New York

Initiatives

Venues, spaces

• 98 Bowery, 1969-1989
• ABC No Rio, center for art and activism, *1980
• A.I.R., artist-run exhibition space for women artists, *1972
• Amant, non-profit exhibition venue, Brooklyn, *2019
• Anthology Film Archives, *1970
• Art in General, *1981
• Artists Space, *1972
• Babycastles, *2009
• BHQFU, artist-run school, *2010
• Bitforms, gallery, *2001
• Bluestockings, bookstore cafe and activist center, *1999
• Bowery Gallery, artist co-op, *1969
• Cabinet, event and exhibition space, Brooklyn, *2008
• carriage trade, gallery, *2008
• Center for Art, Research and Alliances (CARA), *2022
• Central Booking, *2009
• CUE Art Foundation, *2002
• The Current Museum of Art, *2016
• Cybernetics Library, *2017
• Danspace Project, *1974
• The Drawing Center, museum, *1977
• Dunkunsthalle, gallery, *2023
• EFA Project Space, arts venue, *2008
• e-flux
• Electronic Arts Intermix, *1971
• Elsewhere, live music venue, nightclub and arts space, *2014
• Experimental Intermedia, *1973
• Flux Factory, *1993
• Franklin Furnace, *1976
• The Free Black Women's Library, *2015
• Genspace, community biolab, *2009
• Gowanus Studio Space, cooperative workspace, *2007
• happylucky no.1, space for art and music, *2015
• Harvestworks
• Hex House, art studios and community space, East Williamsburg, *2021
• Industry City, *2009
• Interference Archive, *2011
• The Invisible Dog Art Center, *2009
• Issue Project Room, performance venue, *2003
• The Kitchen, *1971
• Knockdown Center, art center and performance space, *2012
• Lesbian Herstory Archives, *1970s
• Light Industry, film and electronic art venue, *2008
• Metrograph, movie theatre, *2015
• Miriam, artist-run gallery and bookshop, *2019.
• No-Space, *2004
• Participant Inc, alternative art space, *2001
• Performance Space New York, *1980/2018
• Pioneer Works, culture centre, *2014
• Playground Coffee Shop & Annex, community space and bookstore
• Prime Produce, cooperatively-run space, *2018
• Printed Matter, art space & artists books, *1976
• Reanimation Library
• Recess, *2009
• Recurse Center, formerly Hacker School, *2011
• Reverse, art space, *2012
• School for Poetic Computation (SFPC), artist-run school, *2013
• SculptureCenter, *1928
• Soft Surplus, *2018
• Spectacle, collectively-run screening space, *2010
• The Stone, improvised music venue, *2005, [1]
• Storefront for Art and Architecture, *1982
• The Sunview Luncheonette, community space, Brooklyn, 1963-2008, *2013
• Taller Boricua (Puerto Rican Workshop), *1969
• Wendy's Subway, library and workspace, *2013, [2]
• White Columns (formerly 112 Greene Street), alternative art space, *1970
• Wonderville, Brooklyn, indie arcade bar and event space, *2019.

• Past venues: X Initiative (2009-2010), Orchard (cooperatively organized exhibition and event space, 2005-2008) [3] [4], Collective:Unconscious (theater, 1994-2008), Fashion Moda (1978-1993) [5] [6] [7], Collective for Living Cinema (1973-1992), Basement Workshop (1970-1986), Women's Interart Center (1969/1971-2016).
• more: Art Spaces Archives Project, Alternatives in Retrospect: An Historical Overview 1969-1975, Groups & Spaces, [8] [9], [10], [11], [12], [13].

Other initiatives

• Avant.org, *2014
• Blank Forms, curatorial platform for performance, *2016
• BOMB, artist interviews magazine, *1981
• Booklyn, artists, libraries, social justice, *1999
• Cabinet, magazine, *2000
• Clocktower Radio, all-art online museum radio station, *2003
• Common Practice New York, advocacy group, *2012
• Deep Lab, *2015
• GenderFail, publisher, *2015
• Hyphen-Labs
• Livecode.NYC
• Living Room Light Exchange New York, *2016
• Primary Information, *2006
• Rhizome, *1996
• Signal Culture, *2012
• The Thing, *1991
• UbuWeb, avant-garde arts resource, *1996
• Unbag, *2017, Log
• W.A.G.E. (Working Artists and the Greater Economy), *2008
• WFMU, independent freeform radio, *1958
• Past initiatives: Group Material (1979-1996), ART/new York (video magazine on art, *1981) [14], Collaborative Projects Inc. (Colab) (1978-1986), Institute for Art and Urban Resources (IAUR, *1971), Art Workers' Coalition (1969-1971).
• more: Groups & Spaces.

Events

• !!Con, conference, *2014
• DEMO, art, design and technology festival, *2022
• Platform Cooperativism, conference, *2015
• Printed Matter's NY Art Book Fair, *2011
• Radical Networks, conference, *2015
• Software for Artists (S4AD), annual event, *2015, [15]
• Theorizing the Web, since 2013
• Event listings: Nonsense NYC, Screen Slate, The Skint.

Past events

• Cybernetics Conference, 2017, videos
• Alternative Art School Fair, 2016
• alt-AI, 2016
• Other Primary Structures, exhibition, 2014
• Digital Labor, conference, 2014
• PRISM Breakup, 2013
• Breakout, festival, 2009
• The Internet as Playground and Factory, conference, 2009
• video_dumbo, festival for contemporary moving image, 2005-2013
• Anticopyright Network, exhibition, 1997
• The Times Square Show, exhibition, 1980
• The Real Estate Show, exhibition, 1980
• Punk Art, exhibition, 1978
• Lives, exhibition, 1975
• Schizo-Culture, 1975
• Open Circuits, conference, 1974
• Computer Art Festival, 1973-1975
• Women's Video Festival, 1972-1980
• Software - Information Technology: Its New Meaning for Art, exhibition, 1970
• Information, exhibition, 1970
• Kinesthetics, exhibition, 1969
• TV as a Creative Medium, exhibition, 1969
• Some More Beginnings, exhibition, 1968
• The Machine as Seen at the End of the Mechanical Age, exhibition, 1968
• 9 Evenings: Theatre and Engineering, festival, 1966
• Primary Structures, exhibition, 1966
• The Responsive Eye, exhibition, 1965
• Annual Avant Garde Festival, 1963-1982
• Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism, exhibition, 1936
• Cubism and Abstract Art, exhibition, 1936
• Machine-Age Exposition, exhibition, 1927
• International Exhibition of Modern Art Assembled by Société Anonyme, exhibition, 1926-1927

Art workers

• Alan W. Moore
• Alexander R. Galloway
• Ana Janevski
• Andrea Callard
• Aria Dean
• Ben Fino-Radin
• Charles Eppley
• Charles Turner
• Chris Woebken
• Coleen Fitzgibbon
• Constance DeJong
• Cristóbal Sciutto Rodríguez
• Dan Taeyoung
• David Isaac Hecht
• Dennis Tenen
• Francis Tseng
• Guerrilla Girls (*1985)
• Ingrid Burrington
• Joan Jonas
• Julie Ault
• Kenneth Goldsmith
• Lai Yi Ohlsen
• Laurel Ptak
• Laurie Anderson
• Legacy Russell
• Marc H. Miller
• Marcia Resnick
• Martha Rosler
• McKenzie Wark
• Melanie Hoff
• Michael Connor
• Mindy Seu
• Nabil Hassein
• Nora N. Khan
• Paul Soulellis
• Raphael Montañez Ortíz
• Sarah Hamerman
• Shannon Mattern
• Shu Lea Cheang
• Ted Byfield
• Tega Brain
• Tiffany Sia
• Trebor Scholz
• Xin Xin
• Yoko Ono

• formerly: Sam Hart.

• RIP: Ana Mendieta (1948-1985), Barbara Hammer (1939-2019), Carolee Schneemann (1939-2019), Dara Birnbaum (1946-2025), Jonas Mekas (1922-2019), Lillian F. Schwartz (1927-2024), Nam June Paik (1932-2006), Paul Ryan (1943-2013), Phill Niblock (1933-2024), Shigeko Kubota (1937-2015), Yasunao Tone (1935-2025).

See also

• Monoskop's NYC Twitter list

Publications

• Phil Patton, "Other Voices, Other Rooms: The Rise of the Alternative Art Space", Art in America 65:4, Jul–Aug 1977.

• East Village Eye, ed. Leonard Abrams, 73 issues, New York, May 1979-Jan 1986, 1987, 2016. Interview with Abrams (2012). WP.

• BOMB, ed. Betsy Sussler, New York, Spring 1981 ff. A print quarterly publishing in-depth interviews between artists.

• Ellen Mara De Wachter, Co-Art: Artists on Creative Collaboration, Phaidon, 244 pp. Publisher.

• Alternatives in Retrospect: An Historical Overview 1969-1975, ed. Jacki Apple, New York: New Museum, 1981, 52 pp. Exh. catalogue. Exhibition. Publisher. [16]

• Sally Webster, A Report: Alternative Spaces and the Crises Threatening Their Survival, New York: RoseWeb Projects, 1982. [17]

• Elisabeth Lebovici, L’Argent dans le discours des artistes américains, 1980-1981, Paris: Université Paris-X, 1983. PhD thesis. (French)
  • "To Expose, to Show, to Demonstrate, to Inform, to Offer", trans. Naomi Vogt, OAR: The Oxford Artistic and Practice Based Research Platform 4, 2021, pp 31-58. [18]

• Alan Moore, Marc Miller (eds.), ABC No Rio Dinero: The Story of a Lower East Side Art Gallery, New York: ABC No Rio with Collaborative Projects, 1985, vi+195 pp.

• Cultural Economies: Histories from the Alternative Arts Movement, NYC, ed. Julie Ault, New York: Drawing Center, 1996, 72 pp. [19]

• Julie Ault (ed.), Alternative Art New York, 1965-1985: a Cultural Politics Book for the Social Text Collective, University of Minnesota Press, with New York: Drawing Center, 2002, ix+396 pp, IA. Publisher. TOC.

• Art Spaces Archives Project, 2003 ff. List of organizations. Surveys list.

• Clayton Patterson, et al. (eds.), Resistance: A Radical Social and Political History of the Lower East Side, New York: Seven Stories Press, 2006, 672 pp. Publisher. Event.

• The Downtown Book: The New York Art Scene, 1974-1984, ed. Marvin J. Taylor, forew. Lynn Gumpert, New York: Grey Art Gallery and Fales Library, New York University, and Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2006, 208 pp, IA. Introduction. Exh. catalogue. Essays by Marvin J. Taylor, Bernard Gendron, Carlo McCormick, RoseLee Goldberg, Matthew Yokobosky, Robert Seigle, Brian Wallis and Ian Alteveer. Publisher. [20]

• Alan W. Moore, "Artists' Collectives: Focus on New York, 1975-2000", in Collectivism After Modernism: The Art of Social Imagination After 1945, eds. Blake Stimson and Gregory Sholette, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2007, pp 193-221.

• David E. Little, "Colab Takes a Piece, History Takes It Back: Collectivity and New York Alternative Spaces", Art Journal 66(1): "Alternative Modes of Distribution", Spring 2007, pp 60–74, HTML. [21] [22]

• Christelle Terroni, Les Pratiques artistiques des Espaces Alternatifs à New-York, 1969-1980, Tours: Université François-Rabelais, 2010; rev. as New York Seventies. Avant-garde et espaces alternatifs, Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2015. (French)

• Marc H. Miller, 98 BOWERY: 1969 - 89: view from the top floor, 2009 ff. Exhibition (2019).

• Alan W. Moore, Art Gangs: Protest and Counterculture in New York City, Brooklyn, NY: Autonomedia, 2011, 185 pp. Street-level history of artists’ groups and collective activity by artists in New York from 1969 to 1985. Review: Anderson (Oxford Art J).

• Gallery 98: Art Ephemera, 1960s-1990s, ed. Marc H. Miller, New York, 2011 ff. [23]

• Christelle Terroni, "Essor et déclin des espaces alternatifs", La vie des idees, Feb 2011. (French)
  • "The Rise and Fall of Alternative Spaces", Books & Ideas, Oct 2011.

• Lauren Rosati, Mary Anne Staniszewski (eds.), Alternative Histories: New York Art Spaces, 1960 to 2010, MIT Press, and Exit Art, 2012, 408 pp. Rosati's essay, Rachleff's essay. Publisher. Reviews: Anderson (Oxford Art J), Basciano (ArtReview), Friel (Afterimage).

• Bowery Artist Tribute, Vol. 3, ed. Ethan Swan, New York: New Museum, 2012, 23 pp. Exhibition.

• Jessamyn Fiore (ed.), 112 Greene Street: the Early Years, 1970–1974, New York: Radius Books, 2012, 192 pp. Review: Anderson (Oxford Art J).

• Mary Anne Staniszewski, "Alternatives and Attitudes: Today and Yesterday", in Germano Celant, et al., When Attitudes Become Form: Bern 1969/Venice 2013, Milan: Progetto Prada Arte, 2013, pp 457-468. Publisher.

• Jake Yuzna (ed.), The Fun: The Social Practice of Nightlife in NYC, Brooklyn, NY: Museum of Arts and Design/powerHouse Books, 2013, 336 pp. Publisher.

• Carey Lovelace, "Optimism and Rage: The Women's Movement in Art in New York, 1969-1975", Woman's Art Journal 37:1, Spring/Summer 2016, pp 4-11.

• Tom Goyens (ed.), Radical Gotham: Anarchism in New York City from Schwab's Saloon to Occupy Wall Street, Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2017, 258 pp. Review: Blum (J Stud Rad).

• Inventing Downtown: Artist-Run Galleries in New York City, 1952-1965, ed. Melissa Rachleff, New York: Grey Art Gallery, New York University, 2017, 296 pp, IA. [24]

• Pauline Chevalier, Une Histoire des espaces alternatifs à New York: de SoHo au South Bronx (1969-1985), Dijon: Les Presses du réel, 2017, 501 pp. Review: Besson (Critique d'art). (French)

• Adair Rounthwaite, Asking the Audience: Participatory Art in 1980s New York, University of Minnesota Press, 2017, 280 pp, PDF, EPUB. Publisher. Reviews: Gosse (Panorama), Simon (ARLIS/NA), Hankins (ASAP). [25]

• Nandini Bagchee, Counter Institution: Activist Estates of the Lower East Side, Fordham University Press, 2018, 264 pp. Publisher.

• Steve Lyons, Rezoning the Alternative: Art and Politics in New York at the Dawn of the Reagan Era, Montreal: Concordia University, 2018. PhD dissertation. [26]

• Steven H. Jaffe, Activist New York: A History of People, Protest, and Politics, forew. Eric Foner, New York University Press, 2018. [27]

• Klaus Biesenbach, Bettina Funcke (eds.), MoMA PS1: A History, New York: Museum of Modern Art, 2019, 304 pp. [28] [29]

• Peter McGough, I've Seen the Future and I'm Not Going: The Art Scene and Downtown New York in the 1980s, Penguin Random House, Sep 2019, 304 pp. Publisher.

• East Village Fanzine, New York: Printed Matter, 2021, 31 pp. Publisher.

• Jason Bailey, Fun City Cinema: New York City and the Movies that Made It, forew. Matt Zoller Seitz, Abrams Books, Oct 2021, 352 pp. Publisher.

• Alan W. Moore, "“Approaching Downtown” NYC in London: Post #1", "Post #2", "Post #3", "Post #4", "Post #5", Art Gangs, Aug-Sep 2022. A series of posts about the Approaching Downtown: Avant-Garde Cultural Production in New York City, 1970s-1990s symposium at the Courtauld Institute, London, in mid-July.

• This Must Be the Place: An Oral History of Latin American Artists in New York, 1965-1975, eds. Tie Jojima and Karen Marta, New York: Americas Society and the Institute for Studies on Latin American Art, 2022, 431 pp. Publisher. Review: Vicario (LALVC).

• Steven Heller, Growing Up Underground: A Memoir of Counterculture New York, ‎Princeton Architectural Press, Oct 2022, 224 pp. Interviews: Letterform Archive, Common Edge. Publisher.

• Cisco Bradley, The Williamsburg Avant-Garde: Experimental Music and Sound on the Brooklyn Waterfront, Duke University Press, Mar 2023, 408 pp. Author. Publisher.

• Jesse Rifkin, This Must Be the Place: Music, Community and Vanished Spaces in New York City, Hanover Square Press, Jul 2023, 544 pp.

• J. Hoberman, Everything Is Now: The 1960s New York Avant-Garde—Primal Happenings, Underground Movies, and Radical Pop, New York: Verso, May 2025, 464 pp. Publisher.

	Cities alternative base
Amsterdam, Athens, Bergen, Berlin, Bratislava, Brussels, Budapest, Copenhagen, Kyiv, Ljubljana, London, New York, Oslo, Paris, Prague, Rotterdam, Seoul, Stockholm, Tokyo, Vienna, Warsaw, Zagreb