Ardea Arts
Visual voice for a basketball opera on gun violence
When Ardea Arts came to Kitchen to shape the identity of BOUNCE, a basketball opera confronting gun violence in New York City, the brief was unlike any other. Rooted in real community challenges, the project needed a voice that could reach those most affected. Not through awareness campaigns. Through basketball, music and drama.
In New York City, shootings nearly doubled in 2020, reaching a 14-year high. The Bronx's 46th Precinct became the city's deadliest in 2024. Traditional outreach rarely connects. BOUNCE takes a different approach, speaking the community's own language through sport, music and drama.
BOUNCE asks a simple question. How do you rise after the fall? Inspired by The Flight of Icarus, it follows Flight’s descent, shaped by betrayal, told through Greek drama, Shakespeare, and hip-hop.
The identity comes from the game. Not around it. Not inspired by it. From within it. A ball. Not decoration. Motion. Direction. Possibility. And sometimes, no return. Sometimes it doesn’t bounce back. Black. Bold. Raw typography. Lines like a court. Space that holds tension. Nothing added. Nothing softened. Everything necessary.
Not an opera on a court. An opera that is basketball. Minimal. Raw. Unshakable.
Grethe Holby, founder of Ardea Arts, has worked across disciplines at the highest level. Performing with Philip Glass and Robert Wilson in Einstein on the Beach, choreographing for Leonard Bernstein, collaborating with Lou Reed, directing grand opera. She is the partner of renowned photographer Arthur Elgort. For BOUNCE, original music is composed by her son, Ansel, extending the project's cultural reach across generations.
Grethe Holby, founder of Ardea Arts, has worked across disciplines at the highest level. Performing with Philip Glass and Robert Wilson in Einstein on the Beach, choreographing for Leonard Bernstein, collaborating with Lou Reed, directing grand opera. She is the partner of renowned photographer Arthur Elgort. For BOUNCE, original music is composed by her son, Ansel, extending the project's cultural reach across generations.
Kitchen understood immediately that this project needed a voice, not a logo. BOUNCE required a studio that could carry the weight of the subject without softening it. Kitchen did that with precision.
Grethe Holby
Executive and Artistic Director, Ardea Arts
