
Established in 2022, The Box Party is a non-hierarchical collective of multidisciplinary artists. Our work is imbued with the substance of our questions, our rebellions, our resistance, our anxieties – it’s always by our own rules. We consider inequalities through collaboration, trust, and respect.​
The Box Party is: Sara Alonge, Juliana Haliti, Star Herrera, Jeanna Mead and Dani Ruf.





For our Panty Riot installation, we wanted to highlight the history of the Storefront Gallery and its business roots in laundry. The word laundry itself, is such a loaded word, with its own, rather gendered, history and connotations. We chose to focus on the most intimate form of laundry as a way of confronting shameful stereotypes associated with the garments we choose to put on our bodies. The name of both show and installation comes from the antiquated fad of “panty raids” in which men trespassed upon females to steal their underthings, clearly a pseudo sexual conquest. In this work, however, we riot for those who have been raided. We fly our panties, painted with our Box Party sigil, as a way of expressing pride in who we are, celebrating all gender identities and sexualities, and also to signal that this is a safe space; you are welcome, no matter what lies beneath the exterior you choose to show to the world.




The Storefront Gallery, Troy, NY




Cleanse//Cleanse was a temporary, site specific, immersive installation which was held at the Wallace Gallery at The Arts Center of the Capital Region from 10/26/2023-10/28/2023.
Considering the pressures and consumerism of 'self care', our exaggerations of DIY and punk style posters plastered the space, floor to ceiling, while our witch bullets and binding string encapsulated the viewer from opposing walls.









Witch bullet, my bullet, made of hair,
please let my soul beware.
Self-care is now a burden to uphold,
“Do I have all the tools to stop growing old?”
These brands — they wish to compare our unease,
So, we wish for new faces — they hold the key.
Detox, Cleanse, Pluck, Shave, Wax,
To confidence they take an axe.
“Go ahead, compare yourself, you hag —
This model is a size zero, look at her tag!”
Dark circles: my products circle the drain,
“She’s let herself go, she’s insane.”
Our bullets aren’t meant to cause any harm,
Unless you’re a corporate entity — sound the alarm.
The gap in my teeth gives my smile appeal,
And I like the way my bare skin feels,
As I “take off my face” at the end of the day,
To reveal what we’ve been conditioned to hate.
I will NOT let their marketing leave me upset.
So, with this black string, I bind my intent.
Witch bullet, my bullet, keep me whole —
Cleanse this Cleansing from my soul.



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ANATOMY // ATLAS, 2025, mixed media installation, 12’ x 16’
Often, just the idea of your favorite restaurant can get your stomach grumbling; passing the site of a great concert can sink that proverbial worm deep into your ear; walking around the campus of your alma mater reminds you of that sponge-like feeling your brain once had there, absorbing facts and figures and theories. Specific places seem to leave ghosts of themselves upon our skin, memories sinking into flesh, ideas caught in our organs, rattling around, reminding us of where we’ve been. Latitude vs longitude juxtaposed alongside burns, surgical stigmata, heartache and grief, memory-induced laugh lines, and nights inhaled to bleary-eyed mornings unslept. Marks unseen and unsung to streaks of scar tissue lead to our depictions of different lives lived within the city limits, creating an amalgamation of ourselves. The places we inhabit, the places we avoid, the cracked window pane on that one house on that one street that somehow becomes our family. These moments, this rolodex of sensory experiences, becomes a language. Traces left on the body – either intangible or literal wounds – morph into a recollection of events to form our own shared body map. Fragments act as relics, preserving moments of vulnerability, loss, and transformation. They are not meant to form a complete body, but rather to emphasize what it means to carry stories in pieces. By dislocating the body from its usual form and recontextualizing it as a fragmented cartography, the piece invites viewers to consider how we navigate the world, not just through physical space, but through feeling and memory.

Points of Interest
Each piece of anatomy has been hung so that it corresponds to its position on a map of Albany, adorned in a manner that reflects the mood of its specific place and time.
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This is Your Brain on Grad School
Resin, Paper, Transparency

Helping Hands
Plaster, pill bottle, acrylic paint, nail polish



Birthday Piercings
Airdry clay and wax

White Knucks
Plaster, acrylic paint, spray paint (clear coat), and cigarette



Buzzing
Plaster, acrylic paint

Bodega
Airdry clay and aluminum can




Can’t Hear Myself
Plaster, acrylic paint, microphone, XLR cable


Late Nights
Plaster, wax, acrylic paint

Bogies
Plaster and airdry clay



Lights in the Park
Resin and miniature string lights


Community
Plaster, paper, acrylic paint


Ship in a Bottle
(Medieval Experiments)
Clay, Aluminum foil, string, glue, tenaculum, acrylic paint

Lactricity Enters In-Faux-Structure
(First Exhibition)
Resin, transparency



Loss/Lost
Plaster, acrylic pain

up for hours.
Clay, acrylic paint, ink



See Me
Resin, foil, acrylic paint

Death in the Disco
Plaster, silver leaf, ink



Light the Park, Light my Heart
Resin, mini lights

Bombers for the Win
Plaster, lettuce, tomato, black beans, tortilla, resin, acrylic paint



The Box Party Project is a series of public artworks exhibited around the Capital District. Our installations are interactive machines which engage the audience through miniature sculptures, digital illustrations, paintings, poetry, prose, and various other objects. These art vending machines are designed to support small local businesses and artists, while bringing art to the community and donating the profits to worthy charities.

If you are interested in hosting one of our machines, please email theboxpartycollective@gmail.com

The Sticker Machine is the first of a series of art vending machines installed through the Capital District. It features sticker designs created by the collective members that consider gender inequalities in the medical field.
All profits will go to Upper Hudson Planned Parenthood.
The Sticker Machine launched in Summer 2023 at Upstate Art Weekend in Kingston, NY at the FLOCKart by Collar Works mobile gallery. It then moved to No Fun in Troy, NY where it lived for one month following the machine's official launch party in August. From there, the machine moved to Opalka Gallery in Albany, NY for the month of September for their annual Beer Garden. The machine continues to travel around the Capital Region.
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The Box-O-Art Vending Machine is a collaborative public art project featuring the work of 11 commissioned artists of the Capital District, and 5 members of The Box Party. The machine features over 200 artworks in a variety of media, such as sculpture, jewelry, digital illustrations, prints, photography, pins, stickers, and more. The refurbished cigarette machine is arranged blind box style – meaning, you do not know what you are going to receive (or which artist’s wares) until you open your box. Each cigarette-style box has been hand-made by the collective, paying homage to the original function of the machine.
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The Box-O-Art Vending Machine launched on Monday, 9/25/23 at the Women's Institute at Russell Sage College, followed by a stop at Collar Works in Troy, and will continue its journey around the Capital District.
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The Box Party thanks the following artists for their collaboration and contributions to this machine that made this possible: Alison Bachorik, Lily Wai Brennan, Aurora Crawford, Olivia Deep, Gigi Grace, Adrianna Oropello, Grace Rawden, Julia Sheber, Rich Soto, Camryn Walsh, and Jackie Zysk.








Our Pill Machine questions the societal trend of having a pill for everything. We poke fun at the efficacy of the daily affirmation, offering our own witty, whacky, audacious alternatives. With a punky, tongue-in-cheek aesthetic, we suggest that some prescriptions are not all they seem. And at 25 cents a handful, Big Pharma ain't got nothin' on us.





