The Walk Exchange supports creative walking practices in New York City and beyond. We organize and facilitate free, public walks, designed by artists, activists and academics, that provide different ways of looking at the world around us. Our focus is on creating opportunities to walk together, both in person and through long-distance exchanges. Partners include the United Kingdom based Walking Artists Network and LivingMaps.
History
The Walk Exchange was originally founded in 2011 by Dillon de Give, Bess Matassa, Vige Millington, Blake Morris and Moira Williams and was active until 2016. Since its foundation the Exchange has crafted walks in New York City and abroad, including 6 versions of the Walk Study Training Course and with partners such as Deriva Mussol in Barcelona and New York City’s Dorsky Gallery Curatorial Programs.
You can read more about the history of the group in Blake’s book, Walking Networks: The Development of an Artistic Medium, or in C Magazine’s, “The Walk Exchange: Pedagogy and Pedestrianism, An Interview with Moira Williams”.
People
Blake Morris – Director and co-founder of the Walk Exchange
Blake is an artist and scholar based in New York City. Holding a PhD from the University of East London (home to the Walking Artists Network), his practice and research focus on creative walking practices. His first book, Walking Networks: The Development of an Artistic Medium, defined walking as an artistic practice, with a particular focus on its development in the United Kingdom. You can find his other writings published in a various places, including Green Letters, Global Performance Studies and the Irish Journal of Sociology. He has also published a practice-based guide to the works of Antonin Artaud. Blake is an editor for the critical cartography journal LivingMaps and a member of the Livingmaps Network advisory board and grand jury member for WalkListenCreate’s Marŝarto Awards.
Find out more about his work at thisisnotaslog.com.