The Field

Arts and culture workers need access to opportunities, resources, funding, advice and information to bring their visions to life. It is The Field’s mission to provide this access for artists, with an intentional focus on those who experience barriers to advancement based on race, cultural identity, disability status, sexual orientation, or other identities.

These values are manifested in our programming, staffing, and advocacy. The Field is intentionally practicing, implementing, learning, and doing. The work is constant and consistent. We are a work-in-progress.

Ultimately, it is our goal to create a vibrant cultural community that authentically and intentionally includes a representation of resilient and self-determined artists and makers of all identities.

History
Choreographer Wendy Lasica founded The Field in 1985 as a performance space supporting risk and experimentation in SoHo, New York. In 1986 the organization was formally incorporated as The Performance Zone Inc. (dba The Field) and Wendy set off for the land down under, leaving The Field in the expert hands of fellow artist Steve Gross.

Steve served as Executive Director of The Field for nearly twenty years, pioneering non-curation as a radical way to disrupt unconscious bias in adjudication and to increase artists’ access to opportunities, funding, and creative growth. These values are manifested in Fieldwork, Fielday, and the fiscal sponsorship program launched at The Field during Steve’s remarkable tenure.

The Field offers these core programs to this day, adapting and supplementing them to respond dynamically to artists’ needs.