The Artist Studio Program was launched in 2000 in response to the crisis in availability of affordable workspace for artists living and working in New York City. The program provides artists working in all visual arts media a free private studio space accessible 24/7 and a $5,000 fellowship (dependent upon funding). The program does not provide living space. Artists also have access to three shared common areas: a state-of-the-art digital production lab; a fabrication shop; and a kitchen/lounge area. Each year, Smack Mellon convenes a panel of arts professionals to select the artists from over 700 applicants. Smack Mellon hosts two Open Studios events annually, as well as sponsored visits from curators, critics and gallerists, which provide significant exposure and invaluable career building opportunities.
The panelists who selected the 2018-2019 Studio Artists were: Connie H. Choi, Associate Curator, The Studio Harlem’s permanent collection; Carmen Hermo, Assistant Curator, Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum; Gabriel de Guzman Curator and Director of Exhibitions, Smack Mellon.
Preliminary panelists were: Ivan Monforte, Cate Giordano, Joiri Minaya, Karina Aguilera Skvirsky, Rachelle Mozman and Maria Berrio, all former Smack Mellon Studio Artists.
Panelists Bios
Connie H. Choi, currently the associate curator of The Studio Harlem’s permanent collection since February 2017 previously the assistant curator of American art at the Brooklyn Museum. Choi earned her bachelor’s degree from Yale University and her master’s in arts educaton from Harvard University. She is currently a Ph.D candidate in art history at Columbia University, where her research focuses on African American art, the history of photography, and the intersections between race, history, and culture.
Carmen Hermo, is Assistant Curator for the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist at the Brooklyn Museum. She is organizing and co-curating several of the initiatives and exhibitions celebrating the upcoming 10th anniversary of the Sackler Center, A Year of Yes: Reimagining Feminism at the Brooklyn Museum. Carmen received her B.A. in Art History and English from the University of Richmond and is pursuing an M.A. in Art History at Hunter College. Her institutional and academic interests include contemporary performance in the museum context, politically engaged artist projects, early video art technologies, and the postwar artists of Latin America and its diasporas. Carmen lives in Jersey City.
Gabriel de Guzman joined Smack Mellon in 2017. As the Curator and Director of Exhibitions, he is responsible for the successful curation and production of all exhibitions in the gallery. Gabriel was the Curator of Visual Arts at Wave Hill for over seven years, organizing the Sunroom Project Space series for emerging artists, as well as thematic group exhibitions in Glyndor Gallery including Nature Pops! (2016) and Prickly, Tender and Steamy: Artists in the Hothouse (2014). He curated Call & Response (fall 2017), which included new work by 50 alumni artists who have exhibited site-specific, solo projects in Wave Hill’s unique space since 2007. His writings have been published in catalogues for Wave Hill, the Bronx Museum, Dorsky Gallery, the Arsenal Gallery at Central Park, The Jewish Museum, Rush Arts Gallery, NoMAA, Kenise Barnes Fine Art, and the spring 2017 issue of Nueva Luz: Photographic Journal. He earned an M.A. in art history from Hunter College, City University of New York, and a B.A. in art history from the University of Virginia.
The Smack Mellon Artist Studio Program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, New York City Council Member Lincoln Restler, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature, and with generous support from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Jerome Foundation, Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation Inc., Select Equity Group Foundation, and Smack Mellon’s Members.
Smack Mellon programs are also made possible with generous support from the Ruth Foundation for the Arts, Jacques and Natasha Gelman Foundation, Lily Auchincloss Foundation, Wolf Kahn Foundation, Cornelia T. Bailey Foundation, Robert Lehman Foundation, The Roy and Niuta Titus Foundation, and the Buckholz/Fontaine Fund.
In-kind donations and services are provided by Team, Materials for the Arts, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs/NYC Department of Sanitation/NYC Department of Education and Sage and Coombe Architects.
Space for Smack Mellon’s programs is generously provided by the Walentas family and Two Trees Management.
