Summer has just begun. Under the hot sun, the crowd sways to the rhythm of the music, gripping cold beers. Big headphones obscure the DJ's face, nestled among giant speakers on stage; the DJ loses himself to the music, each song melding into the next and hyping up the audience.
It’s hard to believe that this is the famous PS1 Contemporary Art Center in Long Island, New York. PS1 hosts the Warm-Up Series parties, which are held every Saturday from 3 pm-9 pm from July to September. Warm-Up Series provides an open, innovative, experimental platform for showcasing all types of rock music. It has also become a summer hotspot for young people and tourists, as one of New York’s biggest and best outdoor parties.
Eliza Ryan, the curator of Warm-Up’s music events since 2010, argues that it is important to provide a platform for composers and music artists, treating music as equally important as other contemporary art forms. All performances are handpicked by PS.1’s Warm-Up team. Innovative electronic musicians are selected from all over the world including Arca, Black Dice, & London’s Four Tet in London, as well as famous DJs, DJ Premier, Richie Hawtin, and Kim Ann Foxman among others, a formidable list of performers.
This summer music celebration is more than just exciting lighting and sound, Warm-Up Series also features and displays winning entries from the Young Architects Program. If you want to take a break from the loud party, you can visit Court Square in Long Island City and check out this year's award-winning and cutting-edge designs from the Young Architects Program, experimental buildings built from a limited budget.
New York PS1 Contemporary Art Center (MoMA PS1) is located in New York, housed in the abandoned and remodeled public high school ‘Public school 1’. Moma PS.1 is a subsidiary of the New York Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and is one of the oldest nonprofit contemporary art institutions in the United States. With the support of the municipal government, New York’s Museum of Modern Art merged with PS1 Contemporary Art Center in 2000. PS1 still retains artistic and operational independence, though through resource integration both sides complement each other, providing administrative support, supporting art education, and promoting contemporary art to the general public.
