The Short
Cinders is a project-based non profit organization in Brooklyn, NY. We have created hundreds of exhibitions, installations, music shows, readings, talks, and performances for the past 7 years. We are interested in creating a place for art to be a part of our daily lives. We are currently nomadic and always seeking spaces to use for projects. Feel free to contact us for further information.
The Long
Cinders began as an artist-run gallery in a storefront space for more than 6 years on Havemeyer St. in Brooklyn, NY. We held monthly exhibitions showing hundreds of artists from all over the world – New York, Providence, Philadelphia, Berlin, France, Chile, Japan, Oakland, Toronto, Gainesville, Montreal, North Carolina, San Francisco, LA… There was always a constant curated selection of artist-made books, prints, records, and odd objects in the back-stuff we loved. It was a long series of seemingly endless amounts of amazing people doing amazing things constantly. Then suddenly in 2011, the rent nearly doubled after our lease was up. Our neighborhood had been rezoned for developers to build luxury condos which helped raise the rents and pushed alot of our friends out. With no real leg to stand on, we left the space and discouraged by rent prices in NY, went mobile.
We initially started Cinders after we moved to New York and didn’t find a place to really call home. What would our own model for an art gallery be like? Replacing the coldness with warmth, everyone is invited to sit around the fire and partake. We decided to make our own perfect space with murals and weird hours and wearable sculptures.
It was apparent that there was quite a significant community out there who felt the same way and so we were inspired to start bringing these like-minded people together under one roof. As we searched for the right location, our house literally burned down in front of us, leaving us tragically homeless but also putting the requisite “fire” under our asses to quickly make it a reality. Thus “Cinders” was born. Born out of a tragedy, the urgency of life and the basic DIY tenet of: If you are unhappy with the way others are doing it, you just have to do it yourself.
We opened up the doors in the summer of 2004 and have been running with it ever since, always evolving and challenging ourselves and all the ways art can be shown. We present to you this website-chock full information, photos, art, and all the amazing people who are helping us make this project happen. We are not in one location, using other spaces and places to do what we do. Keep checking in to see where we will be next!
Thanks for looking.
Cinders
Kelie Bowman and Sto
Founding Firestarters
