John Cusano worked on the Amazing Bureaucratic Birthday Cake. He was one of the 13 Cake Commissioners. There were regular Cake Commissioner meetings. A couple were video tapped. These meetings took place at Erector Square in the gallery space. I am sure that Ann Langdon helped arrange for that....More about who the other 12 cake commissioners were and hopefully what they did...
Despite it being Christmas and Hanukkah this week the Archive remained a stimulating recall space. Thank you Louisa Calio for adding important materials about City Spirit Artists. Robert Gregson it is clear we are all appreciating seeing your personal work from the eighties. Learning more about your early years in New Haven and how they influenced it's culture will certainly keep me tuned in.. Thank you Bob for all your support and leadership with this online experiment... Roberta Chambers, your detailed written voice is always a treat for me to read and your photos are newly re-imprinting on/in? my visual memory. I went so far as to ask Dani over this holiday week if she remembered the Laundry T-shirt.. (which she did). Thank you all for making the archive a thoughtful and satisfying remembering experience for all of us....
There is a lot for me to appreciate as we wrap up the week and the year. Very happy to have Karen Rossi join us as a member of the group. Glad Abe Gelbart stopped by to like a post. And of course always nice when Jeff Burnett and Nicola Cole swing in from their far off residences to share a past memory with a current comment... This week John Landino reminded me what sharing looks like and filled his FB page with many of the wonderful posts that were created for this group page. His personal community is becoming well informed about the work that is happening in the archive. Thanks John for leading the way.
If I have missed thanking you for your contribution this week.. I am sorry. I am aware that there is always the risk of missing something and in the spirit of 'imperfection and moving forward"... I apologize in advance... If I spend to much time trying to get it all right.. I won't do it at all. There may be some 80's wisdom in that...
In the last week or so we have had several newspaper articles added in their original formats. That of course is excellent documentation but difficult to read. I am suggesting that if possible these articles be typed up to make their content available to all of us now and for those in the future who will need to be able to access the actual content. I use a blog to do that and as we progress it might make sense to set up a companion blog to this FBG.. but for right now.. I am recommending using the available FBG FILE documents option.. I created an example of how these articles can be preserved in their original format (as images) and their content can be easily read. If you have any questions about this.. please contact me...
In addition I have gone through all the posts and tagged them. There is a search function on the left hand side of the page. If you search your own name of another member.. or even a topic.. you will get posts related to that person or topic. (the more information you are able to add to the post or image, the more search-able it will be) A gentle reminder that I remain committed to this archive functioning as a gateway into this particular time period of the local arts in New Haven. I imagine each member of this group having their own File s which will offer writers or curators or collectors or who ever might be interested information about how to reach or research a particular artist, group or organization.
Having this material presented in an interconnected/relational format should make the exploring this time period a unique opportunity those who are interested in the interconnectedness of this local art community.
Founding Member · Performance Studio did a version of Caryl Churchill's 'Top Girls' directed by Amy Seham. I did one of the sets. It called for a playhouse in an inner city backyard. The girls who built it had few resources so I made it from discarded things they could find. They also were punky rebellious kids playing a bit with the darkside so I chose tires, abused dolls and amazingly was able to convince a record store in NYC to give me their Siouxsie & the Banshees poster on their wall. In old photos looking down backyards of rowhouses you'd see laundry hanging from endless rows of clotheslines. I got XXXL t-shirts and printed black line drawings of 2 rows of laundry on them. Next I hand painted the pictures of the garments so that they'd all be different colors & patterns. They were hung on receding lines on stage. After the show they were sold to the audience to benefit the theater. Here is a photo of one hanging out to dry from a friends' garret apartment window.
This group was Formed on Nov 24th, 2019 in response to a question I have been asked several times over the last few years about The New Haven Arts community. What contributed to New Haven's Golden Age of the arts? As someone who was active during that decade, I decided to investigate this question by inviting those of us who were there then to share our own memories and experiences of that time period.
The process for this group is one of sharing and supporting remembering and learning about how we functioned during that time period. By sharing our unique individual memories of creating, participating and supporting each other, we will be developing insights into how this important time in New Haven occurred. Simultaneously we will be creating our own "local art history” by pairing artifacts with (various) verbal accounts.
SIMPLY BY PARTICIPATING IN THIS GROUP YOU WILL BE HELPING US TO TURN Y/OUR MEMORIES AND ARTIFACTS INTO OUR OWN LOCAL ART HISTORY!
Please join us for this exploration and add your voice in a way that works best for you. Experience the stimulation and joy of reconnecting with many of those individuals you knew and worked with during that decade.
By joining us you will be helping to develop a more complete picture of this time in New Haven's Local Art History. All our voices together in this group will help create and preserve an accurate picture of the interconnectivity and vitality of New Haven's local art and cultural community during the decade of the 1980’s for the future (and hopefully provide important and useful insights to the question of what was it about the the New Haven Arts Community that has left it with the reputation of being “A Golden Age” for the Arts in New Haven.
If you have been invited to join this group you have identified as someone who’s voice is desired. We hope you will join us... Stimulate your memory. activate your voice. and enrich your present moment... hope to see you in the archive...
Bev Richey 1978-1993 New Haven, Ct. USAArt Student/Apprentice, Artist, Arts Organizer, and Arts Administrator New Haven, Ct. USA 1978-1993
Mary BarnettOmg : so remember this and him. He helped launch me, really as a producer. I was as much in love w others work as my own. I knew I needed to see more performance work in New Haven so I had to bring it in as well as make it myself. Thkyou Michael R. A community forms when you realize that your work is elevated in the company of other good work. DIRECT POST: FBG Archive LINK:
PMVI Very early edible work. From
Group Show of Things That Don't Belong Together" 1983 PMVI EVENT
This was the first event I organized after Paul Rutkovsky moved to FSU.
Other Artists in the Show: Tim Feresten, Ben Westbrock, Anna Bresnick, Andrea Rossi, Bill Quinn,
Location: The empty industrial space adjacent to the PMVI Studio Space in the Clockworks building on Hamilton Street.
"Cakes in Case" was my work for the first PMVI Show I directed as co-director of PMVI. It was decided by several in the group that showed together in "Visual Events in Various Spaces". Visual Events was organized and directed by Paul Rutkovsky founder (1978) and director of PMVI. I began my art career practice in the PMVI Studio. After taking a drawing class with Paul at Southern Ct University he invited me into the studio to work as an apprentice. I accepted his invite andI ended up staying from 1978 (when PMVI began) until 1985 when the studio basically closed. In 1982 I became the Co-Director of PMVI and the organizer of "The group show of things That Don't Belong Together and "The First Show Of 1984". Under my co-directorship PMVI became much more inclusive towards community artist involvement and popular with audiences. My final PMVI production was "The Buy and Sell Show " at the John Slade Ely House. It included my work "Army Man Series" and the work of long time PMVI person Jack Harriett and Paul contributing from his new base in Tallahassee Florida. Bev Richey 12-19-2019
New Haven, Ct. women's local art history: 1983... Ann Langdon and Cynthia Beth Rubin formed a Connecticut Chapter of The Women's Caucus for Art. I was a founding member. This was our first exhibit. It was themed Spring Cleaning...took place in New Haven on Chapel Street. Artists involved were Ann Langdon, Cynthia Beth Rubin, Betsy Haynes, myself and others. This was not the first.. but it was definitely part of the early years of exploring cake as process, content, and medium.
"Local History
Primary Sources
Primary sources provide firsthand accounts of the past. Examples include letters,
photographs, diaries, newspaper accounts, interviews, oral histories, and speeches." Primary Sources Local History
The difference between history and collective memory is best understood when comparing the aims and characteristics of each. A goal of history broadly is to provide a comprehensive, accurate, and unbiased portrayal of past events. This often includes the representation and comparison of multiple perspectives and the integration of these perspectives and details to provide a complete and accurate account." Wikipedia
Collective memory has been conceptualized in several ways and proposed to have certain attributes. For instance, collective memory can refer to a shared body of knowledge (e.g., memory of a nation's past leaders or presidents);[6][7][8] the image, narrative, values and ideas of a social group; or the continuous process by which collective memories of events change.[1]
The difference between history and collective memory is best understood when comparing the aims and characteristics of each. A goal of history broadly is to provide a comprehensive, accurate, and unbiased portrayal of past events. This often includes the representation and comparison of multiple perspectives and the integration of these perspectives and details to provide a complete and accurate account. In contrast, collective memory focuses on a single perspective, for instance, the perspective of one social group, nation, or community. Consequently, collective memory represents past events as associated with the values, narratives and biases specific to that group.[9][1]Collective memory - Wikipedia
"Visual arts were happening too. I remember showing at Abe Gelbart's gallery. Here is a drawing from my "Disfunctional Architecture" series from 1983. Little did I realize I was an early deconstructavist." Robert Gregson (12-16-2019) Link to FBPOST
"... I am now able to understand and even talk about these issues, but in its' most active stages, I did not intellectualize the work; I simply did it. It was a passionate cause and I was completely engrossed in learning as much as I could about organizations and collaborative art- making. I was sensitive to my own position as both an insider and an outsider and I was excited about what I believed was possible, if these two communities worked together. Given that reality, it was critical that the local arts community stand on its' own feet and begin to take responsibility for growing its' own art scene and resources." 7-2-2013 HELPING/OUT Blog PostREAD MORE HERE
"As I type past each of these images.. it is a reminder of all the possible ways there are for me to help liberate all that is in these boxes and piles and plastic sleeves. So many binders filled with original graphics and what was relevant for me at the time. I have been making books for ever. Homemade books.. binders with plastic sleeves. The entire house is filled with bookcases which essentially provide surfaces for vertical and horizontal stacking." READ MORE HERE
"Park of the Arts? Behind the Arts Council. Women in the Arts Month. Made it to front page of New Haven Register." 12-11-19 Mary Barnett FB post in the ARcHIVE
"1984 began early in New Haven when 700 people waited in the cold two weeks ago to see a multi-media art show based on the themes of Orwell's novel. Sponsored by the Papier Mache Video Institute, the show was held in a large industrial loft off Hamilton Street. By most accounts, it was a smashing success. It certainly wasn't just another white wine and cheese affair..." By Mary Beth Bruno, New Haven Advocate Vol. X No.15 November 23, 1983 (Read Full Article Here)
Dated November 7, 1983 Dearest Beverly- I just had to write to congratulate you and all of PMVI on that spectacular show you put on Saturday Night! What an experience! I've been talking about it to people ever since.There was so much to see and so much to capture your interest and imagination. I loved it and was sorry my daughter chose to go to a prosaic teenage party rather than accompanying me to Hamilton Street.
(Back Side) I think the Fire Marshall was an asset because if all of those hundreds of people had been allowed in we wouldn't have been able to see anything. It was so good ??? people were tempted to stay for a long time. Again mycongratulations to everyone at PMVI - you did a great thing and I hope you'll do more of it.
"1984 began early in New Haven when 700 people waited in the cold two weeks ago to see a multi-media art show based on the themes of Orwell's novel. Sponsored by the Papier Mache Video Institute, the show was held in a large industrial loft off Hamilton Street. By most accounts, it was a smashing success. It certainly wasn't just another white wine and cheese affair..." Mary Beth Bruno, New Haven Advocate Vol. X No.15 November 23, 1983
"PORTAL TO THE FUTURE" 1984
Series of 10 Sculptures
commissioned by Wave Gallery Artist Sculptor; John Landino
Audubon Circle, New Haven, CT USA Front of Creative Arts Workshop No Photo /credit
"We welded and moved your sculpture to shows in at least 3 states? over the years we worked together. And we were the only riggers. 🔥👏🎨🌟" Lisa Spetini "The biggest one with the orange pillars almost fell on us in Stamford! You were the best! love you! John LandinoThe ARCHIVE, 12-9-19
Written by: Bev Richey 12-10-2019
This photo of "Portal to the Future" brings back many memories It was part of so many who worked, played, attended classes and parked their cars in the Audubon Arts District. Probably the last time I saw this sculpture was looking out of Bitsie Clark's corner condo window during a visit in 2010.
All these years I never knew that this sculpture was a part of a series of ten outdoor works or that the works were somehow related to a WAVE GALLERY commission. (The Wave Gallery was a gallery that was very much a part of the active New Haven arts scene during those years. (Hopefully that will get fleshed in as we progress).
Now of course I want to know what the other nine look like and where they are today. It makes me realize that during those creative and dynamic times, we knew each other but in a more youthful way, concentrating on the very moment what was directly in front of us (of course as it needed to be).
Memories of John are evoked when I look at the sculpture. Memories of him coming down into the original Arts Council offices in the Foundry Building with it's entrance on Whitney Ave and then down a few steps, just across from the Foundry Book Store.
The office was a hub. Small and cave like with enough space to get the variety of work going on there, done. John's visits energized the place. His first stop would be Bitsie's office.
Only later did I come to learn more about their relationship. Bitsie was very fond of John. Her love of men was obvious to me as I had a mother who was partial to men. I recognized that in myself as well. It was the out in the world in a focused, business and muted way which she emulated and appreciated.
"one more sculpture, from 10 sculptures around NewHaven 1988" John Landino, ARCHIVE
Year's later John shared with me that Bitsie suggested that certain individual artists she had met with, contact John or he them. She encouraged John to incorporate some of them into his studio as apprentices and assistants. Bitsie was at her core a people connector. She had a strong intuitive sense of who might benefit from meeting someone else.
Bitsie 's small private office was on the entry hallway to the inner sanctum, just next to the original SMALL SPACE Gallery. When meeting with people its glass door wall was closed, but for all to see who Bitsie was meeting with, and meet she did. Through out everyday there were board members, organization members, committee members, artist members and staff members in and out of her office.
It was not necessary to have an appointment. If she was free, Bitsie was always ready to see who ever came in. In the five years that I worked as Communications Director I never remember Bitise ever refusing to take the time to see someone. If she had administrative work to do.. which she did.. She would often stay late or close her glass door with her gaze towards her work, we as staff understood what a closed door meant. Bitsie "got" the welcoming, the engaging and the connecting and all the Arts Community benefited from that.
So what does that have to do with "Portal to the Future"? It really has to do with how John and so many other artists, arts organizations, art businesses, and arts organizations, large and small became interconnected.
John's visits to the AC were generally related to seeing Bitsie. He might stick his head in my office, check in to say hi... but don't remember him being in my office much, for any kind of artist service, (which I did I provide for others}. John probably stopped into the communications department to drop off some information about one or another activity he was involved in that day, week or month.
Everyone loved John. He was himself, bigger than life and full of looseness, love and positive energy. As for John and me, well, we connected after hours in other spaces as photos and tales will continue to reveal.
Recently (as the crow flies) John told me he was driving down to New Haven from his current residence in Turner's Falls, Mass to pick up his sculpture "Portal to the Future" and bring it back to Massachusetts. It was to be placed in an outdoor Sculpture Space John has been involved with. He had his reasons and I respected his decision. Hopefully he will share those with us here. None the less I felt the loss of this iconic sculpture that held so many collected experiences of a time of connection, celebration and hope.
This work is gone now.. out to pasture.. but its true home for me, will always be in the circle on Audubon Street.
The Dinner Party. Copyright Judy Chicago 1979. Photograph: Donald Woodman
When I was a student at the University of California, Los Angeles, I took a class titled European intellectual history, taught by a well-known historian. He promised to talk about women's contributions at the end of the semester. As I was intent on making a mark on art history, I was eager to learn about what women before me had done. Finally, the last class arrived. My professor strode into the room and arrogantly announced: "Women's contributions; they made none." His assessment made me feel a freak; how dare I think that I could go where no woman before me had trod?
But I had such a burning desire to make art that when I got out of graduate school (where I had many skirmishes with my male professors because they hated my biomorphic imagery), I worked 60 hours a week in my studio. The LA art scene was extremely macho in the 60s and few women were taken seriously. For a decade I struggled to make a place for myself, but to accomplish this I had to adopt "male drag" – that is, make work that looked like that of my male peers and echoed their concerns. By the end of that time I was fed up and wanted to be myself as a woman. I decided to look into history to see if there had been any before me who had encountered similar obstacles.
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This was before there were any women's studies classes, so I had to ferret out information entirely on my own. What I discovered changed my life. It also enraged me because my professor was completely wrong. Unfortunately, ignorant convictions like his continue to hold sway, exemplified by Caitlin Moran's recent book, How To Be a Woman. "Even the most ardent feminist historian … can't conceal that women have basically done fuck-all for the last 100,000 years," she writes. The truth is that for centuries women have struggled to be heard, writing books, making art and music and challenging the many restrictions on women's lives. But their achievements have been repeatedly written out of history.
I set out to chronicle this ongoing erasure in my installation The Dinner Party, a monumental, symbolic history of women in western civilisation. It created a major stir when it premiered in 1979. Originally slated to travel to a number of museums, the tour collapsed in the face of vitriolic reviews, sometimes (sadly) written by women. Then an amazing thing happened: people in the US, Canada, the UK, Germany and Australia began to organise, resulting in a worldwide tour that eventually brought The Dinner Party to 16 venues in six countries on three continents, and a viewing audience of more than a million. When I first created The Dinner Party, my goal was for it to be permanently housed as this would be the only way to overcome the repeated erasure of women's history that the work recounted. It took 30 years for my goal to be achieved, thanks to the vision of Dr Elizabeth A. Sackler who acquired, donated and, in 2007, housed The Dinner Party at the Elizabeth A Sackler Centre for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum, where it draws people from all over the world.
Bigamy Hood by Judy Chicago. Photograph: Donald Woodman
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I am often asked if things have changed since I was a young artist. Obviously there are many changes worth celebrating: for example, women and artists of colour are exhibiting widely and are free to be themselves in their work in ways that were completely impossible when I was young. At the same time, many young women artists do not wish to be associated with the feminist art movement of the 1970s that opened the doors of opportunity to them. This situation is the result of women's art, women's history and the feminist art movement still being marginalised in our educational institutions and museums. Most schools continue to run a male-centred curriculum, and a survey showed work by women artists makes up only 3% to 5% of major permanent collections in the US and Europe.
The New York art critic Jerry Saltz created a furore on Facebook when – after counting the work by women in the Museum of Modern Art's painting and sculpture galleries – he accused the museum of practising a "form of gender-based apartheid". When I was at work on The Dinner Party, only one half of one percent of art books dealt with women. More recently, it has risen to 2.7%. Given that it is major exhibitions, museum collections and art publications that will define the historical record, it is clear that at the top level of the art world it is pretty much business as usual when it comes to women.
However, The Dinner Party demonstrated the power of art in that it overcame enormous resistance and is now part of art history, inspiring generations of young people with the stories of 1,038 courageous women. And my David and Goliath story is not the only one; think of Pussy Riot and the havoc wrought by three young women and a feminist song. The moral of this story is that even if there's a long way to go, art can still strike a blow for freedom – for everyone. Click here for source article:Judy Chicago, the Guardian, Tue 9 Oct 201215.15 EDT
Despite it being Christmas and Hanukkah this week the Archive remained a stimulating recall space. Thank you Louisa Calio for adding important materials about City Spirit Artists. Robert Gregson it is clear we are all appreciating seeing your personal work from the eighties. Learning more about your early years in New Haven and how they influenced it's culture will certainly keep me tuned in.. Thank you Bob for all your support and leadership with this online experiment... Roberta Chambers, your detailed written voice is always a treat for me to read and your photos are newly re-imprinting on/in? my visual memory. I went so far as to ask Dani over this holiday week if she remembered the Laundry T-shirt.. (which she did). Thank you all for making the archive a thoughtful and satisfying remembering experience for all of us....
Despite it being Christmas and Hanukkah this week the Archive remained a stimulating recall space. Thank you Louisa Calio for adding important materials about City Spirit Artists. Robert Gregson it is clear we are all appreciating seeing your personal work from the eighties. Learning more about your early years in New Haven and how they influenced it's culture will certainly keep me tuned in.. Thank you Bob for all your support and leadership with this online experiment... Roberta Chambers, your detailed written voice is always a treat for me to read and your photos are newly re-imprinting on/in? my visual memory. I went so far as to ask Dani over this holiday week if she remembered the Laundry T-shirt.. (which she did). Thank you all for making the archive a thoughtful and satisfying remembering experience for all of us....
Omg : so remember this and him. He helped launch me, really as a producer. I was as much in love w others work as my own. I knew I needed to see more performance work in New Haven so I had to bring it in as well as make it myself. Thkyou Michael R. A community forms when you realize that your work is elevated in the company of other good work. 
The difference between history and collective memory is best understood when comparing the aims and characteristics of each. A goal of history broadly is to provide a comprehensive, accurate, and unbiased portrayal of past events. This often includes the representation and comparison of multiple perspectives and the integration of these perspectives and details to provide a complete and accurate account." Wikipedia
"Visual arts were happening too. I remember showing at Abe Gelbart's gallery. Here is a drawing from my "Disfunctional Architecture" series from 1983. Little did I realize I was an early deconstructavist." Robert Gregson (12-16-2019) 
