5-19, founded by Eliza Spear, is a production company devoted to rebuilding connection in an oversaturated digital culture.

We create tangible art and live experiences that restore what the algorithm has eroded: presence, depth, and human contact.

THE PROTAGONIST FESTIVALS

A monthly, cross-medium, surprise pop-up show inviting New Yorkers to reconnect with their curiosity through the city’s most exciting emerging artists. These immersive, communal celebrations blended performance and curation to reimagine how art can bring people together.

Over seven mini-festivals across seven months, we showcased more than 50 of the city’s best comics, poets, songwriters, crafters, actors, and musicians, each one adding to a living, evolving portrait of New York creativity.

THE PROTAGONIST PROJECTS

Aiming to showcase the importance of small music venues across NYC, 5-19 produced a series of one-on-one concerts: private, three-minute performances where artists played to a single guest at a time. The project highlighted the irreplaceable intimacy of in-person art and the sense of discovery waiting behind venue walls, accessible the moment we choose to be curious.

THE PROTAGONIST DOOR

A free-standing, traveling door that appeared on various Brooklyn street corners, inviting passersby to step through it on their everyday commutes. Featuring rotating lyrics from the album Protagonist, the Protagonist Door served as an offline promotional piece. A gentle disruption that encouraged people to step into being the protagonist of their own lives.