MISSION
View from outside EFA Center during EFA Open Studios 2015. Sculpture by Eunjung Hwang.
Founded in 1998 as a program of The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, the EFA Studio Program provides affordable private studio spaces, facilitates career development, and promotes public and critical exposure for our members. EFA Studio Program fosters professional artists within a cooperative community, and encourages open exchange between artists, curators, critics and the public to stimulate the positive influence of art in our society.
Members of the studio program must be professional artists with an established studio practice and an emerging art career. Our member artists create work in a wide range of visual media and artistic sensibilities, creating a vibrant and diverse community of peers.
There are three types of EFA Studio Program memberships:
Standard Membership can only be obtained through our annual competitive juried selection process. An open call for applications is available online at the end of every September. Any New York area based artist over the age of 25, not currently in a degree-granting program, can apply. Once selected, the Standard Member Artist can have a subsidized studio space for two years. Near the end of the two-year term, artists may apply to renew for an additional two years, through a separate jury process.
Short-Term Membership is open to professional visual artists, subject to selection and studio availability. Membership is on a month-to-month basis.
Partnership Membership offers studio space and career development opportunities to sponsored artists from around the world. Partnership inquiries should be directed to EFA Studio Program Staff.
EFA Studio Program maintains 90 artist studios of varying size and configuration in the EFA Center, providing artists the rare opportunity to work in a professional arts community inside Manhattan and in close proximity to the city’s primary gallery districts. EFA facilitates interaction with dealers, collectors and curators to enhance career development for member-artists. Unique among studio programs in New York City, EFA is one of the few remaining arts organizations providing long-term workspace in Manhattan