Two storied New York City arts organizations, both with origins in the early 1970s, will soon share a roof, as the Kitchen temporarily relocates to Westbeth Artist Housing. The Kitchen announced the move on Thursday.

Founded as an artist collective in 1971, the Kitchen is one of the city’s oldest nonprofit art centers dedicated to avant-garde and cross-disciplinary work. Its home in Chelsea will be undergoing a two-year renovation (designed by Rice+Lipka Architects), necessitating the short-term move, starting in late September.

Westbeth was founded in 1970, when buildings in the West Village previously used by Bell Laboratories were converted into affordable housing and studios for artists and their families. The landmark buildings also house the New School for Drama, the Martha Graham Dance Company and much history. The loft space that the Graham company took over 10 years ago was long home to the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. The Kitchen will be using the West Side Loft, a 6,000-foot loft space on the fourth floor.

“It’s a special space,” said Legacy Russell, who became the Kitchen’s executive director and chief curator last year. “It’s a version of New York that many folks come to the city with hopes of experiencing. So much of the history of the interdisciplinary avant-garde has that kind of loft space as its birthplace.”

-Brian Seibert
August 26, 2022
New York Times

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Photo on Home Page:A vision of the New York avant-garde: The loft at Westbeth that will serve as a home to the Kitchen.Credit…The Kitchen