JACK, the OBIE-winning performance venue founded four years ago in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, has created the position of Co-Director, and hired DeeArah Wright to join founder Alec Duffy in leading JACK. The change comes in an effort to better position JACK to become the community arts space that is embodied in its mission. Accordingly, Duffy will change his title from Artistic Director to Co-Director, which more accurately reflects the non-artistic responsibilities Duffy already fulfills for the venue.
Duffy: “My goal in founding JACK was to create a space for experimental performance that was threaded into the community. I’m thrilled that we are now able to bring DeeArah Wright, with her bounty of experience with community arts-making and strategy, to the decision-making table at JACK.”
Wright is a Bed-Stuy resident whose previous experience includes work with STooPS Bed-Stuy, Cumbé Dance and The Laundromat Project, as well as the founding of Gather Brooklyn, a community engagement and development company. She will join Duffy in programming the space, building relationships with individuals and groups in the neighborhood, fundraising and building a strategy for JACK’s next five years.
The addition of this position was made possible through help from a grant from the New York State Council on the Arts Regional Economic Development Council (REDC).
MORE INFO
DeeArah Wright is an artist, creative strategist, and community engagement specialist. Her approach to leadership, partnerships, and activism are informed by 19 years of experiences in fields such as: performing arts, education, programming, and community engagement and development. In 2010, she founded and activated Gather Brooklyn, which has powered engagement through community marketplaces, partnerships, think tanks, community space management, youth arts programming, and strategic consultation. In 2014, she was the Community Liaison for Creative Time and Weeksville Heritage Center’s funkgodjazz&medicine: Black Radical Brooklyn. DeeArah continues to work through organizations such as The Laundromat Project and The Field to support artists’ development and their community engagement initiatives.
JACK is an OBIE-winning 50-seat performance venue founded in 2012 in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn by theater-maker Alec Duffy and several co-founders. The mission is to create radical access to the arts by presenting performance work that reflects the diversity of the city and by involving local residents in the creative process. Racial justice plays a large role in JACK's efforts – the recent series, “Forward Ferguson,” featured a blend of arts and activism. JACK presents about 250 theater, performance art, music and dance performances a year and holds community forums on racial justice, gentrification, and police/community relations. www.jackny.org
Duffy: “My goal in founding JACK was to create a space for experimental performance that was threaded into the community. I’m thrilled that we are now able to bring DeeArah Wright, with her bounty of experience with community arts-making and strategy, to the decision-making table at JACK.”
Wright is a Bed-Stuy resident whose previous experience includes work with STooPS Bed-Stuy, Cumbé Dance and The Laundromat Project, as well as the founding of Gather Brooklyn, a community engagement and development company. She will join Duffy in programming the space, building relationships with individuals and groups in the neighborhood, fundraising and building a strategy for JACK’s next five years.
The addition of this position was made possible through help from a grant from the New York State Council on the Arts Regional Economic Development Council (REDC).
MORE INFO
DeeArah Wright is an artist, creative strategist, and community engagement specialist. Her approach to leadership, partnerships, and activism are informed by 19 years of experiences in fields such as: performing arts, education, programming, and community engagement and development. In 2010, she founded and activated Gather Brooklyn, which has powered engagement through community marketplaces, partnerships, think tanks, community space management, youth arts programming, and strategic consultation. In 2014, she was the Community Liaison for Creative Time and Weeksville Heritage Center’s funkgodjazz&medicine: Black Radical Brooklyn. DeeArah continues to work through organizations such as The Laundromat Project and The Field to support artists’ development and their community engagement initiatives.
JACK is an OBIE-winning 50-seat performance venue founded in 2012 in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn by theater-maker Alec Duffy and several co-founders. The mission is to create radical access to the arts by presenting performance work that reflects the diversity of the city and by involving local residents in the creative process. Racial justice plays a large role in JACK's efforts – the recent series, “Forward Ferguson,” featured a blend of arts and activism. JACK presents about 250 theater, performance art, music and dance performances a year and holds community forums on racial justice, gentrification, and police/community relations. www.jackny.org
