Films, videos, performances, papers, and roundtables take us back to the East Village art scene of the 80s, focusing on the importance of the formation of queer identities and postmodern strategies of performance and masquerade. The symposium also considers the impact of AIDS on this artistic community.
Friday, April 11
3:00 pm The Downtown Collection, Fales Library, NYU
Marvin Taylor, Director of the Fales Library and Special Collections, New York University, conducts a free tour of the facility and presents highlights of the Downtown Collection. Location: Elmer Holmes Bobst Library, Third Floor
7:00 pm Performing the East Village
Ed Halter, Director of the New York Underground Film Festival, screens videos and films from the period. Moving Theater, a collective co-directed by Brennan Gerard and Ryan Kelly, presents an original performance derived from the club scene and performance art of the East Village, particularly the work of Ethyl Eichelberg. Roundtable follows featuring C. Carr, art critic, Joe E. Jeffreys, historian, Sarah Schulman, writer, and Ela Troyano, artist/presenter.
Saturday, April 12
10:30 am The East Village and the Formation of the Queer Identity
Jonathan Weinberg, Artist-in-Residence and Scholar, Getty Research Institute and Senior Fellow, the Vera List Center for Art and Politics; Jonathan Katz, Director of the Larry Kramer Initiative for Lesbian and Gay Studies, Yale University; Flavia Rando, Professor of Art History, Jersey City University, and Carlo McCormick, Senior Editor, Paper Magazine.
2:00 pm Remembering the East Village
Presentations by Brennan Gerard, Director of the Estate Project for Artists with AIDS and Marvin Taylor, Director of the Fales Library and Special Collections, New York University. Roundtable: Jonathan Weinberg leads a roundtable discussion with Gracie Mansion, gallerist, Sur Rodney Sur, former Director of the Gracie Mansion Gallery, Judy Glantzman, artist, Rick Prol, artist, Dr. Liza Kirwin, art historian and Joel Handorff, artist and curator, Dramatis Personae Gallery.
Participants
Jonathan Katz, Director of the Larry Kramer Initiative for Lesbian and Gay Studies, Yale University
Joel Handorff, artist and curator, Dramatis Personae Gallery
Liza Kirwin, art historian
Rick Prol, artist
Judy Glantzman, artist
Sur Rodney Sur, former Director of the Gracie Mansion Gallery
Gracie Mansion, gallerist
Carlo McCormick, Senior Editor, Paper Magazine
Flavia Rando, Professor of Art History, Jersey City University
Jonathan Weinberg, Artist-in-Residence and Scholar, Getty Research Institute and Senior Fellow, the Vera List Center for Art and Politics
Ela Troyano, artist/presenter
Sarah Schulman, writer
Joe E. Jeffreys, historian
C. Carr, art critic
Ryan Kelly, Co-founder of the Moving Theater
Brennan Gerard, Director of the Estate Project for Artists with AIDS, Co-founder of the Moving Theater
Ed Halter, Director of the New York Underground Film Festival
Marvin Taylor, Director of the Fales Library and Special Collections, New York University
Cosponsored by the Estate Project for Artists with AIDS, a project of the Alliance for the Arts, and Fales Library and Special Collections, New York University. This symposium is made possible, in part, through the support of the New York Council on the Humanities.