Lower Manhattan is getting a new nonprofit art space called Times (styled in lowercase), founded by Summer Guthery and Francesca Sonara. Located on the fourth floor of 151 Lafayette Street above the Museum of Chinese in America, the 3,000-square-foot venue will operate for only three years. Its inaugural exhibition, featuring Danish artist Nina Beier, opens February 21 with a display of melting Cornetto ice cream cones. The space will officially open February 12 with a performance by Latvian choreographer Jana Jacuka. Guthery, previously founding artistic director of Canal Projects, and Sonara, former director of communications at Minnesota Street Project, met as graduate students at Bard College's Center for Curatorial Studies.
This matters because Times represents a deliberate rejection of the commercial art world's emphasis on materialized, fetishized goods and endless expansion. By committing to a three-year lifespan, the founders embrace ephemerality as a freeing principle, offering a nimble platform for experimental artists and "weirdos" who need non-commercial spaces. The project also highlights a growing trend of time-limited art institutions, following precedents like Cleopatra's (2008–18) and the Holt-Smithson Foundation's planned 2038 closure. The article additionally notes Esther Kim Varet's campaign for the U.S. House of Representatives, connecting art-world figures to broader political engagement.