Spend your Saturday afternoon in the Lower East Side exploring 28 arts & culture organizations! Organized by Fourth Arts Block (FABnyc) the Lower East Side Arts & Culture Open House is now in its third year, welcoming folks into cultural spaces without a ticket to a show or the cost of admission. Organizations will have staff available to answer questions about their programs, and many will offer special free activities such as tours, exhibits, workshops, and performances!

Begin on the East 4th Street Open Street and get to know the East 4th Street Cultural District; the only officially designated cultural district in Manhattan, founded by grassroots arts & community organizations to rally against their own displacement from the neighborhood. Through collective advocacy and with community support, groups successfully purchased six buildings and two vacant lots from the city, for $1 each, all deed-restricted to nonprofit cultural use. Today the District houses 14 arts groups, 10 cultural facilities, and 22 performance and rehearsal venues, and has more active cultural space per square foot than any other block in New York City.

On 4th street you’ll grab maps & plan your route, check out live music & hands-on arts activities good for all ages, and meet folks from Bond Street Theater, Cooper Square Committee, CultureHub, FABnyc, IATI Theater, International Center of Photography, La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, Lower East Side Preservation Initiative, Magnum Foundation, Movement Research, New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York Theatre Workshop, Nuyorican Poets Cafe, Rod Rodgers Dance Company and WOW Cafe Theatre all right there on the block!

Then, with map in hand, you’ll venture out into the historic Lower East Side to visit ABC No Rio, Abrons Arts Center, Art Loisaida Foundation, Artists Alliance Inc., The Clemente Soto Velez Cultural & Educational Center, International Center for Photography, Loisaida Inc., Movement Research, The Performance Project @ University Settlement, Relative Arts, Swiss Institute, Tenement Museum, Think!Chinatown, and the Ukrainian Museum. They’ll all be opening their doors for you to explore exhibits, artist studios, theaters, a zine library, and more!

Accessibility features differ by site. Visit fabnyc.org for site-specific details.