Overview of AS-AP
Art Spaces Archives Project [AS-AP] is a non-profit initiative founded by a consortium of alternative art organizations, including Bomb Magazine, College Art Association, Franklin Furnace Archive, New York State Council on the Arts [NYSCA], New York State Artist Workspace Consortium, and The Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, with a mandate to help preserve, present, and protect the archival heritage of living and defunct for- and not-for-profit spaces of the “alternative” or “avant-garde” movement of the 1950s to the present throughout the United States.
With funding provided by NYSCA, The National Endowment for the Arts, and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, AS-AP has a mandate to begin the documenting process by constructing a national index of the producers of avant-garde art.
In the summer of 2007, AS-AP announced a new partnership with The Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College (CCS Bard), an exhibition and research center dedicated to the study of art and exhibition practices from the 1960s to the present day. Bard College Press Release
AS-AP’s belief is beyond simply identifying the whereabouts of centers of activity. We acknowledge that there is an underlying need to assess, catalogue, and preserve important formative materials for study by historians with a critical distance from the creation of the material itself. As AS-AP’s National Index of the Avant-Garde becomes comprehensive, we will assess the needs for archiving and preservation across the field. The long-term goal is to establish universal standards for archiving and aiding organizations as they carry out archival projects.
National Index of the Avant-Garde
AS-AP’s National Index of the Avant-Garde already includes over 1,000 galleries, publications, artists’ groups and collectives, non-profit organizations, as well as nightspots and it is growing daily. These centers represent a broad spectrum of activity and were identified with the help of the Franklin Furnace Archive of the Avant-Garde, the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council for the Arts, the National Association of Artists’ Organizations, and through ongoing independent research by AS-AP.
If you are or were part of an avant-garde center, gallery, non-profit organization, publication, artist group, or another artistic initiative that operated according to an avant-garde mission or practice, then we are interested in hearing from you. Please take a few minutes to register with AS-AP’s National Index of the Avant-Garde Click here to register!
Surveying the Field
In August 2005, AS-AP launched a detailed Survey seeking extensive information regarding the archives of Alternative, or Avant-Garde, organizations. Specifically the physical state of individual archives, types of documents held, their state of preservation, the existence of finding aids, and condition of access for scholars. Survey respondents will receive a modest stipend for their participation.
A PDF copy of the survey can be downloaded here
An RTF copy of the survey can be downloaded here
Of course, simply generating surveys will not save archives; with proper funding, AS-AP plans to provide additional fiscal and professional assistance to Survey respondents in developing archiving strategies. Meanwhile, AS-AP will make its data public, allowing scholars to begin to gain insight into the alternative and avant-garde structure, spaces, artists’ groups, and organizations nationwide.
Additional Information
In Julie Ault’s groundbreaking volume Alternative Art New York, 1965–1985 (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, in association with the Drawing Center, 2002) Ault makes a persuasive argument that New York alternative spaces and artists’ groups and organizations continue to influence the contemporary international art world. The cross-pollination of artistic venues during this time exemplifies how communities overlap, thrive, and otherwise extend themselves in multitudes of directions—be it through artists’ books and periodicals, in performance spaces, within gallery-like venues, or in public spaces as small as alleyways and as expansive as Times Square.
But how do later art historians research the avant-garde of not only New York but also the nation, especially when these spaces were busy promoting new art rather than commodifying or institutionalizing artistic practice or even documenting their own activities? The history of the American avant-garde is largely unwritten, unaccounted for, or undervalued, though it is generally accepted to have transformed contemporary artistic practices. Few catalogues were produced for programming, rare reviews appeared in newspapers or periodicals, and perhaps a postcard, handbill, or other ephemeral materials document the moment of artistic production. Often, only a few individual artworks can speak to the time, space, and energy of avant-garde activity and it is the record of these works that marks its realization, relevance, and understanding.
Avant-garde and alternative art was and is still produced through disparate communities in venues that are often unnoticed by contemporary art discourse. Many producers and centers of this activity have only the most cursory grasp of their own histories and perhaps do not recognize their file cabinets, banker boxes, or waste bins as valuable repositories—historically and monetarily. A comprehensive investigation of the archives of the producers and communities that formed the foundation of avant-garde culture across the United States is the first step in uncovering this lost history and contemporary avant-garde practices.
CONTACT INFORMATION
Art Spaces Archives Project [AS-AP]
Center for Curatorial Studies,
Bard College
Annandale-on-Hudson, NY 12504
Tatjana M. von Prittwitz, Project Director
845-758-7587
gaffron@bard.edu
Steering Committee
Michael Fahlund, College Art Association
Linda Earle,
Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture
Milan R. Hughston,
The Museum of Modern Art
Elizabeth Merena,
New York State Council on the Arts
Andrew Perchuk,
Getty Research Institute
David Platzker,
Specific Object
Betsy Sussler,
Bomb Magazine
Marvin Taylor,
New York University, Fales Library, Downtown Collection
Martha Wilson,
Franklin Furnace Archive
Maria Lind,
CCS Bard Graduate Program
FUNDING CREDITS
Art Spaces Archives Project [AS-AP] has received generous support from The New York State Council on the Arts [NYSCA], The National Endowment for the Arts [NEA], and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. AS-AP also gratefully acknowledges operating assistance from the College Art Association.
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