Performance Space New York

Performance Space New York
Beyond My Ken · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Name	Performance Space New York
Formation	1980
Type	Arts organization
Location	New York City, New York, United States

Performance Space New York

Performance Space New York is a multidisciplinary arts organization founded in 1980 in New York City that presents experimental performance, interdisciplinary projects, and new commissions. The organization has operated as a hub for avant-garde theater, dance, music, and media, maintaining ties to institutions and artists across Brooklyn Academy of Music, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Whitney Museum of American Art, and The Kitchen. Its programs have intersected with festivals and institutions including Performa, New York Philharmonic, MoMA PS1, Judson Memorial Church, and Metropolitan Museum of Art.

History

The organization originated from a lineage of downtown venues and artist-run collectives that trace connections to La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, Judson Church, Merce Cunningham Dance Company, Trisha Brown Company, Yvonne Rainer, and Steve Paxton. Early activity in the 1980s placed it alongside Tuxedo Junction, Dance Theater Workshop, WOW Cafe Theatre, and Performance Space 122. In the 1990s and 2000s the organization collaborated with New York Foundation for the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and The Rockefeller Foundation to expand commissioning programs and residency offerings. Major shifts in leadership linked with figures associated with Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, BAM, and curators from MoMA and Whitney Biennial circuits, catalyzing partnerships with Performa and international festivals such as Festival d'Automne à Paris and Venice Biennale. Recent decades saw relocation and redevelopment that involved neighborhood actors including New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, State of New York, and private developers connected to Hudson Yards-era projects.

Facilities and Venues

Performance Space New York has programmed in multiple physical locations historically tied to East Village, Lower East Side, and Chelsea arts ecologies. Its facilities have included black box theaters, adaptable studios, and storefront spaces akin to those at La MaMa and PS122 (Performance Space New York) predecessors, and have paralleled infrastructure found at Danspace Project, New York Live Arts, and Apollo Theater annexes. Technical capabilities have been calibrated to the needs of creators using equipment comparable to rigs at Brooklyn Academy of Music, surround-sound systems found in Carnegie Hall educational spaces, and lighting grids used by companies like BAM Fisher. The organization has also mounted site-specific work in partnership with Brooklyn Navy Yard, Hudson River Park, and public plazas adjacent to High Line interventions.

Programming and Notable Productions

Programming blends new commissions, repertory revivals, and curated series that echo initiatives by New York Theatre Workshop, The Public Theater, New Dramatists, Lincoln Center's White Light Festival, and touring ensembles such as Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company, The Wooster Group, and Forced Entertainment. Notable productions and premieres have included collaborations with artists associated with Marina Abramović, Julie Taymor, Pina Bausch-influenced choreographers, and experimental composers in the vein of John Cage, Philippe Glass, and Steve Reich. Residency-driven projects have led to commissions from figures linked to Anna Halprin, Meredith Monk, Sasha Waltz, Tobias Picker, and interdisciplinary teams connected to MIT Media Lab and Columbia University laboratories. Festival presentations have placed work alongside Performa Biennial, Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and Venice Biennale participants.

Artists and Collaborations

Artists and ensembles who have worked with the organization include practitioners from ecosystems around Judson Dance Theater, alumni of Tisch School of the Arts, collectives like The Wooster Group, solo artists related to Marina Abramović Institute, and composers associated with New Amsterdam Records and Bang on a Can. Collaborative projects have involved partnerships with curators and institutions such as The Kitchen, MoMA, MoMA PS1, Whitney Museum of American Art, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Brooklyn Museum, and academic collaborators at Columbia University School of the Arts and NYU Steinhardt. International exchanges have connected artists from Berlin, London, Paris, Tokyo, São Paulo, and Cape Town, through relationships similar to those fostered by British Council, Institut français, Goethe-Institut, and Danish Arts Foundation programs.

Education and Community Engagement

Educational initiatives mirror models used by New Victory Theater, Carnegie Hall Neighborhood Concerts, YoungArts, and Dance/NYC, offering workshops, artist residencies, youth programs, and public talks. Community engagement has included partnerships with local organizations such as Hetrick-Martin Institute, Housing Works, Spanish Harlem Orchestra-linked groups, and neighborhood cultural councils resembling the networks around Lower East Side Tenement Museum and Tompkins Square Park initiatives. Programming for students and emerging artists has been coordinated with institutions like Juilliard School, Pratt Institute, Cooper Union, Barnard College, and City College of New York.

Governance and Funding

Governance structures have aligned with nonprofit arts governance models common to National Endowment for the Arts grantees and foundations including Ford Foundation, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Guggenheim Foundation, and Knight Foundation. Boards and leadership have included trustees with affiliations to Carnegie Corporation of New York, The Rockefeller Foundation, and major cultural institutions like Lincoln Center, New York Public Library, and Morgan Stanley philanthropic chairs. Operational funding has combined government arts funding, foundation grants, corporate sponsorships from entities akin to American Express and Bloomberg Philanthropies, individual donors, and earned revenue streams similar to ticketing and rental models at BAM and Carnegie Hall.

Category:Arts organizations based in New York City