Amant Foundation to open a sprawling hub for artists in East Williamsburg

By Amelia Anthony

Lonti Ebers, art collector and MoMA trustee, has announced the arrival of her new not-for-profit arts center in East Williamsburg. Starting June 5, the Amant Foundation will serve as both a production and exhibition space for contemporary art. The 21,000-square-foot site spread over three addresses and designed by SO-IL, will include gallery, office, performance and studio spaces as well as a bookstore and cafe, with a main entrance on Maujer Street.

The store, galleries and cafe are opening June and the full site will be ready by August. “Heroines, Birds and Monsters,” The first U.S. solo show from Portuguese interdisciplinary artist Grada Kilomba will kick off the gallery programming, and the site will have five different exhibitions throughout the year. To visit, the Foundation encourages advance bookings but is also available for walk-ins.

“I think it will serve a need and certainly in Brooklyn, it will be something new,” Ebers told Bloomberg News. “We want to create a place where artists feel welcome that hopefully the public becomes engaged with.”

Starting this fall, four three-month residencies will be offered for working artists each season through Amant’s residency program. (Amant’s other location in Siena, Italy, will host the summer session.) Applications have closed, but the program received over 1,500 applications for the 12 spots. Artists are not required to donate their work to the foundation after their time, a practice common to residency programs, as Elbers wanted to free artists from the “obligation to produce anything,” she said.

None of Eber’s private collection—over 700 pieces—will be on display at the space.

“We’re giving artists a chance to go radical if they want,” Ruth Estévez, the Foundation’s director, told the New York Times this week. “They can use the space to do things they’ve never done before.”