Roger Smith Arts provides New York City with a multi-disciplinary performing arts center. We use cultural entertainment and performing arts as a way to promote dialogue within and between the leading disciplines of the New York and global art worlds. The company's mission is to establish itself as a pre-eminent and sought after New York performing arts center and cultural institution. Recognizing dialogue as the backbone of any cultural organization, RSA embraces variety as a means to foster the exchange of creative ideas. RSA produces performance art and site specific installation exhibits, jazz and acoustic singer/songwriter concerts, poetry readings, chamber music concerts, and ongoing speaker series, all with leading creative intellectuals of their various fields.
THE LAB (installation + performance art)
Manhattan based, converted storefront turned fishbowl THE LAB produces 30+ of Manhattans fast paced performance arts and installation exhibitions annually. Aimed at furious midtown foot traffic, THE LAB's programming is designed to confront modern relationships between art and audience and seeks to force interaction between high energy, "outrospective" exhibitions and nearly 25,000 daily passersby. It is THE LAB's goal to reach out through the glass and capture, fascinate, amuse, bemuse all who pass within eye or ear shot of the corner of 47th and Lex. Click here to visit THE LAB's Website.
The Second Sundays Classical Guitar Concerts Series
As the name implies, this New York City arts series takes place on the second Sunday of every month in the spectacular and intimate Penthouse on the sixteenth floor of the hotel. Co-curated by composer and musician Frank Wallace and musician and president of the New York City Classical Guitar Society John Olson, the SSCCS series presents musicians performing in styles ranging from the Segovia Tradition to the rock inspired, from flamenco to modern art song. Click here for concert schedule.
The Fourth Sundays Chamber Music Series
A sister series to the SSCCS, the FSCMS, taking place this time on the fourth Sunday of every month (also in the Penthouse) features the dynamic and unstoppable iO Quartet, an emerging New York City based ensemble interested in finding a common aesthetic between the works of the past and the works of today. A casual one-hour matinee focused on one great masterwork of chamber music each month, they engage the audience during the program with brief discussions on the composer or piece of music they are playing, in an effort to frame Manhattan arts music and make it more accessible to contemporary audiences.
