MISSION

Project for Empty Space (PES) is a multifaceted arts organization in downtown Newark, NJ and downtown Manhattan, NY. PES is a woman-run, femme-powered, People of the Global Majority/BIPOC, Queer, and unapologetically radical ecosystem for creatives. Today, PES provides safe, equitable spaces for artistic innovation and complex public engagement by supporting artists whose work is oriented toward social discourse. Our programs lean towards discourses that have been historically and systemically erased such as marginality, in-equity, and visibility. Today, in our efforts to support socially-oriented artists, we maintain a commitment to holding space for radical future-making.

These programs include the Artists In Residence program, Feminist Incubator, Gallery Exhibitions and Programs, PES STUDIOS subsidized studio program, Newark Artist Accelerator (NAA) regranting program, the Newark Artists Database, and Public Art. In addition to fulfilling this mission in Newark, PES will also add an exhibition and hybridized residency program in New York City’s Lower East Side, where the organization originally began in 2010. This space will not only broaden the visibility of efforts in Newark, but also create a wider geographical reach for discourses around liberation, radicality, and social change. Intersectionality is holistically embedded in this mission across both the current Newark space and our future New York City space; our programs are created to fulfill this aspiration.