CuRRENT & UPCOMING SHOWS
Ensemble Ipse
Siteworks:
Composer Soup Throwdown
Sunday, May 24, 3 - 4:30pm
Up to 25 composers participate in "Siteworks: Composer Soup Throwdown." Composers’ audio files will be loaded into MIDI triggering webcam stations, which will be placed in a spatial arrangement around the performance area. Composers (and any gallery viewers) can wander around the stations throughout the event, triggering sounds as they like with their movements. Composers will hear their own sounds and the sounds of the other participating composers as the midi instruments cycle through the sounds periodically (and anonymously). Additionally, four Ensemble Ipse musicians will wander among the stations and improvise with the sounds. Participating composers gallery viewers can “cook” with the musicians!
Ensemble Ipse is a dynamic contemporary music ensemble dedicated to presenting recent music that transcends aesthetic categorization while striving to create a forum for composers and sound artists that celebrates stylistic diversity. Ensemble Ipse is also dedicated to performing music of composers who have traditionally been overlooked, and may not have had the same opportunities others have been given. Ensemble Ipse’s "Siteworks" series of events offers free concerts in unusual spaces around New York City, often in locations where passers-by can experience sounds with dispersed placement. This series brings contemporary music to audiences which might not otherwise have access. Ensemble Ipse has been very pleased to receive funding from the NYC Cultural Development Fund, whose mission includes supporting “neighborhood-based groups that represent New York's extraordinary cultural breadth.”
Funky Formal
Culture Lab LIC's Informal Gala of the Year
May 28, 7-10pm
You get funky. We get funded! Join us for Funky Formal, our signature informal gala and a vibrant lead-up to our main gala on September 16.
Leave convention at the door. Think bold style, a disco-inspired atmosphere, and a room full of people ready to celebrate, connect, and support a worthy cause.
Soak in the sunset with great music and refreshing drinks, then let the evening take over.
On the night:
- Hit the dance floor in a lively, disco-inspired atmosphere...
- Join the optional dance competition for a chance to win a bottle of champagne or a curated gift basket...
- Compete for Best “Funky Fit” and take the crown for the most standout look of the night...
- Try your luck with raffle tickets for a chance to win exciting prizes...
- Other surprises soon to be announced!
No pressure to compete. Come to dance, come to watch, or simply come to enjoy the room.
Why it matters: Every ticket and raffle entry directly supports our programs and helps build momentum leading into our main gala in September. This is a chance to be part of something meaningful without it feeling like a fundraiser.
Dress code: Funky Formal. Elevated, expressive, bold.
Grab your ticket, bring your energy, and we will see you on the dance floor!
Weapons of Mass Seduction
June 11-21
Under an even more Trump-than-Trump president — the bombastic Karen Blare — the United States is waging a “culture war” against its new enemy: woke Canada. Determined to win the fight without casualties (or headlines), Blare demands a new kind of non-lethal weapon. Her loyal but dim-witted General Fardmann has the perfect idea: resurrect the long-rumored “Gay Bomb.”
To make it work, they must thaw out Professor. Victor Vexx — a brilliant, genderfluid chemical weapons scientist frozen since the summer of love in 67 — and assign CIA agent Valerie Steele to keep them in check.
But as Vexx sets their sights on sparking a queer revolution from within, Blare’s administration prepares to test the bomb on a small conservative Southern town. When the plan leaks, chaos erupts. Glitter flies, loyalties shift, and the battle lines between repression and liberation blur in an explosion of camp, color, and chemical warfare.
This piece detonates a glittery critique of military machismo, political hypocrisy, and homophobia — flipping the script so that queer people aren’t the victims of the system, but the ones who joyfully, fabulously, and furiously blow it up from the inside.
PERFORMING ARTS At Culture Lab LIC
Culture Lab LIC is passionate about supporting emerging artists and fostering ambitious work. Over the past four years, our directors have helped produce over 25 professional productions. We have supported original and in-development work, presenting the premiere productions.
We have provided rehearsal space for over 20 theatre/dance and music groups and produced hundreds of events. In 2024 alone, we donated over 1,000 hours of rehearsal space to local theatre and dance companies. Over the past three years, we have created an amazing space for performing artists to learn, grow, take risks and make work. We are proud to create affordable opportunities for our local artistic community here in LIC!