About Us
Radical Optimism
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The Center
SUPPORTING AN ECOSYSTEM OF CHANGE AND TRANSFORMATION
The interactions and solitude at Holes in the Wall came at a pivotal moment in my curatorial career and has shaped not only the project I was working on but every project since.
Nicole Soukup
assistant curator of
contemporary art, MIA
10 years in the city. 3 years on the land.
50+ Programs & Events. 150+ Creative Residents. 10 Fellows. Engagement across 20+ states & 7 countries. Over $25k given to 65+ non-profits. 10,000+ people engaged. And we're just getting started.
We don't just do one thing. On purpose.
whatNOWwhat Change the Climate pop-up benefit at Industry City Distilllery 2017• Photo by Deb Klein
Holes in the Wall Collective) is a NYC based nonprofit that celebrates, supports, & brings together the wider landscape of transformation, culture shift & life-generating work for our times.
We craft innovative, thought-provoking experiences that give the public fresh ways to engage with our changing climate.
Whether by supporting people and organizations with new audiences and resources or bolstering community and civic engagement through our city-wide climate programming, we support an ecosystem of change and transformation to step further into a sustainable, viable, and thriving future for all of New York City.
Our work is rooted in communities— honoring the deep legacies of those who came before us and those currently doing the work. We don't just focus on one issue or one group on purpose because siloed 'solutions' to humanity's most pressing issues can create more problems and less resolution. Artists, activists, scientists, educators, community stakeholders and policy makers all hold different pieces of the future, especially if they intersect. That's where we come in.
what we do
"Popcorn Rock" by Kristyna and Marek Milde- Exquisite Corpus: the Maize 2016 • Photograph by Vida Lecari @vida_l_photo
BALANCE
Most of the problems in the world are about something being out of balance. The result of placing value of some things over others, some people over others, some results over others. We think revaluing creative thought and action is essential to rebalancing our planet. Yet even great ideas can make a mess if there's not a diversity of people and perspectives to hold, challenge & check them.
For ourselves, the earth
and each other.
Karen Blondel and Funkrust brassband on Imagined Futures opening Red Hook 2024 • Photo by J Lester Feder
JOY
The cultivation of joy is an embodied philosophy of Holes in the Wall Collective. It’s active, it risks the dance, the leap, the newness like love sending shockwaves through the chest, the power of a sea-swell, the movement of a thousand people in the street. It is both fuel and the offering of creativity, especially when accompanied by struggle, difficulties, oppression…
To leave traces of
liberation.
NYC Ferry talk from Stuy Cove to the Bronx. Climate Week 2024 • Photo by J Lester Feder
CREATIVITY
Creativity is a leap. For us creativity is not just about artistic practice, marketing, or fingerpaints– it’s the process in which anyone in any field takes a leap that transforms something and has value. On the canvas, the stage, the page... and in the boardroom, the classroom, the clinic. With the rate of so much destruction around us, we need all the creativity we can get.
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To bring together a
collective intelligence.
whatNOWwhat 2016 at the Industry City Distillery • Photograph by Deb Klein
ACTION
The road ahead is full of obstacles. It can sometimes feel like we're too late, we've already missed the boat, that nothing will ever change. Things that can't be immediately measured aren't always valued and people who think differently are often stigmatized instead of celebrated. Yet we keep on. All of our work is rooted in the possibility of transformation.
