LIC Arts Non-Profit Buys Its Longtime Home, New Luxury Tower Site

LONG ISLAND CITY, QUEENS — After a decade of renting in Long Island City, a beloved arts non-profit is putting down roots and opening two permanent locations in the neighborhood.

Flux Factory, an arts collective focusing on emerging artists, recently announced that it purchased the 29th Street space that its rented since 2009, and plans to open another Long Island City location next summer on the ground floor of Gotham Point, a new waterfront development.

The purchases, both made possible by funds from the city, offer Flux Factory the promise of a more sustainable future, where it can invest in its artistic programs without constantly worrying about displacement; since forming in 1994, the organization has been priced out of several locations.

“When I was hired as Executive Director at Flux Factory seven years ago, we were facing an imminent buy-out. We were broke and didn’t have much of a plan," said Flux Factory executive director Nat Roe in a statement, adding that at that time owning a building seemed "impossible."

Now that the non-profit can imagine a more certain future, it is committed to investing as many resources as possible in its artistic endeavors, Roe said.

"With this sustainability comes new accountability: we have to find a way to grow into larger shoes through providing better artist stipends, expanded staff, and better equipment and facilities," he said, adding that the new waterfront location — dubbed Flux IV — will help the non-profit expand programming even as its primary site remains under temporary construction.

Flux Factory is aiming to raise $50,000 to help cover the cost of hiring a coordinator and putting on a first round of public programs at Flux IV, which will house a gallery and workspace for artists on the ground floor of Gotham Point, a two-tower luxury building complex.

Flux Factory said it is "pleased" to be a part of a development that includes waterfront park access, an elementary school, a library, and "tens of thousands of affordable housing units;" Gotham Point is only opening 847 permanently "affordable" apartments, many of which remain available to city residents earning hundreds of thousands of dollars, Patch reported.

The space, however, will double Flux's public event capacity. The non-profit organizes about 40 events a year including group shows, where it commissions works from emerging artists, and also solo exhibits from its 50-or-so artists-in-residents, who are granted affordable places to live and work through the organization.

"Flux gathers so many different kinds of folks who find themselves in a congruent space at the same time, building this incredibly original community," said Caroline, a recent Flux Factory resident. "I am so warmed that Flux Factory will evolve in a re-imagined and renewed iteration of itself, exploring new and uncharted spaces while staying grounded in its home on 29th Street."