“Right now, when you look at the city, you see all of these people leaving and the shuttered spaces, but there’s still a huge passion and many people who are here want to help it,” said Durst. “There is so much potential for helping, and Enliven NYC will help artists and businesses in their spaces until they get rented out. We’re still awake and alive, and New York is moving forward through this pandemic.” More

With landlords struggling to fill vacated lots, Chashama is upping its efforts amid the pandemic and plans to add 100 spaces within the next year to the 150 studios it already operates. "Sometimes they say tragedy brings an opportunity. So this is an opportunity," says the artist known as Sir Shadow, performing his signature one-stroke drawings in a former furniture store in Manhattan. More

Art as the lifeblood of NYC’s culture: a talk with founder Anita Durst about creating platforms for artists in empty commercial spaces. As an organization, Chashama is simply a platform for artists, performers, and innovators to display their creative output through performances in rented property spaces. But as an institution, Chashama represents the “New York dream,” the artist’s passion to take their ideas and their work to the big city stage and have the opportunity to showcase, communicate, and inspire. More

Chashama and the National Endowments for the Arts have partnered to present a unique exhibition, “Under Glass and in Color,” featuring the work of Darrell Thorne, the Out100 designer and performance artist known for his work with Madonna, Jennifer Hudson, Blondie and more. More

“(Chashama) awards $9 million worth of real estate to artists, subsidizes 200 artist workspaces, provides over 200 free art classes and gives 170 artists free space to present,” read the website. Chashama partners with owners of unused space and then turns that real estate into “activated” space, as Durst calls it. More

The nonprofit organization Vital Spaces is expanding into the Midtown Campus, where they will have studio and exhibition space while the city evaluates potential long-term developers for the project.  Chashama, is a similar New York City organization founded by Anita Durst. Durst “has been instrumental” in helping Vital Spaces with the nuts and bolts of the operation and getting it off the ground. More

Chashama, a nonprofit that has partnered with property owners to turn unused spaces into art studios and presentation sites since the 1990s, has about 120 visual art studios that are rented at affordable rates via an application process. More

The seasonal pop-up is the brainchild of two of the city’s largest artist-run organizations — the Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition and ChaShaMa — and promises to be an “epic” showcase of “Brooklyn art now” in a building brimming with history. More