P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center
Encyclopedia
MoMA PS1 is one of the largest and oldest institutions in the United States dedicated solely to contemporary art
Contemporary art
Contemporary art can be defined variously as art produced at this present point in time or art produced since World War II. The definition of the word contemporary would support the first view, but museums of contemporary art commonly define their collections as consisting of art produced...

. It is located in the Long Island City neighborhood of New York City. In addition to its renowned exhibitions, the institution also organizes the prestigious International and National Projects series, the Warm Up summer music series, and the MoMA PS1 Young Architects Program with The Museum of Modern Art. It also ran WPS1, an Internet art radio station founded in 2004. MoMA PS1 has been affiliated with The Museum of Modern Art since January 2000.

History

P.S.1 (now MoMA PS1) was founded in 1971 by Alanna Heiss
Alanna Heiss
Alanna Heiss is the Director of AIR, Art International Radio, an Internet-based art radio station operating out of the Clocktower Gallery in Lower Manhattan, New York. She founded and was the Director of P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center from 1976–2008 and is one of the originators of the alternative...

 as the Institute for Art and Urban Resources Inc., an organization with the mission of turning abandoned, underutilized buildings in New York City into artist studios and exhibition spaces. Heiss, the center's former director, was born in 1943 in Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...

, and raised in a farming community in southern Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

. The daughter of teachers, she graduated with a B.A. from Lawrence University
Lawrence University
Lawrence University is a selective, private liberal arts college with a nationally recognized conservatory of music, in Appleton, Wisconsin. Lawrence University is known for its rigorous academic environment. Founded in 1847, the first classes were held on November 12, 1849...

 in Appleton
Appleton
-People:* Alistair Appleton, British television presenter* Charles W. Appleton, of GE* Colin Appleton, footballer* Daniel Appleton, American publisher, 1800s founder of D...

, Wisconsin
Wisconsin
Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...

, which she attended on a scholarship from the Lawrence Conservatory of Music.

Recognizing that New York was the worldwide magnet for contemporary artists, and believing that traditional museums were not providing adequate exhibition opportunities for site-specific art, Heiss decided to establish a formal, alternative arts organization. She was working as a contemporary art organizer with various civic organizations when she formed what became a long-term friendship and working relationship with architecture/theater critic Brendan Gill
Brendan Gill
Brendan Gill wrote for The New Yorker for more than 60 years. He also contributed film criticism for Film Comment and wrote a popular book about his time at the New Yorker magazine.-Biography:...

. In 1971, she and Gill founded The Institute for Art and Urban Resources, and began renovating many old abandoned buildings in New York City. Among the sites transformed by the Institute were 10 Bleecker Street, the Coney Island
Coney Island
Coney Island is a peninsula and beach on the Atlantic Ocean in southern Brooklyn, New York, United States. The site was formerly an outer barrier island, but became partially connected to the mainland by landfill....

 Sculpture Museum, and the Idea Warehouse in TriBeCa
TriBeCa
Tribeca is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York in the United States. Its name is an acronym based on the words "Triangle below Canal Street", and is properly bounded by Canal Street, West Street, Broadway, and Vesey Street...

. Later in 1973, the Clocktower Gallery, located in a municipal building in Lower Manhattan, opened with its inaugural three shows: Joel Shapiro
Joel Shapiro
Joel Shapiro is an American sculptor renowned for his dynamic work composed of simple rectangular shapes. Shapiro is represented by The Pace Gallery in New York. He lives and works in New York City, with a summer house on the shore of Lake Champlain, in Westport, New York...

, Richard Tuttle
Richard Tuttle
Richard Dean Tuttle is an American postminimalist artist known for his small, subtle, intimate works. His art makes use of scale and line.- Biography :...

, and James Bishop (artist). The Clocktower Gallery became a well-known alternative space and its distinctive location "in the sky near" City Hall made it an icon of one-person shows.

In 1976, Heiss exponentially increased the organization's exhibition and studio capacity by opening the art center in a deserted Romanesque Revival public school building. This building served as the first school in Long Island City until 1960, when the school was shuttered due to low attendance. In October 1997, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center reopened to the public after a three-year renovation project designed by Los Angeles-based architect Frederick Fisher. The building's facilities were expanded to include a large outdoor gallery, a dramatic entryway, and a two-story project space.

In 2000, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center became an affiliate of The Museum of Modern Art.

In 2008, Heiss left MoMA PS1 and founded Art International Radio
Art International Radio
AIR, Art International Radio is an online, non-profit cultural Internet radio station at ARTonAIR.org that is also home to the Clocktower Gallery...

, which is unaffiliated with MoMA PS1 but houses programs that originally aired on the now-defunct WPS1. AIR produces its own arts-oriented material.

Affiliation with the Museum of Modern Art

MoMA PS1 and the Museum of Modern Art
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...

 formalized their affiliation in January 2000, bringing together a leader in cutting-edge art and the world's foremost museum of modern art. The principal objective of MoMA's partnership with MoMA PS1 is to promote the enjoyment, appreciation, study, and understanding of contemporary art to a wide and growing audience. Collaborative programs of exhibitions, educational activities, and special projects allow both institutions to draw on their respective strengths and resources and to continue shaping a cultural discourse. The first significant collaboration between MoMA PS1 and The Museum of Modern Art took place in 2000 with Greater New York, a widely acclaimed exhibition showcasing the work of more than 140 emerging New York-area artists. This ambitious effort was successfully repeated five years later with Greater New York 2005. Both shows demonstrated the diversity and dynamism of the metropolitan area's artistic community.

Artist and exhibition programs

From its inception, MoMA PS1 has championed the innovative and the experimental. MoMA PS1 has produced adventuresome surveys of the works of artists such as Janet Cardiff
Janet Cardiff
Janet Cardiff is a Canadian installation artist. Born in Brussels, Ontario in 1957 Cardiff studied at Queen's University where she graduated in 1980. She also studied at the University of Alberta and graduated in 1983. She works in collaboration with her partner George Bures Miller. Cardiff and...

, Robert Grosvenor (artist), David Hammons
David Hammons
David Hammons is an African-American artist mostly known for his works in and around New York City during the 1970s and 1980s.Much of his work, including Spade with Chains , reflects his commitment to the civil rights and Black Power movements...

, Hilma af Klint
Hilma af Klint
Hilma af Klint was a Swedish artist and mystic whose paintings were amongst the first abstract art. She belonged to a group called 'The Five' and the paintings or diagrams were a visual representation of complex philosophical ideas.- Early life :...

, Donald Lipski
Donald Lipski
Donald Lipski is an American sculptor. He is best known for his provocative works with objects, his installation work and his large scale public works.- LIFE :...

, John McCracken
John McCracken
John Harvey McCracken was a contemporary artist who lived and worked in Santa Fe, New Mexico and New York.- Education/teaching :...

, Dennis Oppenheim, Michelangelo Pistoletto
Michelangelo Pistoletto
Michelangelo Pistoletto is an Italian painter, action and object artist, and art theorist. Pistoletto is acknowledged as one of the main representatives of the Italian Arte Povera...

, Alan Saret, Katharina Sieverding
Katharina Sieverding
Katharina Sieverding is a photographer known for her self-portraiture. Sieverding lives and works in Berlin and Düsseldorf. She is a professor at the University of the Arts, Berlin.- Early life and education :...

, Keith Sonnier
Keith Sonnier
Keith Sonnier is a Postminimalist, performance, video and light artist. Sonnier was one of the first artists to use light in sculpture in the 1960s, and has been one of the most successful with this technique...

, Michael Tracy
Tracy 168
TRACY 168 . He is a well known 'Oldschool writer' from New York. He is known as one of the kings of graffiti and started the 'Wildstyle' style of graffiti. In July 2006, an art piece by Tracy 168 in 1984 utilized a real subway car door and showcased his piece on it...

, John Wesley (artist)
John Wesley (artist)
John Wesley was born in Los Angeles, California, on November 25, 1928. He is a pop artist.After holding a series of odd jobs, he began painting at the age of 22...

, Franz West
Franz West
Franz West is an Austrian artist.-Work:His art practice started as a reaction to the Viennese Actionism movement has been exhibited in museums and galleries for more than three decades...

, Peter Young (artist)
Peter Young (artist)
Peter Young, is an American painter who was born in Pittsburgh, Pa, January 2, 1940. He is primarily known for his abstract paintings that have been widely exhibited in the United States and in Europe since the 1960s. His work is associated with Minimal Art, Post-minimalism, and Lyrical Abstraction...

 and others. Many exhibitions organized by MoMA PS1 travel to museums in the United States and abroad.

Within MoMA PS1's exhibition seasons, a minimum of eight spaces have been reserved for International and National Project artists. This initiative, modeled after the inaugural MoMA PS1 Rooms exhibition in 1976, has been widely regarded as the premiere exhibition opportunity in New York City for young and mid-career artists. These solo exhibitions are selected by the MoMA PS1 curatorial staff. Artists are provided with both a space to design their exhibition and assistance with the installation. Recent artists who have participated in International and National Projects include Eberhard Bosslet
Eberhard Bosslet
Eberhard Bosslet is a German contemporary artist who has been producing site-specific art and architectural-related works, such as sculpture, installation and painting, both indoors and outdoors, since 1979...

, Joe Bradley, Mike Cloud, Kira Lynn Harris, Drew Heitzler, Kalup Linzy
Kalup Linzy
Kalup Linzy is an American video and performance artist who lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.-Early Life and Work:Linzy grew up in a small rural community in Florida called Stuckey. He had a large, close-knit extended family, and was raised by his Aunt and Grandmother...

, Curtis Mitchell, Lisi Raskin
Lisi Raskin
Lisi Raskin is an American artist living and working in Brooklyn, New York. She is known for creating large-scale, architectural environments that refer to the often clandestine fallout shelters and missile silos constructed during the Cold War...

, Kon Trubkovich, Su-Mei Tse
Su-Mei Tse
Su-Mei Tse is a Luxembourg musician, artist and photographer. Her work combines photography, video, installations and music. In 2003, she received the Golden Lion award at the Venice Biennale for the best national participation.-Early life:...

 and Thierry Geoffroy
Thierry Geoffroy
Thierry Geoffroy , also known as Colonel, is a Danish-French artist. Living in Copenhagen, Denmark. Conceptual artist specialized in format art.-Biography:...

 (Colonel).

In 2008, MoMA PS1 exhibited Minus Space, a survey of 54 artists from 14 countries affiliated with Minus Space
MINUS SPACE
MINUS SPACE is a curatorial project located in Brooklyn, NY. It has gallery and web site devoted to reductive art.-History:MINUS SPACE began as an online curatorial and critical project presenting reductive and concept based art. Reductive art includes geometric abstraction, artwork that deals with...

curator
Curator
A curator is a manager or overseer. Traditionally, a curator or keeper of a cultural heritage institution is a content specialist responsible for an institution's collections and involved with the interpretation of heritage material...

ial project located in Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...

, New York. The exhibition was curated by Phong Bui
Phong Bui
Phong Bui is an artist, writer, and independent curator. Phong is a graduate from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Pa. He continued his post graduate studies at the New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting, and Sculpture and studied independently with Nicolas Carone...

, publisher of the Brooklyn Rail and MoMA PS1 Curatorial Advisor.

Young Architects Program

The Young Architects Program (YAP) is an annual competition hosted by MoMA PS1 and The Museum of Modern Art that invites emerging young architects to submit design proposals for MoMA PS1's courtyard. The winning entry is then converted from concept to construction and becomes the architectural setting for MoMA PS1's summer Warm Up music series. The winners of the 2008 YAP were Amale Andraos and Dan Wood of the Work Architecture Company

2006 YAP installation

OBRA Architects, the 2006 winners of the Young Architects Program designed BEATFUSE!, an installation that ripples through the courtyard, evoking a sense of interior space via seven curved, interconnected shells made of plywood and polypropylene mesh. The project also includes two wooden tidal pools, water misters, and light strainers that create constantly changing shapes in the mist. Three outdoor spaces: a caldarium, a tepidarium, and a frigidarium, offer three distinct climatic zones based on the divisions of a traditional Roman bath. The installation was on view through October 29, 2006.

Past YAP winners

  • 2011 - Holding Pattern by Interboro Partners & WHATAMI by stARTT (MAXXI, Rome)
  • 2010 - Pole Dance by Solid-Objectives - Idenburg LIU
  • 2009 - Afterparty by MOS (principals, Michael Meredith and Hilary Sample)
  • 2008 - Public Farm 1 by WorkAC (principals, Amale Andraos and Dan Wood)
  • 2007 - Liquid Sky by Ball-Nogues
  • 2006 - BEATFUSE! by OBRA Architects
  • 2005 - SUR by Xefirotarch (principal, Hernan Diaz Alonso)
  • 2004 - Canopy by nARCHITECTS (principals, Eric Bunge and Mimi Hoang)
  • 2003 - Light-Wing by EMERGENT (principal, Tom Wiscombe)
  • 2002 - Playa Urbana / Urban Beach by William E. Massie
  • 2001 - Summer Oasis by ROY (principal Lindy Roy)
  • 2000 - Dunescape by SHoP (principals Christopher R. Sharples, Coren D. Sharples, William W. Sharples, Kimberly J. Holden, and Gregg A. Pasquarelli)
  • 1999 - DJ Pavilion by Philip Johnson
  • 1998 - untitled? by Gelatin'

Warm Up

Warm Up is MoMA PS1's critically acclaimed music series and has become one of the most anticipated summer events in New York City. The series is housed within the architectural installation created by the winner of the annual MoMA PS1 and MoMA organized Young Architects Program. Together, the music, architecture and exhibition program provide a unique multi-sensory experience for music fans, artists, and families alike.

Warm Up was conceived in 1997 as a summer-long dance party to attract crowds to MoMA PS1 and Long Island City, Queens. The series runs every Saturday from July through early September and draws thousands of local and international visitors each day.

Highlights from the series include a stellar group of international DJs and live music ensembles: DJ Harvey, Groove Collective
Groove Collective
Groove Collective is a contemporary jazz group. In 2007 they were nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Jazz Album of the Year for the release People People Music Music on the Savoy Jazz label.-Style:Groove Collective was formed in 1990...

, Afrika Bambaataa
Afrika Bambaataa
Afrika Bambaataa is an American DJ from the South Bronx, New York who was instrumental in the early development of hip hop throughout the 1980s. Afrika Bambaataa is one of the three originators of break-beat deejaying, and is respectfully known as the "Grandfather" and the Amen Ra of Universal...

, Mad Professor
Mad Professor
Mad Professor is a dub music producer and engineer known for his original productions and remix work. He is considered one of the leading producers of dub music’s second generation and was instrumental in transitioning dub into the digital age. He is a prolific producer, contributing to or...

, Richie Hawtin
Richie Hawtin
Richard Hawtin is an English-Canadian electronic musician and DJ who was an influential part of Detroit techno's second wave of artists in the early 1990s and a leading exponent of Minimal techno since the mid 1990s...

, François K, Fischerspooner
Fischerspooner
Fischerspooner is an electroclash duo and performance troupe formed in 1998 in New York. The name is a portmanteau of the founders' last names, Warren Fischer and Casey Spooner...

, Kid Koala
Kid Koala
Eric San , who records under the name Kid Koala, is a Canadian DJ, turntablist, musician and an author of graphic novels. He is signed to the British record label Ninja Tune, is a member of alternative hip hop supergroup Deltron 3030, and The Slew with Dynamite D and former members of the...

, Arto Lindsay
Arto Lindsay
Arthur Morgan Lindsay is an American guitarist, singer, record producer and experimental composer. He is a 1974 graduate of Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida....

, Scissor Sisters
Scissor Sisters
Scissor Sisters are an American band "spawned by the scuzzy, gay nightlife scene of New York" who took their name from a sexual position between two women also known as tribadism...

, Luke Vibert
Luke Vibert
Luke Vibert is a British recording artist and producer known for his work in many subgenres of electronic music. Vibert began his musical career as a member of the Hate Brothers, only later branching out into his own compositions...

, and many more.

WPS1

WPS1 was the Internet radio
Internet radio
Internet radio is an audio service transmitted via the Internet...

 station of MoMA PS1. Art International Radio
Art International Radio
AIR, Art International Radio is an online, non-profit cultural Internet radio station at ARTonAIR.org that is also home to the Clocktower Gallery...

, of which Alanna Heiss became Director after leaving MoMA PS1, now houses WPS1's material.

The radio station provided a free 24-hour stream and an on-demand archive of cultural programming. It operated out of the historic Clocktower Gallery in Lower Manhattan, New York City, where a network of interlinked studios stream live and pre-recorded talk, performances and historic recordings to a worldwide audience. AIR
Art International Radio
AIR, Art International Radio is an online, non-profit cultural Internet radio station at ARTonAIR.org that is also home to the Clocktower Gallery...

 now works from the same location. The radio station currently airs interviews with contemporary artists, poets, writers, choreographers, musicians, art dealers, critics and other cultural innovators related to the current scene. 2009/2010 interviewees include abstract painter
Abstract art
Abstract art uses a visual language of form, color and line to create a composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world. Western art had been, from the Renaissance up to the middle of the 19th century, underpinned by the logic of perspective and an...

 Ronnie Landfield
Ronnie Landfield
Ronnie Landfield is an American abstract painter. During his early career from the mid-1960s through the 1970s his paintings were associated with Lyrical Abstraction, , and he was represented by the David Whitney Gallery and the André Emmerich Gallery.Landfield is...

, performance art
Performance art
In art, performance art is a performance presented to an audience, traditionally interdisciplinary. Performance may be either scripted or unscripted, random or carefully orchestrated; spontaneous or otherwise carefully planned with or without audience participation. The performance can be live or...

ist Carolee Schneeman, founder of the Bowery Poetry Club
Bowery Poetry Club
The Bowery Poetry Club is a New York City poetry performance space founded by Bob Holman in 2002. Located at 308 Bowery, between Bleecker and Houston Streets in Manhattan's East Village, the BPC provides a home base for established and upcoming artists...

 poet Bob Holman
Bob Holman
Bob Holman is a poet and poetry activist in the United States.- Career :After graduating from Columbia University in 1970, Bob Holman founded, with Sara Miles and Susie Timmons, the NYC Poetry Calendar, a free monthly publication with all the readings and poets "on the same page"...

, choreographer Martha Clarke
Martha Clarke
Martha Clarke is an American theater director and choreographer noted for her multidisciplinary approach to theatre, dance, and opera productions. She is the creator of plotless, dreamlike works that are perhaps described by the term "moving paintings. Her work frequently emphasizes striking...

, authors and art critic
Art critic
An art critic is a person who specializes in evaluating art. Their written critiques, or reviews, are published in newspapers, magazines, books and on web sites...

s Jed Perl and Dore Ashton among others.

Launched in April 2004, WPS1's web-tracking statistics showed that listeners from over 50 countries tuned in to nearly 1,000 programs each day over the first year of operation. Visitors select from a traditional radio program format or choose from an on-demand archive of over 1,000 hours of material.

WPS1 featured talk radio style discussions and interviews with artists, authors, musicians, actors, filmmakers, critics, curators, poets, educators, journalists, media experts, and other cultural leaders, innovators, and challengers. The station also carried a unique and important collection of music assembled by a team of music curators. This material ranged from live recordings of the widely acclaimed MoMA PS1 summer Warm Up series, to rare and thoughtful surveys such as the recent Robert Moog Memorial Hour (honoring the passing of the synthesizer inventor), and the Gulf Coast Music Special assembled from rare vinyl recordings. WPS1 broadcast historic recordings from university and private collections, and from the audio archives of The Museum of Modern Art; presented live remote programs from festivals including The Armory Show, Art Basel Miami Beach, and the Venice Biennale; and frequently features panel discussions hosted by different New York cultural institutions. This material is now available on the Art International Radio website.

Long-term installations

Though MoMA PS1 does not have a permanent collection, it does house several long-term installations:
  • Richard Artschwager
    Richard Artschwager
    Richard Artschwager is an American painter, illustrator and sculptor, born in 1923 in Washington, D.C.. Artschwager is best known for his stylistic independence; although he has associations with the Pop Art movement, Conceptual art and Minimalism....

    , Blips, 1976. Location: Throughout MoMA PS1
  • Richard Artschwager, Exit-Don’t fight City Hall, 1976. Location: First floor, hallway, Five red "exit" bulbs
  • Keith Sonnier
    Keith Sonnier
    Keith Sonnier is a Postminimalist, performance, video and light artist. Sonnier was one of the first artists to use light in sculpture in the 1960s, and has been one of the most successful with this technique...

    , Tunnel of Tears, 1997. Location: "Chimney" in the foyer of the lobby
  • Lawrence Weiner
    Lawrence Weiner
    Lawrence Weiner was a central figure in the formation of conceptual art in the 1960s His work often takes the form of typographic texts.- Life and career :...

    , A bit of matter and a little bit more, 1976. Location: Front door, stenciled on glass
  • Pipilotti Rist
    Pipilotti Rist
    Elisabeth Charlotte "Pipilotti" Rist , is a visual artist who works with video, film, and moving images which are often displayed as projections.-Life and career:...

    , Selbstlos im Lavabad (Selfless in the Bath of Lava), 1994. Location: Lobby, single-channel video installation
  • William Kentridge
    William Kentridge
    William Kentridge is a South African artist best known for his prints, drawings, and animated films. These are constructed by filming a drawing, making erasures and changes, and filming it again. He continues this process meticulously, giving each change to the drawing a quarter of a second to two...

    , Stair Procession, 2000. Location: Staircase B
  • Ernesto Caivano, In the Woods. 2004, Location: Staircase A
  • James Turrell
    James Turrell
    James Turrell is an American artist primarily concerned with light and space. Turrell was a MacArthur Fellow in 1984. He is represented by The Pace Gallery in New York...

    , Meeting, 1986. Location: Third floor
  • Alan Saret, Brick Wall and Sun, 1976. Location: Third floor, eastern end of the north wing
  • Matt Mullican
    Matt Mullican
    Matt Mullican is a American artist and son of artists Lee Mullican He received his BFA from CalArts in 1974, and rose to prominence as a member of the "Pictures Generation" along with such artists as Troy Brauntuch, Jack Goldstein, David Salle, Jim Welling, Sherri Levine, Cindy Sherman, Louise...

    , Untitled, 1997. Location: Steel inset in basement floor

External links

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