GO: a community-curated open studio project

Brooklyn is home to more artists than anywhere else in the United States, making it the creative capital of the art world. GO: a community-curated open studio project is a borough-wide initiative designed to foster personal exchange between Brooklyn-based artists, their communities, and the Brooklyn Museum.

During GO, 1,708 Brooklyn-based artists opened their studios to the community on September 8 and 9. An estimated 18,000 people made approximately 147,000 studio visits in order to nominate artists for inclusion in a group exhibition at the Museum. Based on the ten community-nominated artists, Museum curators selected five artists to be featured in the exhibition, which opened on Target First Saturday, December 1, 2012. The exhibition featured work by Adrian Coleman, Oliver Jeffers, Naomi Safran-Hon, Gabrielle Watson, and Yeon Ji Yoo.

Organized by the Museum’s Managing Curator of Exhibitions, Sharon Matt Atkins, and Chief of Technology, Shelley Bernstein, GO is inspired by two established programs: ArtPrize, an annual publicly juried art competition in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and the long tradition of open studio weekends held each year in the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Williamsburg, Greenpoint, DUMBO, Gowanus, Red Hook, and Bushwick.

Partners for GO include Brooklyn Arts Council, Heart of Brooklyn, and New York City Housing Authority.