Guild & Greyshkul: 41 Cooper Gallery, Cooper Union, New York

Guild & Greyshkul is a group exhibition about the artist-run gallery Guild & Greyshkul that operated in New York City from 2003-2009. Presenting the works of over 70 artists, the exhibition reflects past and emerging models of creative exchange and collaboration amongst an intergenerational cohort of artists. The exhibition will be held in the 41 Cooper Gallery at The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art—an institution that has fostered open discourse since 1859. The exhibition is organized by Anya Kielar, Johannes VanDerBeek, and Sara VanDerBeek, the three founders of Guild & Greyshkul, in cooperation with Adriana Farmiga, dean of The Cooper Union School of Art and Yuri Masnyj, associate dean of The Cooper Union School of Art, all of whom are alumni of the school.

Guild & Greyshkul was an artist-run exhibition venue that bridged being a shared studio space and a commercial gallery. The gallery’s approach placed an emphasis on reciprocal and constructive dialogue with exhibiting artists and the larger arts community. Founded in the former site of American Fine Arts, Co., it took inspiration from the spirit of collective inquiry that energized artist-run spaces of the past. As a community and a concept, Guild & Greyshkul gradually expanded, continually engaging with larger questions around what it meant to be an artist at the start of the 21st century. In many cases, Guild & Greyshkul offered a space for emerging artists to have their first solo exhibition. The founders aspired for the gallery to provide the exhibiting artists both financial support and critical dialogue that was integral to sustaining their practices, while also enabling them to create new works. Much of the gallery’s ethos and programming was enacted as “learning through doing” and continued some of the rigorous experimentation and social practices that were encouraged in courses at The Cooper Union.

A related publication and public program, to be released concurrent to the exhibition will explore the ongoing relevance of artist-run spaces, collective practice, and alternative pedagogies as models for today’s artists and institutions. Bringing together a diverse group of artists, educators, and thinkers across visual arts, pedagogy, and digital media, this interdisciplinary project and its resulting publication aims to be both a compendium and a guide for future collaborative models, catalyzing a more equitable and dynamic future for artmaking.