What Is The Shed? A Guide to NYC's Innovative Arts Space

New York City is home to some of the most innovative artists in the world, and home to some of the most creative spaces to present art. One such place is The Shed. Located at West 30th Street between 10th and 11th Avenues, The Shed is a home to, and incubator for, projects in a wide variety of genres including theatre, dance, music, visual art and more.

If you've ever wondered, 'What goes on at The Shed?' 'What type of performances take place there?' or 'How did this structure get there in the first place?' BroadwayWorld has the answers for you!

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What is The Shed?

The Shed is a new cultural institution of and for the 21st century. They produce and welcome innovative art and ideas, across all forms of creativity, to build a shared understanding of our rapidly changing world and a more equitable society. In their highly adaptable building on Manhattan's west side, The Shed brings together established and emerging artists to create new work in fields ranging from pop to classical music, painting to digital media, theater to literature, and sculpture to dance. They seek opportunities to collaborate with cultural peers and community organizations, work with like-minded partners, and provide unique spaces for private events. As an independent nonprofit that values invention, equity, and generosity, they arecommitted to advancing art forms, addressing the urgent issues of our time, and making their work impactful, sustainable, and relevant to the local community, the cultural sector, New York City, and beyond.

When was The Shed Built?

In 2005, the administration of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg preserved a section of city-owned land on West 30th Street between 10th and 11th Avenues, for future cultural use as part of the redevelopment of the Far West Side of Manhattan. The City issued a Request for Proposals in 2008, calling for a "unique and innovative place for creative expression and the deepest, freshest thinking regarding cultural production and consumption." In 2008, the design for The Shed, created by lead architect Diller Scofidio + Renfro and collaborating architect Rockwell Group was unveiled, and the building was commissioned in 2011. In 2014, Alex Poots, director of the Manchester International Festival and the artistic director of the Park Avenue Armory, was appointed as The Shed's founding artistic director and CEO. The building's design was remodeled for flexibility, and The Shed officially opened to the public on April 5, 2019.

How Big is The Shed?

The Shed is a 200,000-square-foot structure that physically transforms to support artists' ideas. The structure has a movable shell, covered in a Teflon-based polymer, called ethylene tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE), and measuring almost 70 feet in some areas, The Shed's ETFE panels are some of the largest ever produced.

The Shed consists of:

The McCourt, which is formed when the movable outer shell is deployed over the adjoining plaza to create a 17,000-square-foot light-, sound-, and temperature-controlled hall for large-scale performances, installations, and events. It can accommodate a seated audience of approximately 1,200 (900 in the lower McCourt) and a standing audience of up to 2,220.

The Level 2 and Level 4 Galleries, totaling 25,000 square feet, are expansive, column-free, museum-quality spaces.

The Kenneth C. Griffin Theater, on Level 6, can seat 500 people and be subdivided into more intimate spaces to suit the needs of a range of productions and installations.

The Tisch Skylights and Lab, on the top floor, are striking spaces for events, rehearsals, and artist development that seat approximately 450 people, with standing room for 750.

The Plaza can be used as an outdoor public space for programming when the movable shell is retracted to nest over the base building.

You can also rent space in The Shed for events, including live performances, fashion shows, film premieres and more.

What is currently on view at The Shed?

The Fire Ensemble:

The Fire Ensemble, led by by composer and artistic director Troy Anthony, is an intergenerational choir community dedicated to using song and ritual as tools for collective liberation centering BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ folx. During free, weekly rehearsals, singers from different backgrounds and identities come together to use music and ritual as tools to explore collective liberation, intergenerational healing, radical relationships, and personal emergence. Rehearsals are held most Monday evenings afterward from 6 - 8 pm at The Shed. To join the Ensemble, please fill out this RSVP form.

Maxwell Alexandre's Pardo é Papel: "The Glorious Victory" and "New Power":

In his first North American solo exhibition, Brazilian artist Maxwell Alexandre presents new and existing paintings from his ongoing series "Pardo é Papel" (2017 - ) that depict collective portraits celebrating the empowerment, self-esteem, and prosperity of Black people. ​ The paintings commissioned for Pardo é Papel from his "New Power" subseries center Black audiences contemplating art in museums and galleries to draw attention to the exclusionary dynamics at play in white, Western contemporary art spaces.

The event takes place in Level 4 Gallery, Sunday, Wednesday, Thursday, 11 am - 6 pm
Friday, Saturday, 11 am - 8 pm.

What is upcoming at The Shed?

Open Call: Open Call is an ongoing, large-scale commissioning program for early-career NYC-based artists. Selected artists each received a commissioning fee of up to $15,000, production support, and resources to further nurture their practices and expand their audiences.

The Yanomami Struggle: The Yanomami Struggle will be presented from February 3-April 16, 2023. The Yanomami Struggle is a comprehensive exhibition dedicated to the collaboration and friendship between artist and activist Claudia Andujar and the Yanomami people, one of the largest Indigenous groups living in Amazonia today. The exhibition will include more than 80 drawings and paintings by Yanomami artists André Taniki, Ehuana Yaira, Joseca Mokahesi, Orlando Nakɨ uxima, Poraco Hɨko, Sheroanawe Hakihiiwe, and Vital Warasi. Visitors will also discover new video works by contemporary Yanomami filmmakers Aida Harika, Edmar Tokorino, Morzaniel Ɨramari, and Roseane Yariana.

Arinzé Kene's Misty: Misty runs from March 3-April 2. The Shed will present the US premiere of Misty, a genre-defying play written by and starring Olivier Award-nominee Arinzé Kene (West End productions of Get Up, Stand Up! The Bob Marley Musical, Death of a Salesman, Girl from the North Country, The Lion King, One Night in Miami) in his US stage debut and directed by Omar Elerian (NASSIM, Two Palestinians Go Dogging, The Chairs).

Fusing live music, spoken word, and absurdist comedy, Misty is an exhilarating journey through a city in flux, transporting audiences to the streets of gentrifying London in an exploration of the pressures and expectations that come with being an artist in our time. In a performance that is part poem, part concert, part confession, Kene self-consciously wrestles with cultural representation and identity politics as they pertain to a new play he has been commissioned to write. This riveting production is accompanied by a pulsating original score performed by a live band and composed by Arinzé Kene, Adrian MacLeod, and Shiloh Coke.

Purchase tickets HERE.

What has been presented at The Shed in the Past?

Recent projects presented at The Shed included:

Straight Line Crazy: Straight Line Crazy ran from October 18-December 18, 2022. David Hare's Straight Line Crazy, which starred Ralph Fiennes, dove into the questionable legacy of Robert Moses and his enduring impact on New York. The play presented an imagined retelling of the arc of Moses's controversial career in two decisive moments: his rise to power in the late 1920s and the public outcry against the corrosive effects of that power in the mid-1950s.

Tiona Nekkia McClodden's The Trace of an Implied Presence: The Trace of an Implied Presence ran from August 3-December 11. The exhibition focused on the history and influence of contemporary Black dance in the United States. Centered on a video installation inspired by McClodden's research into the Brooklyn Academy of Music's 1983 Dance Black America festival, the instillation featured four individual dance floors that functioned as stages for projected images of archival dance footage, film portraits of key figures involved with the festival, and the artist's own documentation of the Philly Bop, a Black social dance from Philadelphia.

The Fire Ensemble's To Feel A Thing: A Ritual for Emergence: To Feel A Thing: A Ritual for Emergence was presented on December 10. Featuring original music and text from brown, this new work acknowledges the spirit inside each of us that is a wild creature of Earth, along with the feelings that lead us to adapt for survival and to come together to care for our communities. Together with brown, and accompanied by a gospel band, The Fire Ensemble will bring this piece to life in a stripped-down workshop presentation.

... and many, many more!

How do I find out more information about The Shed?

For more information about The Shed, visit: https://at.theshed.org/

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Photo by Iwan Baan. Courtesy of DS+R.