Photography lives on the Lower East Side! Come celebrate Open Arts LES and ICP’s 50th birthday, during a day of robust programming and hands-on activities, free admission and tours to view our global street photography exhibition, We Are Here: Scenes from the Streets and Selections from ICP at 50, and so much more. 

Reserving a free ticket in advance is strongly recommended.

Nifty Fifty takes place during FABNYC's Open Arts LES. Explore more than 20 cultural organizations in the Lower East Side during this day, completely free.

Schedule 

10:30–11:30 AM
Family Art Hour: Looking is Learning

Learn about Street Photography during an introductory tour of the show and then join the hands-on activity to make your own camera obscura to look at the world as a street photographer. All ages welcome!

Register here.

12–5 PM
Explore information and activities from ICP and Community Partners. 

Artists Alliance Inc.
Artists Alliance Inc. is dedicated to launching, strengthening, and advancing the vision of emerging and underrepresented artists and curators through fully-funded residencies, paid exhibition opportunities, and commissioned projects. Rooted in the Lower East Side (a long-standing epicenter of creative experimentation and cultural diversity) and in NYC at-large, AAI cultivates art practices that challenge the way we experience ourselves, our communities, and our world. Through three initiatives—Cuchifritos Gallery + Project Space, LES Studio Program, Public Works—AAI aims to widen the audience for contemporary art and encourage public dialogue using art as a catalyst. 

Baxter St at The Camera Club of New York 
Join Baxter St at 12 PM for a workshop that celebrates the organization's mission of supporting lens-based artists and shows how existing photographs can be used as points of departure to create new artworks. Participants will learn a simple format for zine construction and make their own zines by collaging archival imagery.

Black Painters Academy
The Black Painters Academy is a free art program and home of the New Davonhaime Food Bank, a food pantry serving the areas of Chinatown, the Lower East Side and the FDR Houses.

Chinatown Basketball Club
Chinatown Basketball Club (CBC) will present a selection of projects centered around the photographic practices of artists from the community. The CBC installation will include photo prints, self published zines and image research projects. Additionally, In collaboration with mutual aid organizer William Chan and the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, CBC will be collecting donations of urgently needed winter coats to help thousands of newly arrived asylum seekers and immigrants survive this winter. CBC is a weekly celebration of pickup hoops as creativity, self-expression, and belonging in the heart of New York Chinatown. CBC was created by artist Lu Zhang and curator Herb Tam in 2019 with a core group of artists, musicians, and designers of Asian descent.

En Foco

Founded in 1974, En Foco makes their work visible to the art world, yet remains accessible to under-served communities. Through exhibitions, workshops, events, and publications, it provides professional recognition, honoraria, and assistance to photographers as they grow into different stages of their careers.

Photodom.NYC

Photodom.NYC is a brick & mortar analog camera store located in Brooklyn, NYC specializing in analog film processing & developing. They cater to photographers of all ages, identities, and skill levels; serving over 20,000+ image-makers since 2020. In their store, they maintain a robust selection of analog film cameras & accessories. In their studio, we program workshop and events for the photography community.

VICE Media
Coming to you from around the world, VICE Media captures the people at the heart of stories, and focuses on the ideas, issues, and context that others miss.

12:30 PM

ICP School and Darkroom Tour  

Join us for the New York premiere of Janelle Lynch: Endless Forms Most Beautiful, a short documentary film by Mia Allen and PlantPOP about ICP faculty and photographer Janelle Lynch. The screening will begin with Janelle Lynch: Amagansett Portraits a short by Nick Pizzolato. After the films, Melanie Crader, Director of Visual Arts at Guild Hall will moderate a Q&A with Janelle Lynch and Mia Allen. 

4 PM 

Museum Educator Tour – We Are Here: Scenes from the Streets
 
4:30 PM 
ICP at 50 Photographer Group Photo  
Are you part of ICP's photographer community? Become part of ICP history and join our ICP at 50 Photographer Group Photo! 

4:30–6:30 PM

Art Happy Hour with DJ BLKSHINE

5 PM  
ICP School and Darkroom Tour