Making Space: Collaborative art practice and community building in abandoned New York City public schools, 1980-1990

This project will examine the forms of collaborative art practice and community building that took place in three culturally significant art spaces occupying abandoned New York City public schools in the 1980s: PS1, Performance Space 122, and El Bohio. I will evaluate the ways in which the activities that these spaces fostered reflect the radically different identities and priorities of the communities who lived and worked in downtown neighbourhoods. I will argue that these spaces are vital to understanding the changing cultural identity and legacy of New York in the 1980s, as AIDS and gentrification radically reshaped the city.