New York’s spring arts calendar just got a serious shakeup courtesy of Trans Art Fest, a new citywide celebration putting trans artists squarely in the spotlight. The two month, community driven festival packs in gallery shows, outdoor projects and hands on workshops across Brooklyn and beyond through late May.
According to Brooklyn Paper, the festival gathers more than 120 trans artists in roughly a dozen all trans exhibitions and more than 20 public events. The project was founded and is curated by Carter Shocket, a Brooklyn based textile artist and curator, per Carter Shocket's website.
“They kind of felt like they happened and then they were over, like it wasn’t a long‑lasting kind of project,” Shocket told Brooklyn Paper, explaining why he pushed for a sustained, multi week festival. The goal, he said, is to build durable networks and opportunities for trans artists rather than fleeting, one off shows.
Festival highlights
Eleventh Hour Art in Brooklyn Heights is opening two group shows, "Alchemists" and "A Tender Touch," on April 11, with both exhibitions running through May 24, according to Eleventh Hour Art. The family friendly "Starling Skies" at Puffin Brooklyn opens April 18 and continues through May 17, as listed by Puffin Brooklyn.
An outdoor installation titled "Kinetic Kin," curated by Neptune in June, is slated for the Warren St. Marks community garden, with an April 18 opening and a run through May 30, per the events calendar at Trans Art Fest. The festival program also stretches into fairs, studio demonstrations and pop up events across April and May, giving artists multiple platforms to show and sell their work.
Workshops, screenings and a community finale
The Trans Art Fest schedule mixes hands on workshops, like glassblowing demonstrations, embroidery and mending sessions, screen printing and somatic movement classes, with screening nights and a comedy show aimed at building both craft skills and audience connections. The festival wraps on May 30 with "Basketdolls — In Transition," a one day art show and basketball game at the Thomas Boyland Park courts that the program describes as a celebration of the festival’s close and the start of Pride Month. For specific event details and times, the festival’s events page carries the most up to date listings.
Why it matters
Organizers and arts coverage frame the fest as a bid to turn brief bursts of visibility into sustained opportunity for trans artists, building networks that can outlast any single exhibition. That aim sits against a backdrop of rising censorship and political attacks on transgender communities, and an art world reckoning described in local arts coverage in BK Magazine.
See the full schedule and RSVP information on the festival website at Trans Art Fest.
