NYMW was proud to host the 35th Anniversary celebration of Franklin Furnace at its original location in Tribeca, NYC.
Sapphire, Guest of Honor
Sapphire, author of PUSH ( which was made into the movie Precious ) was guest of honor among past and present FF artists including Alanna Heiss founder of P.S. 1, Marja Samson “The Dumpling Diva” and contestant on Food Network’s “Chopped”, and Franklin Furnace founder Martha Wilson.
We created a multi media presentation throughout the space routing video from “The History of the Future: A Franklin Furnace View of Performance Art” to monitors where many of the original performances took place. Over 250 images of Franklin Furnace exhibitions spanning over 35 years were displayed and the original FF sign was flown above guests as they entered the space.
About FRANKLIN FURNACE:
Since its inception in 1985 THE FRANKLIN FURNACE FUND has boosted the careers of such emerging artists as Tanya Barfield, Patty Chang, Papo Colo, Brody Condon, Karen Finley, John Fleck, Kate Gilmore, Murray Hill, Holly Hughes, Mouchette, William Pope.L, Pamela Sneed, Jack Waters, Cathy Weis, and Ricardo Miranda Zuniga.
The Franklin Furnace Fund is supported in 2011-12 by the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs; Lambent Foundation Fund of Tides Foundation; Jerome Foundation; and the SHS Foundation.
Each year Franklin Furnace awards grants to emerging artists, allowing them to produce major works in New York. Grants may range between $2,000 and $10,000 depending upon funding received by Franklin Furnace. Artists from all areas of the world are encouraged to apply*; however, funded projects must be presented in New York. Full-time students are ineligible.
The original Franklin Furnace sign
Among those artists who were given the opportunity to mount their first New York shows at Franklin Furnace are Ida Applebroog, Barbara Kruger, Jenny Holzer, Dara Birnbaum, Matt Mullican, James Coleman, Krysztof Wodiczko, Guillaume Bijl, and Willie Cole; while among the performers who got their start here are Eric Bogosian, Guillermo Gomez-Pena, Robbie McCauley, Michael Smith, Theodora Skipitares, Paul Zaloom, David Cale, and Karen Finley. Additionally, Franklin Furnace’s performance art program has enabled more established artists like Laurie Anderson, Vito Acconci, Richard Foreman, Carl Andre, Lee Breuer, William Wegman, and Jennifer Bartlett to experiment in ways that would be inappropriate for mainstream venues that attract larger audiences. Franklin Furnace’s exhibition program has included many historically notable exhibitions of time-based art of an ephemeral nature — exhibitions on Cubist books and prints, for example, on Fluxus, or Russian Samizdat art — critically celebrated exhibitions that have contributed to art historical scholarship.
