Touchstones is the second curatorial initiative developed within the WhiteBox Staff & Internship Involvement Program (SIP), following Have a Good One! and continuing its emphasis on mentorship, collaborative methodology, and site-responsive practice.
Curated by Kaylie Pykkonen and Tabitha Haugen, and mentored by Yohanna M. Roa, the project extends the WhiteBox Portable framework into the lived fabric of the East Village. Moving beyond the internal dynamics of exhibition-making, Touchstones engages the neighborhood as a shifting, relational system shaped by memory, repetition, encounter, and time.
Grounded in everyday urban experience, the project considers how belonging is constructed through gestures, routes, and shared spaces, while also acknowledging the pressures of displacement, economic transformation, and the contested nature of public space in New York City.
Through a distributed format across civic, commercial, and public sites—including the park, library, and subway—Touchstones situates curatorial practice within the rhythms of the city itself, foregrounding the individuals and infrastructures that sustain collective life.