PECULIAR
WORKS PROJECT Presents
THE JUDSON HOUSE PROJECT
A Celebration of the History and Legacy of Judson House
Before the Wrecking Ball Strikes! Four Days Only!
Thursday, July 27 - Sunday, July
30!
New York, New York June 26, 2000 - Peculiar Works Project presents THE JUDSON HOUSE PROJECT, a celebration of the history and legacy of Judson House, for one weekend only, Thursday, July 27 - Sunday, July 30. Judson House is located at 237 Thompson Street (at the corner of West 3rd Street). Performance tours begin every half-hour, from 7:00 PM - 10:00 PM (for a total of 7 tours per evening). Tours run approximately 90 minutes each. Tickets are $15. On Saturday and Sunday from 4:00 PM - 6:00 PM, there will be an Open House Installation Exhibit for a suggested donation. Reservations are required for the tour and can be made by calling (212) 529-3626 ext.4.
Throughout its history, Judson Church has been a breeding ground for social and cultural action. Since the turn of the 19th Century, they have sponsored a number of health and social service organizations, all of which have been based in Judson House. In the late 1950s, Judson House expanded its community services to include providing a home for experimental artists of all disciplines. The first site of the New York City "Happenings" of the 1960s, its ground-breaking Judson Gallery, Dance Theatre and Poet's Theatre were an integral part of the early Off Off Broadway contemporary dance and performance art movements. Avant-garde legends such as Claes Oldenburg, Yoko Ono, Carolee Schneemann, Yvonne Rainer, Trisha Brown, Robert Rauschenberg, and Maria Irene Fornes worked or lived at Judson House. In 1999, Judson Memorial Church made the difficult decision to sell this historic house to New York University. The building is scheduled for demolition in August.
Peculiar Works Project, the brainchild behind Big Art in Small Spaces, is honoring this legendary mecca for avant-artists with THE JUDSON HOUSE PROJECT, a multi-disciplinary art and performance event. Consisting of nine performance and installation works in different spaces throughout Judson House, the audience is taken on a tour throughout the installations, with linking vignettes between each piece. Commissioning new artists from the fields of theatre, dance, performance and installation art, THE JUDSON HOUSE PROJECT creates contemporary responses to the heritage of Judson and the groundbreaking work that took place there. The themes encompass references to Judson artists and their work as well as reflections on the social and political history of Judson House. The Sunday evening performance will be followed by a blowout party, appropriately called "The Wrecking Ball."
The artists who will be participating in this one-time-only event are: Laurel Jay Carpenter; Yanira Castro; Soliton (Chris Burney, Michael Paller and Fran Kirmser); Nancy S. Chu; S.M. Dale; Steven Dean; Diane Dwyer; Funkopolis (Tim Brown, Shannon Maddox and Gabriel Shanks); and Renee Philippi.
Peculiar Works Project, now in its seventh season, generates original performance that is accessible and fun for a diverse audience. Challenging the conventions of medium, structure and process in an alternative theatre context, Peculiar Works Project encourages collaboration, experimentation and a rebel spirit in emerging artists by providing them with the tools and opportunities necessary to grow throughout the creative process. Performing in non-traditional spaces, they have taken their work directly into NYC communities by presenting site-specific productions in landmark buildings, gutted storefronts and other peculiar sites in the Village, Soho, TriBeCa, the Lower East Side and, most recently, cyber-space. They have presented projects in conjunction with the Lincoln Center Theater Directors' Lab, Gertrude Stein Repertory Theatre, HERE, Dixon Place, Judson Church, Nada, Downtown Arts Festival, CHARAS/El Bohio Cultural and Community Center, Greenwich House Music School and The Culture Project, among others.
THE JUDSON HOUSE PROJECT is funded in part with public funds from the New York State Council on the arts, and with generous private support from The Peg Santvoord Foundation; the Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts and The Village Voice.