CUE Art Foundation is pleased to announce the opening of FREE RADIO, the winning selection of the 2011 open call for proposals.

FREE RADIO is a community-based project that uses the Foundation’s gallery as a laboratory in which a different local community will be aided each week with the construction of an on-site radio station, and the development of radio programming relative to that community. Each one-week session will be comprised of a series of activities directed toward community building, the development of a voice, the archiving of that voice, and developing the skills associated with radio technology. The result will be a public broadcast produced entirely by each targeted community, which will then be transmitted to the greater New York City metropolitan area. The process will be perpetually archived and transmitted via the internet, so as to simultaneously preserve and broadcast the process beyond the walls of the gallery.

FREE RADIO was conceived of by artists Brian Gillis and Robin Lambert, and is driven by the reconsideration of a gallery as a cultural hub. FREE RADIO was born out of the belief that every community has a voice that is a relevant part of a larger society, and that investment in the development and proliferation of this voice will make the community richer and in doing so, will contribute exponentially to a population outside its own. This project is made possible by an international organization of people ranging from artists and computer hackers to scientists and educators.

Targeted community groups include Brooklyn Youth Company, The Moth, Occupy Wall Street, UpBeat NYC, and Verbal Pyrotechnics.