About Us

Mission Statement:

Bronx River Art Center (BRAC) is a culturally diverse, multi-arts, non-profit organization that provides a forum for community, artists, and youth to transform creativity into vision. Our Education, Exhibitions, Artist Studios, and Presenting Programs cultivate leadership in an urban environment and stewardship of our natural resource — the Bronx River.

History:

Bronx River Art Center (BRAC) was founded in 1987 to bring professional arts programming to an under served population. For over 40 years (including several years of arts programming under the umbrella of the first Bronx River Restoration project), this multi-arts center has filled the West Farms community of the Bronx with art and environmental experiences. Our programs are designed to encourage our residents to engage in creative activism towards the revitalization and future of their neighborhood.

Overview of Programs:

Education

We offer youth programs after school and on Saturdays. The classes are taught by professional artists, and they include Painting, Drawing, Cartooning, Ceramics, and more. Please refer to the education section for fees, fee waivers, and scholarships. We currently offer a free Teen Project Studio program as well.

Fee-based classes for adults are also available, as well as workshops for schools and community-based organizations.

Exhibitions

Our Exhibitions Program has become known for both its deft curatorial vision and its ability to produce ambitious, energetic exhibitions with ingenuity and immediacy. In recent years, we have exposed various paradigms of contemporary art to the litmus test of a local Bronx community and the cultural, economic, and social landscape that defines it. Our Exhibitions Program also provides a resource for artists and guest curators, by giving them a platform inside a reality that has not been fully acknowledged by academia or traditional institutions.

Presenting

Our year-round performing arts productions offer our local West Farms community an eclectic mix of cutting-edge talent from the Bronx and beyond. This series of interdisciplinary performances embraces popular, contemporary, experimental, and classically-inspired music, dance, performance art, and poetry. Additionally, our annual June Performing Arts Festival, “Bronx River Sounds," acts as a catalyst for emerging and established groups to showcase their work to a multicultural community in a comfortable and open setting.

Studio Space

Studio space is available to artists for up to two years, at below-market-value rates. BRAC’s non-living studios are accessible Monday to Friday, 10am to 10pm, and on weekends from 10am to 6pm. Each open plan studio has a window or windows, vary in size from 250 to 400 sq ft. and range in price from $425 -$650. Artists are selected on artistic merit based on studio availability on an ongoing, rolling basis. The Artist Studio Program aims to create a creative environment where professional artists of all backgrounds can communicate with one another and the community while pursuing their own work.