About SONYA
South Of the Navy Yard Artists, (SONYA) is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization of visual artists living, creating, and exhibiting in the Ft. Greene, Clinton Hill, Wallabout, and Bedford Stuyvesant neighborhoods of Brooklyn. We are as diverse and dynamic as the community we serve. Our mission is to recognize, support, and celebrate the visual art and artists within our community. Our artists live, create, and/or exhibit within the boundaries of Flatbush, Atlantic, Bedford and Flushing Avenues (including the Navy Yard) of Brooklyn. Our home base is at 394 Waverly Avenue in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn. There we meet, plan, learn, exhibit, reach out to our community and celebrate.
The South Of the Navy Yard Artists are creating and exhibiting all the time. And every 3rd weekend in May the SONYA Studio Stroll is an opportunity for you to become part of this experience. Be there!
Mission
In the belief that art and community nurture each other, our mission is to recognize, support, and celebrate the visual arts and artists within our community by bringing people together in an environment that encourages exploration, dialogue and enjoyment of the visual arts. SONYA offers a full season of exhibitions, studio tours, education events and public programs, open to the public each year.
History
SONYA was founded in 1999 by three local artists, with the goal to recognize, support, and celebrate the visual artists of our community. In response to the need for a unified artist collective, SONYA began its first year with nineteen members and what was to become an annual event, the Studio Stroll. To date SONYA has grown to over seventy members, over fifty of whom will open their creative spaces to visitors during the 2008 Stroll.
Through our ElevenTen Gallery and other local venues, SONYA provides a variety of services to member artists and the community including: solo and small group art exhibitions, art business seminars; an email newslist; an online gallery and arts resource listing; and artist-run workshops.
The membership of SONYA, 60% women, 40% men, 50% mid-career, approximately half of which are African-American reflects the multi racial, and cross-generational constituency of the four communities.
SONYA is an active participant in our community, partnering with other local community groups to present group exhibitions at local venues such as: the Natman Room at the Brooklyn Academy of Music; the Saturday Artisans Market (BAM/Local Development Corp.); ElevenTen Gallery (Pratt Community Action Council); Goloborotko’s Studio, (Brooklyn Arts Council); Corridor Gallery (Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation); and the Robert Lehman Gallery at UrbanGlass. |
