Love Expanded Love Extended
Love Expanded Love Extended explores definitions of love in the plural form, its strategies of manifestation, intimacies, and forms of production, as well as the codes and conventions present in relationships, from the personal to the collective, human to non-human.
On the one hand, Love Expanded Love Extended connects artists and artistic projects that explore through being, doing, and making, the practice and process of collective solidarity –of ‘comradely love’ in action.
On the other, Love Expanded Love Extended also serves as the motto for our collaborations with neighbors, peer organizations, and other learning instutions.
Image: SFPC Sex Ed event at Amant. Radical Pleasure Playshop taught by Belinda Adam.
The North Brooklyn Cultural Syndicate: The North Brooklyn Cultural Syndicate is a new joint initiative by Amant, the Bushwick Brooklyn Public Library, Eyebeam, International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP), Light Industry, St. Nicks Alliance, Union Docs, and Wendy’s Subway to further neighborhood relations, share information, and bring attention to the cultural offerings of the area. Each spring, we organize a collective Open House Day.
Brooklyn Autism Center: During each exhibition, Amant develops a unique program which includes a tour and activity for the BAC students. We create space for both the students and Amant educators to learn together. This collaboration is paving the way for Amant to become neurologically diverse.
Lyons Community School: Together with the Lyons Community School’s middle and high school students and educators, we produce learning initiatives through and with art that centers youth development and community. Lyons is based in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn, a ten-minute walk from Amant.
Brooklyn Art Book Fair: Every summer we partner with the Brooklyn Art Book Fair (a volunteer-run initiative) sharing our mutual interest in books and in supporting small, often self-organized publishing projects. During the fair, we co-host learnshops and talks, that expanding the art of bookmaking in a wide array of formats.
School for Poetic Computation: We like to collaborate with organizations for whom learning and developing new learning methods are key to their projects. Building on the (un)learnings from SFPC: Sex Ed, a workshop series organized by the Brooklyn-based School for Poetic Computation, we co-organized a full day of workshops, talks, and activations to re-imagine sex education as a pleasure and queer-centered pedagogical experiment.
Wendy’s Subway: Together with Bushwick-based reading room, writing space, and independent publisher Wendy’s Subway we develop a serial publication, Long Take, centered on our exhibitions, reference library, and events. Together with Wendy’s, we commission local arts writers to create an original piece, further exploring relations between visual arts and writing.