'Placeholders' highlights businesses located in HDFC storefronts

In case you have been wondering about the window displays in the currently vacant storefronts at 165 and 167 Avenue C between 10th Street and 11th Street. 

Per the Cooper Square Committee:

Due to decades of grassroots organizing, the Lower East Side is home to many Housing Development Fund Corporation cooperatives (HDFCs), a unique type of affordable housing collectively owned and operated by residents. 

Offering a glimpse into this vibrant community, "Placeholders" showcases items from local businesses located in HDFCs in a site-specific installation created by local artist Delphine Le Goff. Items include a camera from Fourth Street Photo Gallery, the city's oldest Black-owned photography studio; a hand-painted mortar and pestle from Puerto Rican restaurant Casa Adela; and handmade Mexican folk art from La Sirena. 

Cooper Square Committee co-created "Placeholders" with Scott Kelly and Le Goff as part of "Design Sprints: Building Creative Capacity," an initiative of Van Alen Institute and the NYC Department of Small Business Services. 

The displays will be up through June. There's a closing reception on June 27. Visit the Cooper Square website here for details... plus contact info for local artists, nonprofits and entrepreneurs seeking commercial space in the neighborhood. 

And here are HDFC storefronts on the Lower East Side...