The Kitchen's mission is to identify, support, and present artists whose art influences its medium and contemporary culture. It promotes the growth of artists, audiences, and the presenting field by pushing the accepted boundaries and definitions of contemporary culture, using artistic exploration and education as tools and its own extensive history as a resource. A multi-disciplinary presenting organization that provides visionary artists in all stages of their careers with much needed technical, artistic, and administrative resources for performances and exhibitions, The Kitchen has helped to launch the careers of many artists who define the American avant-garde.

The Kitchen literally began in a kitchen. On July 5, 1971, in the unused kitchen of the Mercer Arts Center, housed in the Broadway Central Hotel in Greenwich Village, two video makers and performers invited friends to see the results of a collaborative project.

Within this atmosphere of adversity and excitement, The Kitchen grew. It grew along with the new art form it presented and gradually embraced music as part of its presentations. In 1974, it incorporated as the not-for-profit Haleakala, Inc. and moved to 59 Wooster Street in SoHo, rapidly establishing itself as the center of the downtown art world.

For the ten year period that followed, The Kitchen became a sort of hotbed of artistic activity. By this point in time, The Kitchen was also presenting performance and dance as part of its season, as well as film. Within the confines of a beautiful, columned, gallery-style loft space, this new Kitchen presented work that was both daring, non-traditional, and cutting edge. Artists would often informally gather at The Kitchen. They talked, questioned, and argued. Ideas happened. Artistic forms would merge and tradition would frequently be broken. Inevitably, through such passionate and ambitious work, many Kitchen artists broke through and achieved national prominence. Over the years, The Kitchen helped foster the careers of many innovative artists. People as diverse as Philip Glass, Laurie Anderson, Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane, Eric Bogosian, David Byrne with The Talking Heads, Robert Longo, Peter Greenaway, Dana Reitz, Meredith Monk, Brian Eno, John Lurie, Elizabeth Streb, Robert Mapplethorpe, Cindy Sherman, Vernon Reid, Jenny Holzer, and others. It soon became apparent that with more presentations of work, wider audience interest in The Kitchen, and heavy critical attention, The Kitchen needed to expand its physical space.

And so, in 1985, The Kitchen came of age. Through the hard work of many people, great generosity and drive, The Kitchen moved into its new and permanent home at 512 West 19th Street. The 16,500 square foot building, an old ice house built in the late 1880's, housing two of the largest black box theaters in the country. Also made possible as a result of the building's spaciousness are a Media Services department and a large administrative space which itself often serves as the backdrop for The Kitchen's role as artistic meeting place.