organizations were able to request funding of up to $20,000 for projects that illuminate the organization’s mission and values ...

It has been eight months since K-pop sensation Psy’s Gangnam Style overtook YouTube, and more than 1.4 billion computer screens. The most recent cultural pandemic has been producer Bauer’s Harlem Shake. Arm-deep into 2013, it may seem that nothing in the world, much less in the art community, is projected to be of eternal consequence if it doesn’t operate on viral terms. But that thinking couldn’t be more ill-fated. Though artists should embrace a world of viral fits, they must understand that lasting work will strike a viral nerve in due time.

Gangnam Flash Mob in Canada / Via GoToVan, Flickr.

As silly as it sounds, there were moments when I watched the Harlem Shake take on increasingly creative bounds to the point where I thought a cultural revolution might be in store. But I soon got over my minor fit of euphoria to realize that ...

On March 13th, A Blade of Grass hosted a conversation about the use of PlaNYC as an inspirational tool, and the work both planners and artists are doing to engage the citizens of New York in the infrastructure that surrounds them every day. Artist Mary Miss and lawyer John Osborn raised many critical issues about sustainability and communication. Watch the videos from the event below!

PlaNYC is a bold initiative that has the potential to make New York City one of the most environmentally conscious urban centers in the country. But how visible is this initiative to New Yorkers today? Mary Miss' audacious project inspired by PlaNYC, City as Living Laboratory, Broadway 1,000 Steps, seeks to turn the entire Broadway corridor into a place where artists and citizens can collectively dream of a sustainable future. John Osborn has been an active participant in PlaNYC, and is working on demonstration ...

While the relationship between the artist and the viewer is a favorite conversation topic of the art world, it is often discussed in a one directional kind of way, as if the artist’s role is to bestow a sublime message onto the viewer. Sitting with Marina, the performance piece Marina Abramovic debuted in her much-discussed 2010 retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art, exemplifies this attitude. In the work, she would perch unflinchingly for 12 hours at a time in the museum’s atrium while visitors sat opposite her. Sitters assert being overwhelmed with the aura Abramovic exuded, at times reduced to tears. While Abramovic complicates the artist/audience dynamic, allowing museumgoers to become her partners-in-crime rather than just passive viewers, she remained stoic, seemingly unaffected by her companions.

But the tension between the artist and the audience isn’t a one-way street; in fact, artists can learn a ...

This is a conversation between Maria Byck, Kerry Downey, & Sunita Prasad. The three of us met at Congress of Collectives - a Flux Factory organized gathering of people who work collaboratively.

Maria Byck is a former member of Occupy Museums, Some Feminists in Your Neighborhood, Paper Tiger and Red Channels.

Kerry Downey is a member of Action Club and former member of Flux Factory and is currently teaching a class with Douglas Paulson on collaboration and collectives for Teen Programs at MoMA.

Sunita Prasad is a former member of Some Feminists in Your Neighborhood and Red Channels.


Sunita Prasad: It seems like collectives are more interesting to people when they fail? [Laughter]

Kerry Downey: Failure is more interesting than success, too. Failure as a principle is pretty hip these days.

S: I guess that’s what it is – it’s really juicy, so people are like “Oooh! … Your collective dissolved?!”

Maria ...