Performance Art Festival 25th Anniversary
The Cleveland Performance Art Festival + Archives began in 1988 as a project of Cleveland Public Theatre, and continued as a separate 501(c)3 presenting annual festivals through 1999, featuring over 100 artists per year. All total, over 1000 performance artists from 27 countries were presented in the Cleveland area, making it the largest festival of performance art in the world. The Festival has the distinction of presenting each of the infamous “NEA Four” (Karen Finley, John Fleck, Holly Hughes, Tim Miller) who were banned for homoerotic content, and as one of the first to present an unknown Blue Man Group, months before they began their run in NYC.
In 2003, the Archives of the PAF were moved to the Cleveland State University Library Special Collections, with an exhibition, performance series and public events. Over 2000 hours of video and 6000 photographs, along with artist documentation and ephemera make the Archive one of the largest repositories of it’s kind in the world.
The Spring of 2013 will mark the 25th Anniversary of the inception of the Performance Art Festival, and a number of major arts institutions and smaller groups are collaborating on a region-wide project to celebrate performance art and examine it’s impact on popular culture and the art world. Simultaneously, efforts are underway to preserve the Archives and make them accessible. Dubbed Project 25, this interdisciplinary collaboration is expected to feature live performance, installation, talks, educational programs and street actions.
Festival Director Thomas Mulready, who went on to create CoolCleveland.com and co-found IngenuityFest, has been invited to perform in Glasgow, Scotland in March, 2012 as a featured presentation of the International Festival of Live Art. While there, he will also participate in a panel entitled, “The How; Developing a network, producing exhibits, and existing as a performance artist in a Capitalist society,” along with Charles Garoian, Martha Wilson and Suzanne Lacy, and moderated by Jamie McMurray.
This video, entitled, “This Is Performance Art,” outlines the history of the Performance Art Festival and the challenges of preserving its ephemeral Archives.
Those interested in participating in Project 25 or learning more about the Performance Art Festival are encouraged to contact Info@Performance-Art.org.
http://www.Performance-art.org
Watch the video “This Is Performance Art” here.