Manon Slome, No Longer Empty #artsbizinc
keep growing, learning through doing, and expanding
As part of our new program, Arts Business Incubator (ABI), we’re continuing to highlight successful arts entrepreneurs and their spark to create an arts business. Non-profit No Longer Empty presents site-specific exhibitions and community-based education programs in New York City.
President and Chief Curator Manon Slome says, “I did not set out to start an organization – but rather an exhibition that responded to the financial crisis of 2008/9. The exhibition was really successful, we extended it, were then offered another space, then another and by about the third project we felt we had a model that people were really responding to from a variety of perspectives. For visitors, we provided a welcoming accessible atmosphere very different from the tone of galleries and institutions. For artists, they loved the ability to make new work based on our site responsive approach, to reach and work with new audiences and the community of artists that get formed around each exhibition. For youth and educators, we had a new approach to experiencing art – very hands on, experiential learning that promoted an awareness that every perspective and view point counts.”
What does arts entrepreneurship mean to her?
“Doing it! We began really with nothing – no funding – no staff – but with an ‘if you build it (actually the title of our last exhibition) they will come’ attitude. We have forged a new flexible and adaptive model that has grown in just five years into an arts organization with a great reputation for innovation, quality exhibitions and programming. We feel we have filled a void in the way art is produced and presented and the crowds that come to our exhibitions attest to that. We are keen to keep growing, learning through doing, and expanding what we can offer to diverse audiences.”
Tell us about your favorite arts nonprofit and for-profit businesses on Twitter at #artsbizinc and ask us questions about the Arts Business Incubator program. Applications for ABI close on January 23, 2015.
To learn more about No Longer Empty, visit their website and follow them on Twitter.
