Alternative SpaceLittle Italy
PARTICIPANT INC
One of downtown's most beloved alternative art spaces. Politics, performance, community, and experimentation collide here. Black walls and raw, deeply human shows that cling to your mind long after you leave.
Photo by Effie Liu for Beholdr
Walk in With Us
Artists, and the people who love them, come to New York City seeking communities of freewheeling art makers, thinkers, and doers. PARTICIPANT INC is one of those rare places where they can come together to resist and repair.
No “white cube” standards here. Instead, the gallery’s black box design feels like a DIY theater where something unpredictable and necessary is about to happen. In 2008, New York Magazine named PARTICIPANT INC the Best Alternative Art Space. They haven’t stopped proving them right since.
Some shows hark back to the 1970s and '80s, when feminism’s second wave, AIDS activism, and the culture wars raged. Others speak to the urgency of the moment we’re living in now: climate activism, Palestinian rights, and transgender rights.
There’s a freedom of expression in the art shown here that makes us feel free, too. Go to be part of conversations behind the ones in the headlines. Go back to become part of pushing systemic justice forward.
About the Alternative Space
PARTICIPANT INC and its beloved founder, Lia Gangitano, have been championing art and artists who refuse to fit the mold since 2001. It began on 95 Rivington Street, moved to Houston Street, and now lives inside a luxury building on Elizabeth Street. We’ve never visited without seeing Lia there. She’s as woven into the neighborhood’s history as the artists she champions, and the city is more textured and culturally rich because of her.
Featured In
Routes and collections this place belongs to
In The Area
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PARK at KIMS
One of the city's most exciting pour-over bars, bringing Seoul's obsessive high-design coffee culture to Little Italy. PARKS at KIM treats coffee like a gallery treats art.
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GalleryLittle Italy
Derosia
Self-aware, socially-motivated painting about culture, media, and the moment we’re living in.
Past Best of Shows
You can't see them, but we did! Read our reviews.
Past Best of Shows
You can't see them, but we did! Read our reviews.
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Best of ShowLittle Italy
Sheyla Baykal: Horizontal Thinking
JUL-AUG1016
PARTICIPANT INCBlack-and-white portraits of artists, performers, and friends who built the scaffolding of queer New York. From the photographer who made sure they would never disappear.
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Best of ShowLittle Italy
[minna|منا]of us
FEB-MAR0115
PARTICIPANT INCEight Palestinian and queer artists. Each held in their own circle of light.
