After more than two decades of successful partnership, the Bronx Council on the Arts (BCA) Longwood Arts Project and its fine arts space, the Longwood Art Gallery, will no longer be housed at Eugenio Maria de Hostos Community College beginning in September 2024. The college has expressed a desire to take a new direction in its use of the space.
During its residency at Hostos Community College, the Longwood Art Gallery, an anchor of the Bronx community, has welcomed thousands of art-goers over the years and exhibited hundreds of works by local artists, as well as offering free programs for youth and numerous public programs that were free to participants. Historically, this beloved beacon of hope has encouraged participation and engagement in the arts among students and the surrounding community, leveraging its brand as a well-known force in the community for artistic activism and expression.
For over 40 years, the Longwood Art Gallery has served as a home for contemporary art and cultural enlightenment in the Bronx, giving voice to emerging artists from underrepresented groups and tirelessly promoting the arts in the city’s most underfunded borough. A partnership between BCA and Hostos Community College in 2003 maximized the use of the gallery space of the Hostos Center for the Arts and Culture at 450 Grand Concourse, which became known as the Longwood Art Gallery @ Hostos.
The Bronx has historically faced social injustice and underfunding, primarily affecting underrepresented people of color, women, LGBTQIA+, immigrants, and low-income earners. Longwood Art Gallery has strived to support these communities through innovative and inclusive programming. While the move represents a significant financial burden for BCA at a time when arts organizations are struggling to continue offering cultural programs that benefit these communities, the move also opens up new avenues of creative endeavor and exploration for the historic flagship program. “Of course, this turn of events will change the way we conduct our visual arts programs, but I believe the change will also open a path for renewal and creativity. I know that with the support of partners, artists, and the larger community, we will continue to offer amazing visual arts offerings for all,” said Viviana Bianchi, ED, BCA.
BCA plans to hold its 2025 exhibition season at Longwood Art Gallery in the gallery of its newly renovated and fully accessible headquarters, a light-filled, 7,000-square-foot facility in Westchester Square.
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History of the Longwood Art Gallery
The Longwood Arts Project, the BCA’s flagship program, was created in 1981 by the Bronx Council on the Arts and established in the former Public School 39 at 986 Longwood Avenue in the Bronx. The school closed due to the outflow of school-age children in the borough when the area was physically and economically devastated. Community leaders used the unfortunate closure as an opportunity to help stabilize the neighborhood by converting it into a multi-purpose building for city agencies and nonprofit organizations as tenants.
The Longwood Arts Project/Longwood Art Gallery is one of the first alternative gallery spaces in the Bronx. It places a groundbreaking emphasis on artists whose traditions and cultural practices have been historically underrepresented in mainstream venues. The project, which took its name from its original location as a public school on Longwood Avenue, relocated to the campus of Hostos Community College in 2003.
BCA has hosted three art exhibitions per year, either as solo or group shows of artworks in a variety of media, through interdisciplinary practices that bring together emerging artists, communities, and ideas from within and outside of the Bronx. As steward of the entire experience, BCA was responsible for curating, operating, staffing, coordinating, and marketing the exhibitions. BCA’s role as a staunch advocate for local arts and culture is more important now than ever, as the arts and culture sector is severely underfunded.
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Photo credit: DepositPhotos.com
