Mission
Works on Water makes artwork on, in and with the water.
We are artists and curators who work with water in response to the changing climate, increasing urban density, and a burgeoning public awareness of ecological concerns. Our work connects to current economic, political, and global issues and is in conversation with the traditions of Land Art, Public Art, and Performance Art, among others.
New York City has 520 miles of coastline, and its waterways are often referred to as “The Sixth Borough.” We are artists and curators dedicated to working with water to increase public awareness of the issues and conditions that impact our experience and environment through art.Works on Water is an organization and triennial exhibition dedicated to artworks, performances, conversations, workshops and site-specific experiences that explore diverse artistic investigation of water in the urban environment. We seek to strengthen and nourish the community of artists working on and with bodies of water and to provide a platform to increase awareness of artists and organizations working on and with the waterways.
Our core value is service: inviting our audiences to become civically engaged citizens. The works and events we present are intended to ignite audience imagination and invite each individual to become achange agent through shared creativity, knowledge, and contemplation of the past, present, and future of water in New York City.This social practice helps raise awareness and lead to solutions around significant environmental issues.
We welcome to you to participate in this essential, ongoing, and cross-disciplinary dialogue as an individual, as a member of our community and as a global citizen. We hope that your involvement with Works on Water leads you, our guest, to reconsider water, in all of its contexts.
– Emily Blumenfeld, Carolyn Hall, sTo Len, Clarinda Mac Low, Nancy Nowacek, and Sarah Cameron Sunde