Twentyfour years ago, the idea for WhiteBox as the original alternative art space in Manhattan’s nascent Chelsea neighborhood arose among a tightly knit local group of international emigre artists, architects, and intellectuals armed with a radical and refined pluralistic and aesthetic sensibility based on social justice, egalitarianism and inclusivity into the social fabric of New York City. It was their response to the New York-centric art scene’s lack of emphasis on social, political and international art engagement. During its first decade in Chelsea, WBX functioned as an artist-run alternative non-profit art space serving the nascent local art community as a platform for engagement with contemporary artist peers from around the World. As such, it developed a stream of potent site-specific work and survey exhibitions, and became a thriving laboratory for unique commissions, exhibitions, special events, salon series, and arts education programs shared with a large, isolated minority citizenry living in the giant Elliott Public Houses and surrounding West Chelsea working class inlets. Fourteen years ago, having relocated to the then backwater but soon to be vibrant arts community on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, WBX continued its pioneering role combining local community initiatives with global engagement, becoming, just as it did in Chelsea, a vibrant and vital locus for cultural engagement. Twenty years later, in its third decade, WhiteBoxHarlem extended WBX cultural services to East Harlem, embracing an underserved, vibrant Latino/Hispanic and Afro-Caribbean alongside a dynamic multifarious immigrant community, offering a panoply of free, diverse, and accessible programs. On its 24th year, WhiteBox relocated to the intriguing, culturally and artistically underserved Alphabet City area of the East Village to continue its trademark mission by adding programs emphasizing youth education in the arts, urban sustainability and emigrè and ex-pat feminist progressive curatorial programs continuing to embrace and strengthen ties with this highly stimulating local citizenry.