Art in General was a

non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

contemporary art Contemporary art is a term used to describe the art of today, generally referring to art produced from the 1970s onwards. Contemporary artists work in a globally influenced, culturally diverse, and technologically advancing world. Their art is a ...

exhibition space known for its vibrant and ground-breaking projects as a formidable and longstanding New York City alternative space, focused on giving meaningful resources and opportunities to artists early on in their careers. Founded in 1981 by artists Martin Weinstein and Teresa Liszka and originally located in the General Hardware building in New York City — hence the organization's name, Art in General — the institution produced and presented distinctive programs and exhibitions featuring new work by local and international artist

Since its first exhibition in 1982, Art in General provided spaces for artists to display unconventional work and exchange ideas with their peers for almost 40 years, making it one of the longest-standing artist-founded non-profit artist organizations in New York City. Art in General organized exhibitions; commissions new art projects; hosted national and international artist residency programs; and facilitated regular free public programs with renowned artists, critics and curators. More than 2,000 artists exhibited their work at Art in General in a wide range of disciplines—

painting Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

drawing Drawing is a Visual arts, visual art that uses an instrument to mark paper or another two-dimensional surface, or a digital representation of such. Traditionally, the instruments used to make a drawing include pencils, crayons, and ink pens, some ...

photography Photography is the visual arts, art, application, and practice of creating images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is empl ...

installation art Installation art is an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific art, site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior intervent ...

audio Audio most commonly refers to sound, as it is transmitted in signal form. It may also refer to: Sound *Audio signal, an electrical representation of sound *Audio frequency, a frequency in the audio spectrum *Digital audio, representation of sound ...

video art Video art is an art form which relies on using video technology as a visual and audio medium. Video art emerged during the late 1960s as new consumer video technology such as video tape recorders became available outside corporate broadcasting. V ...

performance art Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...

and

new media art New media art includes artworks designed and produced by means of new media, electronic media technologies. It comprises virtual art, computer graphics, computer animation, digital art, interactive art, sound art, Internet art, video games, robo ...

Programs

The New Commissions Program, Art in General’s central focus, flourished since its launch in 2005. The program was created in response to artists’ need for support to create major new projects that would significantly advance their practice. Art in General commissioned new works, either through an open call, or through direct invitation. Art in General provided commissioned artists with both space and a budget for developing their project, as well as an honorarium. Initially designed for New York based artists, in 2012 this program expanded to include projects by international artists. Art in General established the Eastern European Residency Exchange (EERE) in 2001, with the goal of supporting critical dialogue, the presentation of new work, and a greater understanding of diverse cultures. This program took the form of a two-way artist residency until 2013, when it expanded to encompass institutional co-commissioning and other forms of exchange. Art in General’s partner institutions have included: kim?' Contemporary Art Centre'' in Riga, Latvia; ''The Gardens'' in Vilnius, Lithuania
Pavilion Unicredit
in

Bucharest, Romania Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...

Croatian Association of Artists (HDLU)
in

Zagreb, Croatia Zagreb ( ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, north of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the ...

; ''The Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art'' in Rijeka, Croatia; ''Centre for Contemporary Arts FUTURA'' in Prague, Czech Republic; ''The Trafó House of Contemporary Arts'' in Budapest, Hungary; ''Center For Contemporary Arts Estonia'' in Tallinn; ''Bunkier Sztuki Gallery'' in Kraków, Poland; ''Swimming Pool'' in Sofia, Bulgaria; and ''The Centre for Contemporary Art'' in Warsaw, Poland. Art in General regularly organized other discursive programs and exhibitions. When Art in General was located in Manhattan, its Audio in the Elevator program began in 1990 in response to the slow-moving elevator that takes 38 seconds to reach the 6th floor gallery from street level. Art in General saw this unfavorable circumstance as an opportunity to create a new exhibition space in the elevator, where one to five audio or video art projects were displayed each year. In 2018 Rational Dress Society, a counter-fashion collective, were commissioned to create official Art in General uniforms that all members of its staff wore in contemplation of "what cultural work should look like in difficult political times".

Artists

Art in General had a long history of supporting artists early in their careers. Since 1981, Art in General is proud to have supported and shown over 2,000 emerging and mid-career artists and collectives who have gone onto greater success, including Dorothea Rockburne,

Joan Jonas Joan Jonas (born July 13, 1936) is an American visual artist and a pioneer of video and performance art, "a central figure in the performance art movement of the late 1960s".Kay WalkingStick,

Rirkrit Tiravanija Rirkrit Tiravanija (, Jerry Saltz (May 7, 2007)Conspicuous Consumption''New York Magazine''.) is a Thai contemporary artist residing in New York City, Berlin, and Chiangmai, Thailand. He was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1961. His installatio ...

Glenn Ligon Glenn Ligon (born 1960, pronounced Lie-gōne) is an American conceptual artist whose work explores race, language, desire, sexuality, and identity.Meyer, Richard. "Glenn Ligon", in George E. Haggerty and Bonnie Zimmerman (eds), ''Gay Histories a ...

, Byron Kim, Elizabeth Peyton,

Marina Abramović Marina Abramović ( sr-Cyrl, Марина Абрамовић, ; born November 30, 1946) is a Serbian conceptual and performance artist. Her work explores body art, endurance art, the relationship between the performer and audience, the limit ...

, Gabriel Orozco, Paul Pfeiffer, William Pope.L, Pipilotti Rist,

Francis Alÿs Francis Alÿs (born 1959, Antwerp) is a Belgian-born, Mexico-based artist. His work emerges in the interdisciplinary space of art, architecture, and social practice. In 1986, Alÿs left behind his as an architect and relocated to Mexico City, ...

Walid Raad Walid Raad (Ra'ad) (Arabic: وليد رعد) (born 1967 in Chbanieh, Lebanon) is a contemporary media artist. The Atlas Group is a fictional collective, the work of which is produced by Walid Raad. He lives and works in New York, where he is curr ...

, Sharon Hayes, Patty Chang,

Allora & Calzadilla Jennifer Allora (born 20 March 1974) and Guillermo Calzadilla (born 10 January 1971) are a collaborative duo of visual artists who live and work in San Juan, Puerto Rico. They were the United States Representatives for the 2011 Venice Biennale, ...

Pierre Huyghe Pierre Huyghe (born 11 September 1962) is a French contemporary artist, who works in a variety of media from films and sculptures to public interventions and living systems. He lives and works in Santiago de Chile. Early life and education Pier ...

, Andrea Geyer, Xaviera Simmons, Lisi Raskin, Kambui Olujimi, Carlos Motta, Jill Magid, Marwa Arsanios, Adelita Husni-Bey, Dineo Seshee Bopape, Fatma Bucak, Postcommodity, Duane Linklater, Chim↑Pom, Sondra Perry, Anna Daučíková, Aliza Shvarts,

Zach Blas Zach Blas is an artist and writer based in London. Blas was a lecturer in Visual culture, visual cultures at Goldsmiths, University of London, and is now an assistant professor of visual studies at the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Lan ...

, among many others. Its roster of artists reflected its deep and long-standing commitment to diversity and equity in the arts. Art in General was often at the forefront of giving artists their first New York exhibitions.

Curators

The institution had also been a crucial one for giving diverse curators a chance to curate risk-taking exhibitions early in their careers. Not unlike the artists it supports, many who curated exhibitions for Art in General as staff members or as guest curators later went on to notable acclaim for their impactful and highly original curatorial work, writing on contemporary artists, and leading of important arts institutions such as Holly Block, Anne Barlow, Sofía Hernández Chong Cuy, Dean Daderko, Eva Díaz, Andria Hickey, Ruba Katrib, Laura Hoptman, Laurel Ptak, Franklin Sirmans, Hazma Walker, and others.

Leadership

Art in General had a long history of supporting women in leadership roles. From 1981 to 1988, Art in General was led by its founders, artists Martin Weinstein and Teresa Liszka. After Weinstein and Liszka stepped aside from actively overseeing day-to-day operations, Holly Block was appointed the inaugural Executive Director in 1988. Subsequently, Art in General proudly established itself as a woman-led organization. Executive Directors: Holly Block (1988–2006); Anne Barlow (2007–2016); Laurel Ptak (2017–2020); Irene Mei Zhi Shum (2020).

Facilities

From 1981 to 2015, Art in General was located at 79 Walker Street in Manhattan, in a six-floor building owned b
General Hardware Manufacturing Inc.
(now General Tools & Instruments LLC), hence the organization’s name. Located at the intersection of three neighborhoods in New York City (Tribeca, SoHo, and Chinatown), Art in General had since its founding been committed to presenting new work by artists of color, women, immigrants and visiting artists. In 2003, Gerry Weinstein, CEO of General Tools & Instruments LLC, donated the storefront to Art in General for use as a gallery. In 2006, the sixth-floor gallery underwent a major renovation by Steven Learner Studios and was re-opened in January 2007 with Le Musée Minuscule, created in honor of New Langton Arts’ former space of the same name. In 2014, General Tools was acquired by High Road Capital Partners, a private equity group. When the business was sold and the building changed ownership, Art in General lost its primary patron, that provided corporate donations as well as rent-free office and exhibition space. Then Director Anne Barlow and board president Robert Ferguson moved its office to 20 Jay Street and its gallery to 145 Plymouth Street in DUMBO, Brooklyn in January 2016. Although the office and gallery had different mailing addresses, they were in fact located in the same building, owned by Two Trees Management. In August 2020 then Director Irene Mei Zhi Shum announced that Art in General would be partnering with Mana Contemporary and relocating the office to Mana's facility in Jersey City, New Jersey, stating in a press release, "This new partnership allows Art in General to organize programs and exhibitions across Mana Contemporary’s real estate portfolio, which includes buildings in Jersey City, New Jersey; Chicago, Illinois; and Miami, Florida. It also provides studio space for visiting artists and curators for Art in General's residency programs. This opportunity was made possible by the generous support of Eugene Lemay, founder of Mana Contemporary." However in October 2020 Art in General was shuttered deeply saddening the arts community. The closure was the direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic. In a statement, Board President Leslie Ruff and Executive Director Irene Mei Zhi Shum cited the pressures of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. “Although we have taken critical measures to adjust to the new normal, the financial constriction due to COVID-19 has proved formidable, severely affecting our ability to fulfill our mission.” They continued, “In this difficult time for us all, we offer our sincere thanks to you — our alumni artists, guest curators, visitors, former staff and donors — for your passion and dedication, interest and support during the last forty years.”

Legacy

The Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, acquired the archive of Art in General. The Art in General archive comprehensively chronicles the decades of exhibitions and programs and long-standing commitment to diversity and equity in the arts. The more than one hundred linear feet of materials donated to the Archives of American Art include Holly Block’s files, documenting her 18-year tenure as Art in General’s forward-thinking first director. “It is a tremendous honor to preserve the legacy of one of New York’s most important non-profit institutions,” said Liza Kirwin, interim director, Archives of American Art. “The Archives is proud to be stewards of Art in General’s historic records, ensuring that they are preserved and available to the public and future generations.”

References

External links

*
Art in General archives

{{Coord, 40, 43, 5.15, N, 74, 0, 6.64, W, region:US, display=title Contemporary art galleries in the United States Culture of New York City 1981 establishments in the United States Art museums and galleries in Manhattan Art museums and galleries established in 1981