BAC is hiring 🔊
We’re excited to open two roles supporting artists, creative learning, and cultural equity across Brooklyn!
Associate Program Administrator (Temporary, Part-Time)
A detail-loving, creative administrator to support our creative learning and public programs through scheduling, communications, data management, budget tracking, and event coordination. This part-time role is ideal for someone with 2+ years in arts administration or a similar setting who thrives on organization and supporting program teams behind the scenes.
Senior Manager of Grantmaking & Artist Engagement
A senior-level role leading BAC’s regranting programs with care, clarity, and equity. This position shapes how public funds are distributed to Brooklyn’s artists and arts organizations, ensuring programs are accessible, thoughtfully designed, and responsibly administered. Working closely with artists, partners, and staff, this role connects grantmaking with learning, engagement, and long-term support for our creative community.
You can find full job descriptions and application details here. We’d love to hear from you!
JOIN BAC AT TEaching Artist TUESDAYS 💙
Fusha Dance Company, Funmilayo Chesney, 2025 BAC Grantee. Photo by Dennis Manuel.
We’re excited to join the NYC Arts in Education Roundtable for Teaching Artist Tuesdays, a virtual workshop series supporting Teaching Artists as we kick off 2026. This year’s sessions focus on real-world tools for sustainability, including freelance worker protections, navigating local benefits, and strategies for balancing teaching and artistic practice.
Join Brooklyn Arts Council on February 24 for Navigating Bureaucracy, a session focused on demystifying local social safety nets and helping Teaching Artists confidently navigate NYC’s benefits systems.
BAC Grantee Events
Imogene Williams: Land Of the Free
Imogene Williams is a 2025 BAC Grantee.
February 21 | 4pm | Brooklyn Peace Center - 23 Marcus Garvey Blvd, BK
Land of the Free is a dance-theater performance by Imogene Williams rooted in her family’s lived experience with long-term incarceration. Through movement, voice, and shared presence, the work explores how systems of punishment shape families, memory, and the meaning of freedom over time. Rather than reenactment, Land of the Free offers a space for witnessing—centering resilience, care, and the labor of loving someone inside a carceral system. The performance is followed by a facilitated community talkback with Freedom Agenda, H.O.L.L.A, and Drama Club, organizations working toward justice, healing, and creative alternatives to incarceration. This event is intentionally family-friendly. Children and young people are welcome, with care built into the experience, including space for movement, reflection, and stepping out as needed. Land of the Free invites audiences to gather across generations to reflect, listen, and imagine more humane futures together.
Musicians, Teachers and Organist, Inc.: Black History Month Choir Fest
Musicians, Teachers and Organist, Inc. is a 2025 BAC Grantee.
March 1 | 3pm | St. Gabriel's Episcopal Church - 313 Hawthorne St, BK
A community celebration of Black Music and Choral Voices; coming together to perpetuate the culture of chorale music and preserve the legacy of Black musicians from the Black Arts movement to the present.
Events, Workshops, & Professional Development
Filthy Diamond: Live Jazz and Chess Club
Every Monday | 679 Knickerbocker Ave, BK
Filthy Diamond is a micro music venue and neighborhood bar in Bushwick offering live music, vinyl DJ nights, cocktails and mocktails, chess club, and daily events. Designed without televisions, the space prioritizes connection and community, creating a welcoming environment that feels like a natural extension of the neighborhood.
Play chess and enjoy live music by different artists each week.
The Laundromat Project: February Liberation Series - Sound Collage Workshop
February 6 | The LP Storefront - 1476 Fulton St, BK
First Fridays, or Liberation Series, is a monthly, artist-led, community-building gathering hosted in our Bed-Stuy storefront. Each season is guided by an artist working at the intersection of culture, imagination, and collective power.
We’ll begin this four-part series with an Opening Portal: Sound Collage Workshop! Using portable mics and phones, participants will pair up to capture Bed Stuy’s ambient hum, conversations, rhythms, sirens, and silence, and collaboratively remix these sounds into a living collage. This session is grounded in presence, attuning our ears to the neighborhood’s past, present, and future.
BCM: Free Skate Fridays
February 6 | BCM - 145 Brooklyn Avenue, BK
Learn to skate with us! Free Skate Fridays offers free skating lessons for families every first Friday of the month. Learn from experienced instructors with 4WRD Roller Skate, a Brooklyn organization dedicated to accessible skating education. Whether you’re learning to balance or ready to glide, everyone finds their rhythm here. Parents, you’re welcome on the rink too!
Children’s skating lessons are free with Museum admission ($15). Adults: $10 to skate. Members: kids skate free, adults $8 to skate. If members of your group aren’t skating, please purchase general admission tickets for non-skaters to save rink spots for families learning to skate. All adults must be accompanied by children to visit BCM.
Sessions run in two 1-hour blocks, 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm & 3:15 pm – 4:15 pm. Skates, helmets, and wrist guards included. Ages 3 and up.
Open Your Mind: A Visual Mixtape - Recent Works by Elliot Johnson
February 7 | Gallery Particulier, 281 Maple St, BK
This exhibition marks Johnson’s first solo show and a long-overdue moment to celebrate an artist who has spent much of his life developing a very personal and visually rich body of work. Figures in a Minor Key: A Visual Mixtape is also an invitation—to talk openly about mental health, to support one another, and to recognize creativity as a source of resilience and connection.
Elliot Johnson’s drawings are made slowly and with care. Each work takes many hours to complete, reflecting a deep commitment to process, focus, and imagination. Drawing has been a constant in Johnson’s life—both a creative practice and a way of navigating mental health challenges.
Greenwood Cemetery: Brooklyn’s Black Trailblazers
February 7 | 25th St, BK
In celebration of trailblazers who paved the way in art, activism, music, and medicine, this trolley tour spotlights the Black pioneers of Brooklyn at rest in Green-Wood.
You’ll visit the memorials of revolutionary artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, civil rights leaders Grace Nail Johnson and James Weldon Johnson, mathematician Charles L. Reason (the first Black college professor in the United States), and other visionaries who left a lasting impact on the ongoing fight for equality.
CAMBA & The Center: Black Love & Resilience
February 7 | Brooklyn Community Pride Center - 1561 Bedford Ave, BK
Join the NYCenter for Advancing Translational Research (The Center) Community Engagement Core on Saturday, February 7, at the Brooklyn Community Pride Center as we partner with CAMBA for Black Love & Resilience, a community gathering honoring National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day.
Hosted by CAMBA, Inc., the event centers Black joy, creativity, and collective care through music, spoken word, reflection, and shared resources, while uplifting HIV awareness, prevention, and stigma-free support.
Dr. Keosha Bond will serve as a panelist and, alongside the P3 team, officially launch the Discover the Pleasure campaign—expanding PrEP awareness and access across New York City through a pleasure-centered, community-driven approach to HIV prevention.
The event will also include free food, HIV and Hep C testing, and a Dress for Success clothing drive.
Free Community Health Initiative
February 8 | Another World - 629 Nostrand Ave, BK
Black History Month is here and the best way is to celebrate is to follow in the footsteps of our predecessors and serve our communities!
Our Free Community Health Initiative is one of the ways FOL has been attempting to carry on this legacy and we’ve excited to announce we’re back again this month!
We’ll be providing:
PPE, masks, and COVID tests
Political education/zines
Narcan and harm reduction resources
Support from healthcare professionals for:
Insurance and appointment setup
Vital checkups and basic screening exams
Lifestyle and health counseling
Masks are required and will be provided!
CBH Talk - From the Inside Out: How Writing and Art Support Justice-Affected Lives
February 10 | Center for Brooklyn History - 128 Pierrepont St, BK
Brooklyn Public Library’s Justice Initiatives program works in this space, supporting incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people and their families through education, creative expression, and connection. One result has been an ongoing series of zines titled Bridges, that feature writings and drawings by people on the inside, and are distributed to those inside jails and prisons across the state.
The ninth edition of the Bridges, titled Letters from Home, marks a special milestone. Its material was developed during a seven-week writing workshop for formerly incarcerated writers and those with familial ties to the system, which was led by the Re/Creation Collective. It is the first issue of the zine to be released not only inside, but also to the public.
Join us for a celebration of the launch of Letters from Home, an evening exploring the nexus of art and the New York punishment apparatus. The program will include a set of brief readings from contributors to Letters from Home including Smoovebabii (Alphie Kenny), Kim Seabrook, Nichole Chan, Courtnaye Charley, and Henry Robinson.
651 ARTS: Memory, INtegenerational Sound & living History
February 11 & 12 | 651 Arts - 10 Lafayette Ave, 4th Fl, BK
This Black History Month, 651 ARTS centers Black Music as living history – passed through relationships, collaborations, and care. Join us for a powerful two-night journey of memory, Intergenerational sound, and imagination. Curated by our Curatorial Fellow Airella Villefranche.
🎷 For Amiri Baraka – A David Murray Solo
Wednesday, February 11
David Murray pays tribute to his friend and collaborator Amiri Baraka – letting the music carry the spirit, urgency, and imagination that defined Baraka’s life and work.
🌌 Blacks’ Myth Featuring Marshall Allen
Thursday, February 12
Led by Luke Stewart and Warren Trae Crudup, Blacks’ Myth is a music and research project that mines the history and myth-story of Blackness on earth and beyond. Featuring a special performance by Maestro Marshall Allen, the 101-year old leader of The Sun Ra Arkestra
✨ Featuring The Sound, a visual arts exhibition by Vernon Omeally
BKCM: Forever Valentine - A Night of Black Love Songs
February 12 | BKCM - 58 7th Ave, BK
In celebration of Black History Month and Valentine’s Day, BKCM is hosting a special evening of music and dancing, featuring a live band playing love songs by Black artists through the decades. From classic crooners to neosoul, from Marvin Gaye and Anita Baker to ’90s R&B, it’s the perfect soundtrack for a date night, ladies’ night or evening out with friends.
Featured musicians:
Uton Onyejekwe
Tahira Clayton
And more TBA!
There will be light refreshments available and a cash bar throughout the night.
BBG: Lunar New Year Plants Talk & Walk
February 13 & 14 | Steinhardt Conservatory - 1010 Washington Ave, BK
Celebrate the Year of the Horse in BBG’s Conservatory, where Garden Guide Sabrina Lee will introduce you to plants associated with Lunar New Year. Afterward explore the pavilions—with Garden Greeters along the way—to find Asian fruits and plants including citrus, bamboo, pine, and much more!
Creatives Thrive NYC: Get Shameless Workshop #3: Office Hours
February 26 | Virtual
CTNYC is a series of free, informative online workshops aimed at providing NYC’s creative workers with real-world financial tools tailored to their specific needs.
Get Shamele$s, a series of 1 hour & 15 min intensive financial workshops, each focusing on one aspect of building a stable financial life as a Creative New Yorker. Presented by Pam Capalad, CFP® AFC® and Dyalekt, Brooklyn-based financial educators focused on creatives and POC communities and founders of Get Shamele$s, Inc.
Creatives Thrive NYC: Affordable Housing Workshop
February 26 | Virtual
A guide to affordable housing options for NYC creatives, jointly presented three times per year by ArtBuilt and the Entertainment Community Fund. Learn about rent stabilization, city housing lotteries, affordable home-ownership opportunities, and how to qualify for these programs.
BKCM: Ancestral Lines, Inherited Rhythms - Diasporic Sounds from Black History
February 28 | BKCM - 58 7th Ave, BK
25-26 BKCM Jazz Leadership Fellow Alexandria DeWalt hosts an evening of live music and conversation exploring Black musical traditions through the ages and across borders.
DeWalt and a quartet featuring fellow jazz luminaries Marcus Grant, Mimi Jones, and Camila Cortina will give a special performance spanning the tradition of Black spirituals, compositions by Black women composers, and her own original music. The evening will also include an audience Q&A with the band, grounded in their own experiences and research into the history of these diasporic sounds.
About the BKCM Jazz Leaders Fellowship:
Established in 2021, the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music’s Jazz Leaders Fellowship connects Black women and Black non-binary jazz musicians with resources to further develop their craft and pursue projects that advance their careers.
Opportunities
2026 Community Board Applications
Deadline: February 6
Community boards are the grassroots of our local government. With 18 community districts, Brooklyn has the most community boards of all five boroughs, each one full of people who care about the well-being of their community.
Community boards work with city agencies, elected officials, and local leaders to ensure their neighborhood’s perspectives and needs are incorporated into the decisions that will affect them. This includes everything from housing development and public transit to our city’s budget and services like sanitation.
What each community board focuses on is largely up to the people who comprise it, which is why it’s so important to get involved.
MTA Arts & Design: Call For Artists
Deadline: February 8
MTA Arts & Design seeks images of artists’ previous work to review in consideration for a newpublic art opportunity at Broadway Junction Station, in Brooklyn. All artistic mediums will be considered. Finalists will develop a site-specific proposal for three areas within new construction. The artwork selected will be translated into mosaic (~1,000 sf total) by an approved fabricator. The commission does not require an artist have prior experience with the durable medium identified for the permanent installation. The new commission will be in dialogue with an existing glass and mosaic artwork: Al Loving's Brooklyn, New Morning, installed in 2001.
NYC DOT: Mural Artist Request for Qualifications
Deadline: February 8
The New York City Department of Transportation art program, NYC DOT Art, partners with community-based, nonprofit organizations and professional artists to present temporary public art on NYC DOT property throughout the five boroughs for up to eleven months. Artists transform streets with colorful murals, dynamic projections and eye-catching sculptures. Sidewalks, fences, triangles, medians, bridges, jersey barriers, step streets, public plazas and pedestrianized spaces serve as canvases and foundations for temporary art. Since 2008, NYC DOT Art has produced over 530 temporary artworks citywide.
NYC DOT: Signature Events Art Installations Request for Proposals
Deadline: February 11
NYC DOT Art invites all professional artists to submit proposals for artwork to be installed during Car-Free Earth Day and or Summer Streets at sites designated by NYC DOT as a one-day installation. Please carefully read the different requirements and expectations for the range of events. Car-Free Earth Day installations would be displayed on a singular date and location; however, Summer Streets installations could be on display on two to five different dates and locations, including two locations on the same date.
The display structure and attachments must be compliant with the requirements stipulated; the majority of sites available for art installations are concrete sidewalks or asphalt street spaces.
Up to two artists may be selected per event.
NYC DOT Art will determine final funding based on the complexity of the project and overall proposed budget.
We encourage proposals that include programming to complement the installation; giveaways are also welcome but not necessary.
Artists may submit existing artwork.
NYLAAT: 2026 Residency Program
Deadline: February 15
The New York Latin American Art Triennial (NYLAAT) Artist Residency Program is process-based, with the expectation or promise of a final exhibition of the work. The program provides artists, designers and creative thinkers time, space and a supportive community in which to develop ideas and focus on their artistic direction. In addition to our time-honored studio residencies, a variety of innovative professional immersion program provide opportunities for artists to explore new areas of social and technological practice and engage critically within their field. A unique combination of creative and professional resources provides a rich environment for growth and opportunity in the current, vibrant art scene.
Recess Art: Session Open Call
Deadline: February 23
Session provides artists a 1200sf workspace in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn and 6-10 weeks to develop a new inquiry-based project meant to push the boundaries of their practice. They will receive an artist honorarium, planning meeting fees, project expenses, technical support, and mentorship collectively valued at approximately $22,500-$25,000. Throughout the session, we will facilitate public interactions with the Recess community, as well as connections among intentional communities as identified by each artist. Our hope is that these engagements provide an opportunity for mutually beneficial exchanges that not only refine the artists’ thinking, but that challenge dominant social narratives and activate new forms of artmaking.
The Shed Open Call
Deadline: February 24
Born out of The Shed’s commitment to act as a platform for NYC-based, early-career artists* working in a range of artistic disciplines, Open Call selects, fosters, and presents new work. The program showcases a wide, multiborough range of voices, lived experiences, and perspectives, demonstrating the multitude of ways in which artists are working today. It embraces proposals for new works in disciplines including the visual arts, theater, dance, music, performance, spoken word, literary arts, film, fashion, art and technology, new media, social practice, and public art and architecture, as well as across multiple and new disciplines. As with all Shed civic programs, we center Black, POC, people with disabilities, and other communities that have been historically excluded and most impacted by structural racism and other forms of oppression.
Submerse NY: Public Art to Promote Flood Resilience in Jamaica Bay
Deadline: February 28
The project team invites proposals from artists or artist teams for a temporary public art installation at Shirley Chisholm State Park (SCSP) in East New York, Brooklyn. The installation will be installed on the large concrete planters located along Hendrix Creek Road and Penn Pier, two highly visited areas overlooking Jamaica Bay (See Appendix B). This project aims to increase public awareness of flooding, sea-level rise, and climate resilience, while celebrating the ecological and cultural significance of Jamaica Bay. By transforming a linear series of planters into an immersive, narrative experience, the artwork will help park visitors better understand how climate change and sea level rise impact communities—and what we can do to adapt.
New Museum New INC: Open Call
Deadline: March 2
NEW INC is the New Museum's incubator for people working at the intersection of art, design, and technology.
Our member cohort represents an interdisciplinary mix of artists, designers, technologists, and futurists chosen via an annual open call for their experience, vision, and ambition. People at NEW INC are working on everything from new businesses, to ambitious art installations, to provocative experiments in science and urban design.
Our annual membership program, which kicks-off each year in September, is designed to help creative practitioners and organizations leverage the tools of entrepreneurship to realize their ideas, become sustainable, and maximize potential for impact and scale.
Movement Research at the Judson Church
Deadline: March 2
Movement Research at the Judson Church is a high visibility, low-tech forum on Monday nights at Judson Memorial Church throughout the fall, winter, and spring seasons. Movement Research at the Judson Church series is one of a number of Movement Research (MR) programs intended to serve as a creative laboratory and incubator for wide-ranging artistic investigations in movement-based forms; this series is a platform for artists at various stages of their creative development.
Movement Research at the Judson Church is a free event and draws audiences from the dance community and general public. Because Movement Research supports creative practice and process, not final product, the Movement Research at the Judson Church series is for exploration of ideas, not a venue for fully produced work on a season’s presentation.
Resources
The Okra Project: Winter utilities Fund
The Okra Project creates initiatives to provide mutual aid and other resources to the Black Trans community. Please check back frequently as we plan to offer one to two programs or initiatives per quarter. During winter, The Okra Project offers utility relief to those in need. We aim to help individuals afford warmth and comfort by alleviating escalating utility bills, allowing them to focus on their well-being.
ClearPath NYC
Finding housing, food assistance, and essential services in NYC shouldn’t be stressful. ClearPathNYC makes it easy—instantly connecting you to over 7,000 verified resources, including emergency shelters, free meals, public bathrooms, free legal aid, and public services. Get the help you need fast, without the hassle of long wait times, confusing searches, or dead ends.
What We're Reading
“Met Museum Workers Are Officially Unionized”
by Isa Farfan | Hyperallergic
“Colorful mural added behind Richmond Barthé’s Kingsborough Houses frieze”
by Aaron Ginsburg | 6sqft New York City
“Former Bushwick Councilmember Rafael Espinal Named NYC’s New Media and Entertainment Commissioner”
by Bushwick Daily Staff | Bushwick Daily
“US art institutions join national strike and close in protest of ICE”
by ArtReview Staff | ArtReview
“At Filthy Diamond, Bushwick finds a neighborhood gem built by and for creatives”
by Olivia Seaman | Brooklyn Paper
Cover Image: Synth Library NYC, 2025 BAC Grantee. Photo: H Minu
Empowering Artists. Empowering Communities.
The arts are a lifeline to sustain wonder, inspiration, healing, and a sense of community in our lives. Please join Brooklyn Arts Council in our mission to empower Brooklyn artists and arts organizations that bring life and joy into our home borough.