CuRRENT & UPCOMING SHOWS
2026 CLLIC
Season Launch Party
Thursday, February 12, 6pm
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Channeling the energy that once made New York the undisputed center of the arts universe, Culture Lab LIC invites you to their first Season Launch Party.
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The 2026 season launch is your chance to step into a room where "the who’s who" hasn’t been decided yet. Inspired by a time when taxi drivers danced with debutantes, and Andy Warhol shared drinks with the future of pop art. We're opening our doors, not only to the community but to the visionaries, the disruptors, and the next wave of the NYC art scene.
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As we highlight our first major exhibitions of 2026—including the masterclass in contemporary tradition, Modern Ink, and the hyper-local historical deep-dive, Queens Women in Action—you’ll find yourself in conversation with the creators who are currently reshaping our cultural landscape.
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Expect a vibrant mix of emerging artists from our residency programs, curators, and some of NYC's creative elite. Enjoy beer, wine & specialty drinks at our cash bar before making your way to the dance floor to vibe to Culture Lab regulars and favorites, Os Clavelitos.
This is your opportunity to get a first look at our 2026 calendar of exhibitions, theater performances, live music, cultural festivals, and much more!
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In a time where everyone is always looking for the "next big thing," this is the room where it happens first. Dress to be seen (or to disappear), but don't miss the chance to say you were there before the world caught on.
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Free Admission (Donations welcome.)
Liberty Scrap
March 5-29
Thursdays - Saturdays at 7pm
Sundays at 5pm
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In Liberty Scrap, cash is tight, and the goings are tough, but Katya has managed to eke out a living in a scrap metal warehouse by day, and as an artist by night, fashioning sculptures out of debris. When her Uzbek father falls ill, she attempts to return home to care for him, only to discover her dubious immigration status is much more dangerous than she ever imagined, threatening to keep her separated from her family forever.
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Liberty Scrap is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature and, in part, with public funds from the Queens Arts Fund, a re-grant program supported by New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and administered by New York Foundation for the Arts.
Liberty Scrap has been developed with support from Waterwell Theater, The Chocolate Factory Theater, The Mercury Store, and United Stateless.
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Liberty Scrap is an Equity Approved Showcase.
Culture Lab After Dark presents
Nice One! Comedy
​Laughs meet art at Culture Lab LIC, where stand-up comedy takes center stage in a vibrant gallery setting!
Thanks to our sponsors: Plaxall Inc, TF Cornerstone, Steve Madden, Howard Gilman Foundation, New York State Council on the Arts
project/tag presents SARAH
Saturday, February 21, 7pm
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project/tag presents a duet from SARAH, a work-in-progress examining Kurdish experiences, cultural memory, and political changes in the context of Saddam Hussein’s violent rule and 2005 trial before the Iraqi Special Tribunal. Choreographed and performed by project/tag co-artistic directors Hussein Smko and Mizuho Kappa, this duet highlights the violent and destabilizing impact of war on human relationships, bodily autonomy, and expression.
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Dancers: Hussein Smko, Mizuho Kappa​
Photo: Maclaine Lowery
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.”
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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.
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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!
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