Satellite Collective in partnership with ArtPrize presents Pitch Night– a dynamic, live event where bold artistic visions come to life at Mriya Gallery, 101 Reade Street, Tribeca, NYC on May 15, 2025. Pitch Night will feature five selected artists, each given five minutes to present their idea to a live audience and a panel of five judges. After a brief Q&A, one winning artist per city will be awarded a $10,000 grant to bring their concept to life at ArtPrize 2025—one of the world's most dynamic cultural festivals, drawing nearly 800,000 visitors annually. Pitch Night coincides with Satellite Collective’s TRIBECA SHOW which runs from May 8-18, 2025. Visit https://www.artprize.org/pitch-night-details to RSVP and witness the spark of something extraordinary!

The Satellite Fellows program is celebrating its 5th anniversary this year and has channeled more than $1 million in funds for artists, film makers, choreographers, and composers. The Fellows program is a fiscal sponsorship and a professional development program that works hands-on with artists to help them learn how to make a living through their art - from practical aspects like forming an LLC to strategic plans for their practice. Now ArtPrize, in a new agreement with Satellite, is providing ArtPrize artists with subscriptions to the innovative Fellows program - an investment in Satellite and an acknowledgement of the value of these services to artists in West Michigan. ArtPrize is also launching a national program of outreach to cultural centers like Austin, Chicago, and New York to raise the profile of the festival and provide opportunities for West Michigan artists to integrate with artists working in influential cultural centers and advance their careers.

Satellite is proud to say we are acting as ArtPrize’s New York partner for the Pitch Night NYC and will be providing a venue for the event and drawing from our New York network of performing artists from which ArtPrize will select. Satellite will also provide the Grand Rapids venue for these artists. This proposal seeks support for part of the direct cost of the winning artist’s prize and commission.

Winning the commission will bring extensive press coverage, a national platform for their new artwork, and career-changing opportunities. Past winners have benefited from increased fundraising and prize money. They have gone on to collaborate with major artists and institutions like the New York City Ballet, formed their own thriving non profits, and have altogether brought an immense amount of art, music, and literature to West Michigan, New York, LA and much of the nation in between. Satellite Fellows is proud to act as a bridge between New York and West Michigan arts and culture with this program.

About Satellite Collective's Tribeca Show 2025

May 8-18, 2025

“With Respect To The Killer In My Heart,” KEVIN DRAPER

Draper’s conception of space is never far from motion and structures that shape it. “With Respect To The Killer In My Heart” features a mechanized sculpture, building structures, and evidentiary photographs integrated in the crafting of his Brutalist narrative. “Dominant Landscape A and B” are large landscapes, hand printed on fabric up to twenty-two feet long which run the length of the gallery and show the passing of time through textures of urban decay, motion, and sudden stops. “Delta,” a handcrafted superbike, is a mechanical expression of the American id in aluminum. “A and B,” a set of sculptural figures with internally visible video and a soundtrack by Stelth Ulvang of The Lumineers, is a vision of dissolving in concert. “Scans of a Bomb Site” is a series of manipulated photographic works that catch pieces of the human body, toys, animals and, seemingly, the tragic scattered objects of a bombing site. The objects and images create a sense of perpetual transformation at speed. “I am focused on the breakdown of Modernism as a language. Brutalism has emerged as the style of the past that fits best now.” says Draper. “These pieces are from a distressingly near future dominated by force.” Visit: https://.kevindraper.org.

“The American Yes,” LORA ROBERTSON

From deep inside the practice of a long-held studio discipline, Robertson creates a staged allegory, addressing the injustice all around us. “The American Yes”, features large format photography printed on aluminum sheets with a dye-sublimation process. The images demonstrate austere still lives and self portraiture, the spare elements taking on importance with careful composition, precise lighting design, and deliberate in-camera choices. “Maiden | Mother | Crone” is a series of nine sand cast bronze pelvises, female and life sized, and use the traditional foundry method. Together, these photographs and sculptures bring notice to liberation from the motives of larger forces. “I’ve built the slow demolition of a Molotov cocktail, the weapon of necessity for grassroots resistance,” says Robertson. “I channel Hunter S. Thompson, shooting at bottles while pressing the shutter.”

Visit: https://www.lorarobertson.com.

About Satellite Collective

Satellite Collective formed in 2010 with members of the New York City Ballet, visual artists, writers, and composers from across the country. Since then, Satellite has produced 14 seasons of multi-disciplinary work in New York City with an impressive cross section of young talent. Satellite has evolved since its inception, spinning off several dance and arts nonprofits, while growing programs in financial services and professional development, designed by and led by artists.

Satellite incubates artists collaborating as equals. The company designs performances, arts exchanges, and publications that bring talented artists from all disciplines to work together. Satellite Collective is New York based, with regional studies on Lake Michigan, in the Pacific Northwest, and participating artists from around the world.

For this innovation and commitment, the Borough of Brooklyn awarded Satellite Collective a Citation for Achievement in the Arts for “building a sustainable creative, financial, and collaborative model that can generate new visions for dance, multimedia, music and poetry.” The citation goes on to note that the company has “added to the awe-inspiring cultural landscape of our Borough and beyond.”

“Satellite is working in a new kind of venue for the collective. We are bringing the athletic performance and production values of our performing arts work into a gallery space. Here, we have the opportunity to engage in conversations with our audience and more prominently feature the compelling visual artists driving Satellite’s collaborations,” said Kevin Draper, Artistic Director.

About ArtPrize

ArtPrize erupted on the scene in 2009, immediately establishing itself as a cultural phenomenon by grabbing the attention of artists and art critics around the world. From the beginning, it featured public voting, huge prizes, equally huge crowds, and a whole lot of engaging discussion. In 2010, ArtPrize introduced categories of juried awards, inviting international experts to bestow more honors. Anila Quayyum Agha’s piece “Intersections” made ArtPrize history in 2014 by winning Grand Prizes from both the public and a jury.

As the years passed, ArtPrize continued to evolve, announcing in 2022 a new public/private partnership among the City of Grand Rapids, Downtown Grand Rapids, Inc. (DGRI), and Kendall College of Art and Design of Ferris State University (KCAD). And today, we’re providing more artists opportunities through the Visibility Awards, presented by MillerKnoll, and expanded grant offerings. We're also recommitted to the things that made ArtPrize a phenomenon in the first place: amazing art, public voting, big prizes, dynamic events, tons of people, and abundant joy.