Mission
The West Harlem Art Fund (https://westharlem.art) is a pioneering force in bringing transformative public art and design programs to urban neighborhoods in New York City. Since 1998, our dynamic exhibitions—ranging from striking sculptures and immersive installations to innovative digital projections and vibrant performances—have enlivened neighborhoods and inspired communities across the city. Our commitment to creative excellence and cultural enrichment has earned us recognition in prominent outlets including the NYTimes, Art Daily, Artnet, Hyperallergic, White Hot Magazine, Wall Street Journal, CBS Local News, NY1, and ABC-TV.
Our heritage symbol Afuntummireku-denkyemmtreku: is the double crocodile from West Africa Ghana which means unity in diversity.
Partnerships
AHL Foundation
Artcrawl Harlem
Artistic Noise
Broadway Mall Association
Brotherhood/ Sister-Sol
City College of New York, Charles B. Rangel Infrastructure Workforce Initiative
City College of New York, J Max Bond Center
Master Drawings New York
NY Artist Equity Association
NY Restoration Project
Youth Justice Network
West Harlem Art Fund is a 501(c)(3) organization. Tax ID number 13-4064911
Initiatives Powered by The West Harlem Art Fund
Two years ago, the historic parks in Harlem were transformed into venues for large-scale contemporary public art. This outdoor exhibition, curated by the West Harlem Art Fund and co-presented by the NY Artist Equity Association and the West Harlem Art Fund, is available for viewing from early May to the end of October.
NP/10 is our exhibition space on Governors Island for The West Harlem Art Fund. It includes four gallery rooms, a photo studio, a sound room, a crafting studio, a country kitchen with a garden and outdoor raised beds.
Uptown Pops is a new works-in-progress series that is dance focused. Performances will circulate in locations around the City. The public will be able to comment and engage with choreographers All venues will be open and accessible to the public.
Visual Muze is a unique storytelling residency and retreat. It provides visual artists, performance artists, multi-media designers, and writers the opportunity to explore narrative forms within collaborative projects, works in progress, guest lectures, and crafts.
Board of Directors
Savona Bailey-McClain currently lives and works in New York City. She is an independent curator and producer. The range of McClain’s practice has included sculpture, drawings, performance, sound, and mixed media. McClain is the Executive Director & Chief Curator for The West Harlem Art Fund, Inc. a twenty-two year old public art organization and curatorial collective serving neighborhoods around the City. Her public art installations have been seen in the New York Times, Art Daily, Artnet, Los Angeles Times, Huffington Post among others. McClain has installed works in Times Square, DUMBO, Soho, Governors Island and Harlem. Noted works include The H in Harlem, Counting Sheep, Story Piles, East River Flows and Loosely Coupled. McClain is a registered local historian with the Office of the Manhattan Borough President, a member of Art Table and radio podcast host for State of the Arts NYC heard on several audio platforms.
Karen Holmberg, Ph.D. is an assistant professor of environmental science at Gallatin. She is a volcanologist and archaeologist interested in the creative conveyance of environmental knowledge and narratives of deep time, prehistory, and modern science. She is the Principal Investigator of a transdisciplinary project in Patagonia, working with massive coastline transformations due to glacial retreat, sea-level rise, and volcanic eruptions. She is on the Board of Directors for The Chaiten Site Museum in Chile, which features art-science residencies and displays the long-term human experience of the coastal landscape. Her fieldwork near Naples, Italy, is on physics-based prediction of volcanic unrest and the use of the arts to convey scientific conception of risk. She is co-director of the New York Virtual Volcano Observatory on Governors Island. A strong advocate for the public understanding of science, Holmberg recently contributed to Critical Zones, a book (MIT Press) and exhibition (ZKM) on observing the Earth System and collective strategies for thriving across human-imposed borders. She grew up on a back-to-the-land farm on the Chesapeake Bay with 40-acres of oyster grounds in a rural, water-based community.
Lizzie MacWillie is an architect, registered in Texas and New York, an interdisciplinary artist, and an urban designer. She is currently the Assistant Director of the J Max Bond Center for Urban Futures at the City College of New York. Lizzie was previously a Director at buildingcommunityWORKSHOP ([bc]), a nonprofit architecture and planning firm, where she also oversaw the Dallas office and managed a diverse array of projects from residential design-build to the recording of a conjunto album. Before joining [bc], Lizzie was a part of OMA/AMO in Rotterdam, NL where she was an editor of The Elements of Architecture (Marsilio, 2014). She has taught at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, the University of Texas at Arlington, and the Boston Architectural College. She received a Master of Architecture in Urban Design and a Master of Design Studies in Art, Design, and the Public Domain from Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, and a Bachelor of Architecture from Carnegie Mellon University. She has completed residencies at ArtOmi and the Project for Empty Spaces.
Ayala Naphtali is a NYC based metalsmith / jewelry maker with a studio in
East Williamsburg, Brooklyn. She began making jewelry as an early teen in
NYC. She studied Gold and Silversmithing at FIT and SUNY NEW PALTZ
where she received her BFA. Ayala was recently awarded as a 2021
Honoree by NYCxDesign.
Ayala’s work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally in
galleries and museums shops and design stores. Her work has been
collected privately, and in the permanent collection of Cooper Hewitt and
Kunsindustriumuseum in Norway, The White House ornament collection.
Ayala has exhibited in major national juried art shows such as American
Craft Exposition in Baltimore, SOFA, Cherry Creek Arts Festival and
numerous others annually. Selected publications include American Craft
Magazine, ELLE, The Fashions of The Times, The New York Times,
Mademoiselle, Women’s Wear Daily, Glamour, and New Women Magazine, New York Post. Ayala has been a juror for The American Craft Council Craft Shows.
Ayala Naphtali draws inspiration from ancient alphanumeric systems,
contemporary architecture and her own personal, cultural history. She is
intrigued with balance and proportion and feels that each of her pieces
must find its axis on the wearer. She creates work with elegance and
minimal, bold forms.
The choice of a particular material is often the motivation for the artist to
design a specific work. It’s texture, color and versatility influence the end
result. Some materials are hand dyed or carved. Other techniques she
utilizes include forging, fabricating and casting. Different combinations of
techniques allow her to make jewelry pieces with dimension and volume,
but without excessive weight.
Contact: westharlemartfund12@gmail.com
West Harlem Art Fund is a 501(c)(3) organization in the State of New York.
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