About

“Big Road in Chelsea" is an affordable and conveniently located music performance space/coffeehouse where the global diversity of cultures in the New York area will be shared and celebrated with monthly multicultural “mini-festivals”  The 1st Show November 10, 2012

Easily accessible, located at 235 West 23rd Street, 2nd Floor, NYC (between 7th & 8th Avenues, across from the Chelsea Hotel), Big Road in Chelsea will present monthly shows in a 300-person capacity hall, with space for dancing, for an affordable $10 suggested contribution.  Refreshments and snacks will be available.  

“Big Road in Chelsea” is a performance space that will celebrate world music as reflected in the culturally diverse communities of the New York area.  The venue will showcase traditional, popular, art and theatrical genres, incorporating musical roots from every corner of the globe (including the U.S.).  Each program will encompass a variety of musical styles, providing an opportunity for participants (both performers and audience) to share their respective musical backgrounds--as well as their unique talents—exchanging ideas, stimulating creative synthesis, and building cross-cultural understanding.  Interactive audience participation will be encouraged; space for dancing (and dance instruction) is provided.  

MISSION and GUIDING PHILOSOPHY

The center's mission is to (1) represent the cultural diversity found in and around New York by showcasing a wide range of musical performance genres (independently or in combination with theatrical and other performance arts), and (2) build relationships with community groups to encourage/facilitate their participation in these programs.  We hope to provide a space where people can experience and learn from expressive art forms that may be unfamiliar to them, promoting inter-cultural understanding and sensitivity.  We look forward to the center becoming a place where people can share ideas, and even blend or adapt some of what they've experienced there into their own artistic visions.  We are also hoping to engage our “concert” audiences with participatory activities such as dance instruction.  Consistent with these aims is an outreach strategy that will draw upon a wide and diverse target audience by including several different music genres in each program.  This approach is evident in our opening "concert," where we expect to feature Cajun and Creole music/dance, jazz, Latin music, blues, and a popular, contemporary "string brass punk ragtime" band from Brooklyn.  We envision the event as a kind of mini-festival in a three hour time frame, and an introduction to our overall concept.    

Our initial plan is to start with monthly performances to build awareness of--and support for--our project throughout the city and its surrounding areas.  It is hoped that we can gradually progress to having more frequent events if the project proves successful.  We look forward to the time when talented artists of diverse cultural backgrounds will seek out our venue as a performance space in order to gain exposure both within and beyond their home communities.  As much as it is our goal to be a center for artists of diverse cultural communities, we also want to function as a harmonious "community of artists."