"Whatever hidden working and living was going on there, in time it became more public. There was the Papier Mache Video Institute (PMVI) was founded in 1978 by Paul Rutkovsky, who was “a fellow at Harvard’s Institute for the Study of the Avant-Garde” (which, sadly, no longer seems to exist). PMVI “was a group that focused on activist art of a transient nature not typically found in museums and galleries. They took on issues of feminism, war, capitalism, elitism, urban renewal, and ‘TV monoculture” with works of music, dance, poetry, visual art, performance, mixed media, and of course papier-mache and video.” TVs were smashed. Videos were made. There was an annual Miss America event in which women and men competed.
As the notes relate, “Rutkovsky and crew established their work and exhibition space on the wide-open fourth floor of the north side of the factory. They had open reign to create freely and host events, gradually spreading and taking over space along the west side (Hamilton Street) as well…. When Rutkovsky became a professor at Florida State University, colleague Beverly Richey took over and did groundbreaking work in feminist art and the subject of food as a political statement.” A one-day-only exhibition in 1984, entitled “1984,” “had a crowd of over 700 visitors lining up around the block.”
