Citizen Arts International Festival Presents "From Sky to Earth" (FREE)
Company:
Citizen Arts International
The Citizen Arts International Festival presents From Sky to Earth from James Brandon Lewis and Antoine Le Menestrel on September 12, 2026 at 5PM at NYCEDC’s MADE Bush Terminal, 13 42nd St, Brooklyn, NY 11232. The event is free to attend, and tickets can be reserved HERE.
Acclaimed composer, saxophonist, and 2026 Guggenheim Fellow James Brandon Lewis joins French vertical dance pioneer Antoine Le Menestrel, Artistic Director of Cie Lézards Bleus, for the world premiere of From Sky to Earth.
From Sky to Earth reimagines New York City’s built environment as a site of performance, transforming building façades into a dynamic stage where Le Menestrel’s vertical dance meets Lewis’s live, improvised score. Blurring the boundaries between architecture, performance, and live music, the work invites audiences to experience the city from an entirely new perspective.
“MADE Bush Terminal’s historic architecture makes it a uniquely powerful setting for From Sky to Earth, as the artists respond in real time to the historic architecture and to one another,” said New York City Economic Development Corporation's Senior Vice President of Sunset Park Asset Management Jennifer Brown. “This performance invites New Yorkers to experience the campus in an entirely new way and reflects our vision for MADE: preserving the site's century-old industrial heritage while creating new opportunities for culture, creativity, and community to thrive.”
From Sky to Earth was commissioned by Citizen Arts International and is co-produced by Citizen Arts International and Citizen Arts and Education.
Based in Brooklyn, James Brandon Lewis is one of the most provocative and prolific musical voices of his generation, whose work fuses jazz, gospel, blues, and experimental improvisation. Named “one of the fiercest sounds in jazz today” (The Guardian) with a “penchant for unbound exploration” (Pitchfork), Lewis released his first album in 2014, followed by 15 more, including the award-winning Jesup Wagon (2021) and his most recent Omni(2026). Lewis has received accolades from NPR, the ASCAP Foundation, the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, and the MacDowell Foundation, among others. He was named Downbeat’s Artist of the Year in 2025 and Saxophonist of the Year in 2026. James is a 2026 Guggenheim Fellow.
Antoine Le Menestrel is a French choreographer, dancer, and pioneering figure of “vertical dance” (dance de façade), in which urban architecture becomes a choreographic surface. A former elite climber, he was one of the leading figures in the development of free climbing in the 1980s and worked internationally as a route-setter for climbing competitions, shaping the creative and performative dimensions of the sport. In 1992, he co-founded Cie Lézards Bleus, dedicated to site-specific vertical dance in public space. His work transforms facades, monuments, and industrial structures into theatrical and poetic landscapes, blending acrobatics, theatre, and live performance. He has presented work internationally and is widely recognized as a key innovator in contemporary vertical performance practice.
This project is supported by FUSED, a program of Villa Albertine and Albertine Foundation. Additional support is provided by the Zankel Music Fund.
Established in the 1800s, Bush Terminal was once the largest multi-tenant industrial campus in the United States. Now called MADE Bush Terminal—short for Manufacturers, Artisans, Designers, and Entrepreneurs—the Sunset Park campus is an ambitious urban redevelopment project transforming the 20-acre property into a modern, mixed-use hub for local producers, fabricators and creatives. The reimagined campus includes approximately 140,000 square feet of industrial workspace, 30,000 square feet dedicated to cultural and public programming, and acres of new public open space. Central to its development approach is the adaptation of century-old warehouses to preserve the area’s rich industrial heritage and to leverage the useful life of existing materials on site.
Citizen Arts International transforms New York City's public spaces into vibrant stages for free international performance, participatory art, and cultural exchange. Bringing art into everyday life across the boroughs, the woman-led festival fosters joy, civic engagement, and social connection.
Responding to calls from civic leaders and urban policy advocates to expand equitable access to culture in public space, the festival centers a model of radical accessibility and global cultural exchange, bringing free, high-quality performing arts directly into neighborhood parks and community spaces.
In collaboration with community organizations citywide, the festival’s inventive placemaking transforms ordinary spaces into sites of joy, spectacle, dialogue, and shared civic experience. Programming spans new circus, dance, music, theatre, and participatory performance that invite audiences to engage not just as spectators, but as participants in a shared cultural landscape.
Rooted in local partnerships, Citizen Arts International collaborates with organizations including The Ukrainian Museum, Culture Lab LIC, The Bushwick Starr, La MaMa ETC, Citizen Arts and Education, New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, NYCEDC’s MADE Bush Terminal, Bronx Children’s Museum, Barnard Movement Lab, and more to connect performance with community conversation. Through hosted performances, workshops, and intergenerational learning opportunities, the festival creates intimate connections between audiences of all ages to engage with global artists and ideas in spaces that belong to them.
The festival is led by co-directors Meg Araneo, Natalie Rine, and Elena Siyanko. The multigenerational, women-led leadership champions collaboration, artistic vision, and public engagement as central to the citywide festival initiative. With decades of experience in nonprofit leadership, festival programming, international touring, and scholarly practice, they offer a civic-minded, community-focused, and globally informed approach to multidisciplinary performance in public spaces.
“Public culture is civic infrastructure,” said the Co-Directors in a joint statement. “Citizen Arts International is doubling down on radical accessibility — bringing global performance directly into neighborhoods, free of charge, and using public space to spark dialogue, imagination, and connection across difference.”
ABOUT THE FESTIVAL
Citizen Arts International transforms New York City's public spaces into vibrant stages for free international performance, participatory art, and cultural exchange. Bringing art into everyday life across the boroughs, the festival fosters civic engagement and strengthens social connection.
The Citizen Arts International Festival is produced in partnership with Citizen Arts and Education and the Ukrainian Museum, in affiliation with Social Practice CUNY, with special thanks to the PhD Theatre + Performance Program at the CUNY Graduate Center. The festival is fiscally sponsored by the Graduate Center Foundation Inc.
www.citizenartsinternational.org
@citizenartsinternational
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