Jason Covert’s Carnivora Exhibit in Chelsea, Opening Night 2010
Cannery Works was established in 2002 by Spencer Chandler and Andrew Aaron as a way to give local artists a community-oriented forum for the purposes of developing and debuting new work. A key part of the founding platform was an emphasis on ease of access, with events and fundraising tied to support of the wider community (hence the name Cannery Works – named for the offer to donate a can of food at events).
From 2002 to early 2004, Cannery Works was responsible primarily for the production of premiere works for theater, and the hosting of community events that featured live music, film screenings, and visual artists displaying their work. Part arts organization, part networking organization, Cannery Works brought artists and audiences together for the purpose of cross-fertilization, collaboration, and new friendships.
From 2004 to 2006, Cannery Works operated out of a midtown office that served as a support center for dozens of artists in all media, helping them get the information, resources, funding, and encouragement they needed to advance or complete their projects.
From 2007 to the present, Cannery Works has served as a back-end support organization to individually selected artists taking on ambitious projects in theater, photography, and mixed media. Largely through individual consultations during project development – and right through the initial public debut – Cannery Works has been providing administrative and financial oversight, management, and personally tailored guidance to well-qualified artists whose lack of organizational affiliation or endorsement leaves a void that Cannery Works seeks to fill, and whose project size stretches their capacity to handle financial and administrative matters alone.
Cannery Works provides this crucial sheltering and guidance to ensure that projects come to fruition in a way in which artists grow and accomplish something of meaning, while offering audiences and the larger community a chance to participate directly in the debut of new work.
Cannery Works, as a partner in the successful and timely completion of new art, is proud to encourage and guide artists as they explore “how to fish” – so that future projects, after time spent with Cannery Works, can be built on a more secure foundation.
