The Buffalo Institute for Contemporary Art (BICA)

The Buffalo Institute for Contemporary Art was founded in 2018 by curator Emily Ebba Reynolds and artist and Buffalo native Nando Alvarez-Perez. Our mission is to sustain communities through focused, practical engagements with contemporary art.

Since 2018 BICA has grown from a project space in a two-car mechanic’s garage to being an integral institution in the fabric of Buffalo’s cultural scene. We serve an audience that has been generationally overlooked in our city: artists and creative professionals, younger artists, artists and creatives of color, and LGBTQAI+ artists.

We are situated on Buffalo’s West Side in the historic Essex Street Arts Center, long a home to Buffalo’s most radical artist-led initiatives like Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center and CEPA Gallery.