On the Ground follows Storefront’s 40th anniversary celebrated in 2022, marking a pivotal moment in our institutional history and a return to our geographic roots in New York City, the place that shaped our mission. Over the course of this yearlong curatorial framework, we looked at our founding ethos and interrogated how the urban storefront—even in its most humble form—can enable carescapes, provide refuge and a sense of belonging by maintaining an intimate social character embedded in its local context. In a city of skyscrapers, where expansion happens vertically, the ground floor tends to be overlooked. Storefront, however, has always maintained a unique relationship with the sidewalk. Our iconic facade, with its twelve rotating panels that open the gallery to the street, creates a permeable threshold between public and private realms. This relationship with the ground floor was also a motivating force behind On the Ground, allowing us to showcase diverse artistic explorations and dialogues on the essential role storefronts play in cultivating public life and strengthening the city’s social fabric. This reader extends some of these conversations into print and well beyond New York City. Its aim is to serve as a resource and experimental space to further dissect the intricacies of our evolving city by offering critical essays, interviews, poetry, and other visual contributions that expand on what we have collectively learned throughout the year. Positioning the ground floor as a marker of social, political, and economic transformation through the voice of several collaborators and interlocutors with whom we engaged over the course of the program, this publication applies various lenses. On the Ground is the collaborative work of 113 collaborators, and it unfolded over the past two years. Thanks to our collaborators we continue to learn collectively and are able to build and facilitate reciprocal relations. They reaffirm the importance of investing in collective practices.
