At the outstart of its eighth year, WBX’s mission continues to follow the core of its original mandate which is to present broad ranging contemporary art forms by innovative artists and curators whose efforts to exhibit thought-provoking, intellectually and visually challenging art is many times overlooked and, at times, question the more popular, media and market-oriented focus of other New York contemporary arts venues. WBX’s purpose sets it apart from other organizations by not exclusively focusing on artists nor is it strictly a curator-based exhibition space. In this capacity, WBX has developed a multi-purpose direction allowing it to examine and present the contemporary arts from within their culturally specific contexts while providing a forum in which, aside from the general public, youth, students and seasoned arts professionals can explore, learn and engage with new ideas. The subsequent exhibitions and other programs arise from today’s complex issues and multilayered elements that influence and impact everyone culturally and that are associated to other disciplines such as anthropology, sociology and the politics and transformations resulting from a global consumer marketplace. WBX has become known as a venue in which the general public, students and arts professionals can meet, dialogue and exchange ideas that are socially and culturally transformative. As such, White Box has gained peer recognition for being a welcome haven, one that sponsors and endorses open and flexible approaches while embracing a global focus in the selection of its collaborators, partners, curators and artists.
History
Since its foundation in 1998 by a group of international curators and artists, White Box has been continuously committed to staging original, conceptually driven shows of emerging as well as established artists. Emphasis has also been placed on reintroducing underrepresented and unaffiliated mid-career artists and on theme-curated exhibitions.
Now in its eighth year, White Box’s exhibition program has gained considerable profile within the international arts community and has received significant critical attention. White Box has twice been nominated “Best Group Show” by the International Art Critics Association, first in 1998 for Plural Speech (1998), curated by Dominique Nahas, which included work by Vivienne Koorland, Lee Ming Wei and recent McArthur grant recipient Xu Bing, and the following year for a survey of two Viennese Actionists, Gunter Brus and Hermann Nitsch, which traced these artists’ remarkable history of intense and provocative work from the 1960s to the present.
White Box’s annual programs have included exhibitions geared at cultivating voter registration for those disenchanted with the democratic system today; additionally White Box has engaged surrounding neighborhood low-incoming housing population and it has created public Out-of-the-Box special presentations on billboards, bus stops and public transportation as well as collaborated with other off-site locations such as Bayview, Chelsea’s women’s prison. In addition, to attract and increase its non-art audiences, in 2004 White Box initiated the street-level venue [VideoBox] in which artists and curators can present innovative and engaging short films and videos, offering a bridge to access and engage with contemporary art by facilitating their entrance into White Box’s exhibition spaces.
Please see ARCHIVES for details and images of all projects.
Intern and Educational Programs
The White Box Annual Trainee Program offers Interns apprenticeships and hands-on learning experiences by way of actively becoming part of WBX’s dynamic exhibition program. Through the many individuals involved in the curatorial endeavor, (curators, installers, preparators and other outside professionals who volunteer to develop trainee interns’ skills) candidates receive a practical and non-traditional training that is next to impossible to acquire through traditional classroom-oriented studies.
White Box also conducts outreach programs in conjunction with its Annual Exhibitions and Out-of-the-Box Exhibitions. Please go to and join us for our upcoming Internship program and for the fun and unique community Рoutreach programs. If you are a teacher or professor interested in including White Box as part of your school’s curriculum, please contact us at info@whiteboxny.org.
Audience
To date, WBX serves a rotating population of approximately 12,000 arts aficionados who regularly stop by and about 18,000 art lovers, foreign and national, that visit the city sporadically but who have become dedicated WBX art viewers once a year. In addition, entire classrooms of art students from around the tri-state area and the country, at times from other countries, have received WBX conducted tours and invariably are touched by WBX’s distinct character and the “otherness” it represents in among the otherwise market-oriented Chelsea area.
