Franklin Street Works was a contemporary art exhibition space and café located in Stamford, Connecticut. They sponsored three to four themed exhibitions a year. Connecticut Magazine described the space as containing "thought provoking... politically motivated" art.[1]
It is Stamford's first nonprofit modern art gallery and is located in a renovated brick townhouses originally built in the 1880s. It exhibits works by emerging artists and strives to be a cultural laboratory where artists and community members can collaborate and interact. Works also include performances of experimental music and performance art projects. In 2012 it received a grant from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts[2] According to the Stamford Daily Voice: "Franklin Street Works provides the region with critically acclaimed contemporary art exhibitions and programming, garnering positive reviews in international publications such as ArtForum online, Art Papers and Hyperallergic."[3] It organizes approximately three original contemporary art exhibitions each year.
Franklin Street Works was founded in 2011 by attorney Kathryn Emmett.[4] It closed in 2020 due to financial pressures related to the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020.[5]
Cut-Up: Contemporary Collage and Cut-Up Histories through a Feminist Lens, January – April 2016. Multigenerational women artists spanning 50 years, who pushed the boundary of cut-up techniques across media, including sculpture, video, sound art, painting, performance, printed matter, poetry, and photography. This exhibition was guest curated by Katie Vida and featured art by Ruth Anderson, Phyllis Baldino, Dodie Bellamy, Ofri Cnaani, Lourdes Correa-Carlo, Mayme Donsker, Heike-Karin Foell, Susan Howe, Jennie C. Jones, Alexis Knowlton, Carrie Moyer, Lorraine O'Grady, People Like Us, Sheila Pepe, Faith Ringgold, Mariah Robertson, Carolee Schneemann, Nancy Shaver, Meredyth Sparks, Cauleen Smith, Martine Syms, and Janice Tanaka.[9][10]
The Sunken Living Room, April – May 2014. Participating artists investigated the financial crisis, from issues around labor, debt and unemployment to corrupt banking practices and post-industrial urban landscapes, through sculpture, video, texts, drawings, prints and photos. Among other pieces was a sculpture by Constantina Zavitsanos that was a recording of her student debt printed out in hourly increments on paper over a three-year time span. As Zavitsanos put it "When you have a lot of material, you make something out of it. And I had a lot of debt."[13]
