A Day with The Marie Walsh Sharpe Foundation Space Program
“This is a program created by artists, for artists,” Joyce Robinson says, “and not for artists who tell themselves that they’re all alone, but artists who are deeply interested in community.” Addressing the first official gathering of the 2007-08 season, Robinson is surrounded by seventeen sculptors, painters, and draftsmen who have recently been awarded free, non-residential studio space by The Marie Walsh Sharpe Foundation Space Program. Since 1991, the program has made annual awards to 250 American artists. This year, however, grantees face a major challenge: adjusting to a new workspace on Jay Street, Brooklyn. No longer will participants ease into the Lower Manhattan location that was home to the program for 16 years; this season, they join the rapidly growing dumbo arts community. (The Sharpe Program’s former home will become a luxury condominium.)
— Maxwell Heller for The Brooklyn Rail