Abrons Arts Center

Venue info

The Abrons Arts Center is a division of Henry Street Settlement, a nonprofit agency that has provided social services and artistic programming to Manhattan’s Lower East Side since 1893. Abrons opened in 1975 to house Henry Street’s visual and performing arts alongside its community-based arts training. The performing arts program inherits the century-long legacy of the Neighborhood Playhouse, where some of the most adventurous artists have trained, taught, or performed, including Laurie Anderson, John Cage, Aaron Copland, Dizzy Gillespie, Martha Graham, Philip Glass, Alicia Keyes, Alwin Nikolais, Lou Reed, Denzel Washington, and Orson Welles. The Abrons Arts Center also boasts two 100-seat performance spaces - the Experimental Theater and the Underground theater. Contemporary art exhibitions that showcase the work emerging artists and curators are mounted in the two gallery spaces, and Abrons' artist-in-residence programs provide performing visual and performing artists with free rehearsal and studio spaces to develop new projects and artwork. Our tradition of delivering affordable arts training continues today with classes, workshops and pre-professional training in dance, theater, music and visual arts, while the Abrons Arts-In-Education program partners with New York City public schools to send our skilled teaching artists into the classroom.