Angelina Jolie has created Atelier Jolie, a new cultural center in New York City. The actress has transformed a historic Manhattan building into an arts and cultural center, bringing together artists, intellectuals and creative people from around the world. The two-story building at 57 Great Jones in NoHo once owned by Andy Warhol and inhabited by Jean-Michel Basquiat, is now a space open to artistic experimentation and social inclusion. Jolie said she wanted to create a community of engaged artists and made the space accessible for free to anyone who wants to participate.
The actress, director and former special envoy for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) from 2012 to 2022, bought the building last summer in July and after a lengthy renovation lasting several months, which also involved restoring graffiti on the exterior of the structure, she opened her atelier in December. The space dedicated to art in the broadest sense also includes a fashion workshop based on contemporary concepts such as reuse, circularity and eco-sustainability, also in line with the principles of accessibility on which the cultural center’s philosophy is based. For this reason, waste fabrics and vintage materials are used within the workshop for new creations. In particular, the center’s activities aim to enhance the talents of refugees. In this sense, Angelina’s approach came about when she resigned from her position with the UN in December: in fact, the actress explained that it was time to “work differently, engaging directly with refugees and local organizations.”
Atelier Jolie also houses a café inside whose management philosophy fully reflects the actress’ humanitarian commitment. This is run in partnership with EatOffBeat, a catering company with an outpost at Chelsea Market that hires talented refugees and immigrant chefs who offer dishes of their traditional cuisine.
