Various Artists

The West Side Cultural Network—a group of more than 19 museums, parks, performing arts centers, and cultural institutions located within a half-mile portion of historic New York—is presenting the first-ever West Side Fest, a day of free admission, special indoor and outdoor programming, crafts for kids, artmaking for all ages, an evening dance party, and more to welcome all New Yorkers to their vibrant, exciting, cultural village along the waterfront.

The September 30 event highlights the city’s newest cultural destination on the western edge of Manhattan, a historic area with a welcoming and unique mix of fresh, fun activities, open gathering spaces, and more. The neighborhood—a gathering space for New Yorkers still recovering and coming back together—includes organizations that have been on the West Side for decades as well as newer arrivals with more to come—including the soon-to open 5.5-acre Gansevoort Peninsula.

The West Side Cultural Network is a website group of 19 organizations that includes the Atlantic Theater Company, Center for Art, Research and Alliances, Chelsea Factory, Dia Chelsea, the High Line, Hudson River Park, The Joyce Theater, The Kitchen, Little Island, The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center, New York City AIDS Memorial, Poster House, Print Center New York, the Rubin Museum of Art, The Shed, Westbeth, West Village Rehearsal Co-Op, White Columns, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Visitors to The Kitchen during West Side Fest can experience the free exhibition Filling Station, a newly commissioned project by Paris-based, American multidisciplinary artist Matthew Lutz-Kinoy. Lutz-Kinoy reinterprets the one-act ballet Filling Station, originally staged by the short-lived troupe Ballet Caravan—touted as the first professional ballet company in the United States—as part of a presentation titled A Sunday in Town, which debuted in 1938. Lutz-Kinoy’s restaging views this work of American dance through a contemporary lens, creating a dynamic and queered space for a reflection on race, class, and gender. The full project comprises three dance performances, sited across two partner locations, and an exhibition of a new series of paintings, archival materials, audiovisual elements, and ephemera by the artist at The Kitchen @ Westbeth.