Socrates Sculpture Park Inc

What it reported doing in 2024

Exhibitionssocrates sculpture park is committed to serving artists - from early-career to international renown - by providing an open platform for public art and encouraging unfettered ambition in scale and subject matter. Most artworks exhibited at socrates are built on-site in the outdoor artist studio space. This gives park visitors the unique opportunity to witness the often labor-intensive art-making process. The park also remains open to the public during exhibition installation and de-installation. The socrates annual 2024our programming expanded with a larger and more ambitious version of our longstanding artist fellowship and exhibition program, the socrates annual, which guided two cohorts of early career artists (one in the spring and one in the summer/fall) to complete installations first with a specific focus on horticultural intervention, and later with a cohort creating largescale sculptural works. With this new approach, each cohort received more individualized attention from our curator and artists were able to work within a season that most matched their projects (horticulture projects in the spring during planting season, and sculpture in the summer and fall). Visitors to the park were also able to experience the fellows' works year-round, amplifying their access to public art and increasing opportunities for engagement.each artist fellow was awarded a $8,000 production grant, $2,000 honorarium, and three months of seven-days-a-week access to the resources and fabrication facilities of the park's outdoor artist studio to realize their proposed project. The 2024 artist fellows were selected from over 250 applicants by a selection committee that included eric booker, associate curator at storm king art center; carlos jimnez cahua, socrates fellow, 2018; patrick costello, socrates fellow, 2020; and brendan parker, senior farm manager at red hook farms, along with socrates sculpture park staff members kaitlin garcia-maestas, curator & director of exhibitions; ewart louie jordan, grounds manager; eric mathews, former director of grounds & horticulture; terrence mccutchen, grounds manager; marisa prefer, former senior director of park operations. In total, nine artist fellows participated in the socrates annual 2024. In june, socrates unveiled four projects by kimberly chou tsun an, landon newton, mamoun nukumanu, and vick quezada. This new ecology-focused cohort of artists harnessed the peak spring and summer growing seasons to create "living" installations that engaged with the park's past, present, and future inhabitants within its former industrial wetland landscape. Incorporating and collaborating with dozens of native and introduced plant species, these ecological interventions have flourished throughout the summer and have continued to evolve with the changing seasons. Throughout the summer, artists jill cohen-nuez, utsa hazarika, juan manuel-pinzon, petra szilagyi, and nala c. Turner fabricated site-specific sculptures in the park's open-air studio. Utilizing a wide range of materials-mud, clamshells, metal, clay, stone, and found wood-these five projects delved into notions of diaspora, displacement, containment and assimilation, linking human adaptability with that of other living species. On september 14, 2024, the works of both cohorts were officially opened to the public with an opening celebration that included activations and performances initiated by artist fellows.suchitra mattai: we are nomads, we are dreamersthis solo exhibition of newly commissioned works by suchitra mattai opened to the public at the park on may 11, 2024 and was on view through august 25, 2024. These works celebrated the migratory oceanic journeys of diasporic communities and were inspired by the park's position along the east river, which flows into the vast expanse of the atlantic ocean. At the center of the park, six futuristic pods, reminiscent of continental forms, emerged from the landscape, reflecting the dynamic interp

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
• Program expense ratio: 71.8%; rating input score 72
• Fundraising efficiency: $4.05 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 13; 13th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

• Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
• Pay-setting controls: 2 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 33
  • Compensation committee: Missing
  • Independent consultant: Missing
  • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
  • Written employment contract: Pass
  • Compensation survey or study: Missing
  • Board or committee approval: Pass
• Foreign activity oversight: Limited
• Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 76th percentile among comparable filings
• Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
• Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

• Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
• Governance controls: 8 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 100
  • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
  • Whistleblower policy: Pass
  • Document-retention policy: Pass
  • CEO compensation review process: Pass
  • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
  • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
  • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
  • Audit committee oversight: Pass
  • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

• Operating margin: -70.8%; rating input score 2; 2nd percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.66; rating input score 30; 30th percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.07; rating input score 48; 48th percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 8.6%; rating input score 41; 41st percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: 8.5% per year; rating input score 100; 58th percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: 0.1% per year; rating input score 100; 15th percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: 2.5% per year; rating input score 100; 27th percentile among comparable filings