On The Ground Reader

On the Ground follows Storefront’s 40th anniversary celebrated in 2022, marking a pivotal moment in our institutional history and a return to our geographic roots in New York City, the place that shaped our mission. Over the course of this yearlong curatorial framework, we looked at our founding ethos and interrogated how the urban storefront—even in its most humble form—can enable carescapes, provide refuge and a sense of belonging by maintaining an intimate social character embedded in its local context. In a city of skyscrapers, where expansion happens vertically, the ground floor tends to be overlooked. Storefront, however, has always maintained a unique relationship with the sidewalk. Our iconic facade, with its twelve rotating panels that open the gallery to the street, creates a permeable threshold between public and private realms. This relationship with the ground floor was also a motivating force behind On the Ground, allowing us to showcase diverse artistic explorations and