Welcome to The POWERHOUSE ARENA—a laboratory for creative thought. Home to world-renowned art book publisher POWERHOUSE BOOKS, the Arena is a gallery, boutique, book store, performance, and events space. The POWERHOUSE ARENA showcases a series of landmark exhibitions, performances, and controlled mayhem fusing the worlds of art, photography, design, fashion, pop culture, advertising, music, dance, film, and television into a glorious whirlwind of captivating spectacle.

THE POWERHOUSE ARENA

In fall 2006, world-renowned and critically acclaimed publisher powerHouse Books launched The POWERHOUSE ARENA, a laboratory for creative thought and premier venue for exhibitions, installations, presentations, displays, viewings, performances and readings. Located at 28 Adams Street in DUMBO, Brooklyn, The POWERHOUSE ARENA is an exhibition space, boutique bookstore and event space. A singular and utterly unique space, the Arena’s versatility is unmatched by any other in New York City, with floor views of the East River waterfront set against the breathtaking backdrop of the Brooklyn Bridge, Empire-Fulton Ferry Warehouse, and the stately Manhattan Bridge.

Since its inception, The POWERHOUSE ARENA has hosted a series of landmark exhibitions and events, including the St. Ann’s Warehouse after party for the world premiere performance of Lou Reed’s Berlin; The Creators Project; VICE Magazine & Intel’s festival fusing the worlds of art and technology, VH1’s Hip Hop Honors Week; The New Yorker Speakeasy; PEN World Voices; the National Book Foundation’s “5 Under 35” event; the NYC location for the Paul Frank Academy of Awesome US Tour and the product launch for Absolut’s Absolut Brooklyn, an infused vodka collaboration with Spike Lee. Past events have also been held for MTV/Viacom, Columbia University, Pratt Institute, and the Brooklyn Film Festival among many others.

LITERARY EVENTS AND GALLERY EXHIBITIONS

In the past years, The POWERHOUSE ARENA has established itself as one of New York City’s premier spaces for literary events, and has held luminous and entertaining book launch parties, readings and signings, and ticketed conversations for a host of contemporary literature’s most influential voices. Salman Rushdie, Paul Auster, Siri Hustvedt, Gary Shteyngart, David Sedaris, Mary Gaitskill, Jonathan Lethem, Joyce Carol Oates, Nelson George, Edmund White, Colum McCann, Jennifer Egan, T.C. Boyle, Jonathan Franzen, Julia Glass, Nassim Taleb, Pete Hamill, and Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Tracy K. Smith are just a few of the many prominent writers who have read at The POWERHOUSE ARENA.  Luminaries of the art, photography and graphic design world have included Bruce Davidson, Milton Glaser, Platon, Ron Galella, Simon Doonan, Humans of New York’s Brandon Stanton, Spike Lee, Jessica Lange, and Moby. Other notables include Al Gore, Glenn Greenwald, Matt Taibbi, Anthony Bourdain, Carrie Brownstein, David Cross & Bob Odenkirk.

The POWERHOUSE ARENA has also become an integral part of Brooklyn’s food culture, playing host to cookbook launches for culinary visionaries such as Fatty Crab’s Zakary Pelaccio (a 400-guest food event featuring a live band and an entire roast pig), Andy Ricker‘s Pok Pok cookbook, and food memoir launches for Prune’s Gabrielle Hamilton and Red Rooster’s Marcus Samuelsson.

Our kids’ events cater to the many families throughout the borough and beyond. We’ve hosted beloved children’s book authors such as Mo Willems, Peter Brown and Lemony Snicket for Sunday afternoon readings, and we also run a weekly story time for neighborhood children led by ARENA staff.

Besides its literary programming, the Arena has been the site of an eclectic mix of gallery exhibitions and installations. Since their inauguration, the Arena’s main gallery walls have supported such notable shows as: Nike’s RE-RUN launch; Boost Mobile’s All Writes Reserved exhibit; a legal defense fundraiser for graffiti artist Alan Ket; and, the New York Photo Festival’s Capture Brooklyn and HumanKind juried photo invitationals, to name a few.

THE ARENA STORE

In addition to its success as an event and exhibition space, The POWERHOUSE ARENA is also one of Brooklyn’s most eclectic book boutiques, carrying a curated selection of design and photography books. The POWERHOUSE ARENA also offers a discriminating selection of the finest non-fiction, lifestyle, illustrated, and New York-themed books, as well as handmade, one-of-a-kind stationery, design gifts, and locally designed jewelry and apparel. Renowned for its unparalleled collection of outstanding hard-to-find children’s books, art, and game kits, The POWERHOUSE ARENA is widely considered to have NYC’s best children’s book corner.