Suzanne Fiol, an impresario of avant-garde culture in New York, who founded the performance space Issue Project Room and served as its artistic rudder, died on Monday in Manhattan. She was 49 and lived in Brooklyn.

“It is with great sadness that we learned of the passing of Suzanne Fiol, the heart and soul and extraordinary visionary behind Issue Project Room, a symbol of the forward-thinking culture that makes Brooklyn the Creative Capital of New York City, and contributes so much to our city’s intellectual life. I was thrilled to help in a small way to move Suzanne’s vision of an innovative arts space at 110 Livingston Street —what she imagined as a ‘Carnegie Hall for the avant-garde’—closer to reality, and I hope that comforted her during the later stages of her illness. I am confident the dedicated staff at Issue Project Room and all Brooklynites will see to it that her great work lives on. I join all New Yorkers in mourning this tremendous loss, and our thoughts and prayers are with Suzanne’s family, friends and colleagues during this difficult time.”