Purchase College, SUNY New Media Program Collaborates on Exhibition That Explores Politically Active U.S. Artist Collectives

Purchase, NY (August 28, 2013)  – The New Media program at Purchase College, SUNY and Franklin Street Works, a contemporary art space in Stamford, CT, will present a group exhibition, “Collective Action Archive,” at Purchase College’s The Passage Gallery beginning September 6.

Curated and coordinated by Purchase College faculty and students, along with the Franklin Street Works team, the show features ephemera, documentation, and publications that include photos, videos, zines, and books from more than 30 artist collectives from across the U.S.

“Collective Action Archive” will be on view from September 6 - 29, 2013. A reception will take place in the gallery on Wednesday, September 11, from 4:00 – 6:00 pm, followed by a symposium at the Neuberger Museum of Art Study at Purchase College from 6:00 – 8:00 pm. Both events are free and open to the public.

The Collective Action archive began in 2012 with Franklin Street Works’ call for materials, which was sent to more than 90 socially engaged artist collectives for the exhibition “Working Alternatives: Breaking Bread, Art Broadcasting and Collective Action” (October 27, 2012 – January 13, 2013). The Collective Action theme was inspired by Gregory Sholette’s writing on the Political Art Documentation/Distribution (PAD/D) archive in his book Dark Matter: Art and Politics in the Age of Enterprise Culture). PAD/D materials—now housed at the MOMA PS1 archives in Queens, New York—include a variety of printed items and photographs from socially and politically active collectives working in the 1980s. For the “Working Alternatives” exhibition, the curators considered what a call for materials (similar to art historian Lucy Lippard’s PAD/D call in 1979) would yield. What could these new materials, gathered together, tell us about the strategies and organizational structures of politically active artist collectives more than 30 years later?

For the Purchase College redux, every collective in the archive will be on display simultaneously, with the majority of the items in the Collective Action Archive being featured. In addition to the greater breadth, the exhibition includes new items sent to Franklin Street Works in the last four months. Interpretive labels and a comprehensive gallery handout will augment the materials, contextualizing the work of these socially active artists who tackle topics ranging from fair artist compensation, to environmental responsibility and reproductive rights.