Charles Dennis, Risa Jaroslow, The Klezmatics, The Spirit Ensemble

July 10, 1994
Sara D. Roosevelt Park, Houston to Delancey streets
Photo © 1994 Tom Brazil

In collaboration with the community organization University Settlement, Creative Time presented four performance events as part of the First Annual Sara D. Roosevelt Park Summer Festival. The program included dance work by choreographers Charles Dennis and Risa Jaroslow, as well as live music and events by The Spirit Ensemble and The Klezmatics. The festival acknowledged and celebrated nine months of coordinated community efforts to restore and preserve the Sara D. Roosevelt Park, on the grounds of which an African-American burial site had recently been discovered.

Mary Ellen Strom and Barbara Tsumagari

July 7, 1994
Apollo Theater
Photo © 1994 Dona Ann McAdams

Celebrating its 20th anniversary and the opening of the 1994 42nd Street Art Project, Creative Time hosted an evening of live performances, art tours, and plain old-fashioned fun on 42nd Street. The performance event opened with a retrospective video/timeline edited by Dyke TV commemorating twenty years of Creative Time projects and honoring the more than two thousand artists who have worked with the organization. Creative Time founder Anita Contini was honored for her extraordinary vision in providing the foundation for the organization’s two decades of innovative public programming.

Karen Finley, performance artist and author extraordinaire, was Mistress of Ceremonies for an evening which included performances by musician Terry Allen, dancer Blondell Cummings, performance artist John Kelly and folk singer Phranc (appearing as Joni Mitchell and Neil Diamond, respectively), and comedian Phil Nee.

Ann Carlson

July-September, 1994
Brooklyn Bridge Anchorage
Photo © 1994 Dona Ann McAdams

During her ten week residency at the Brooklyn Bridge Anchorage, choreographer/director Ann Carlson launched the first phase of a three year project entitled Mirage. This large-scale performance incorporated the creative contributions of diverse and often under-represented local constituencies; throughout the summer Carlson worked with children from nearby settlement houses and schools, community choir members, domestic workers, and developmentally disabled adults. Individuals and groups were encouraged to visit the Anchorage and take part in Carlson’s lively laboratory. At the conclusion of the residency in the Anchorage, Carlson presented six public performances. Audiences moved though the space from event to event experiencing a carnival of images and action.

Carlson also collaborated with visual artists Todd Gilens, Pat Oleszko, and Mary Ellen Strom for the project.

Vito Acconci, Ken Chu, Donna Dennis, Toni Dove, Dick Elliot, Dee Evetts, Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss), The Haiku Society of America, Janet Henry, Tibor Kalman, Ron Kuivila, The Kunst Brothers (Tom Leeser and Alison Saar), James Luna, Rima Mardoyan-Smyth, Nam June Paik, Phranc, Robert Rosenheck, J. Otto Seibold, Robert Seng, Roger Shimomura, Ned Smyth, Scott Stowell, The Triage Project, Barbara L. Tsumagari, Neil Winokur, Ellen Zweig

July-September, 1994
42nd Street between Seventh and Eighth avenues
Photo © 1994 Maggie Hopp

In the summer of 1994, The 42nd Street Art Project once again transformed Manhattan’s Times Square into a bustling, 24/7 gallery of contemporary art. Works by twenty-five artists, architects, and designers once again transformed storefronts and display windows, billboards and theater marquees, security gates, and sidewalks. These temporary, site-specific installations included a mysterious curtain of rain falling continuously from a theater marquee, a Pop Art-influenced mock automat, a bevy of juvenile robots programmed to prey on passersby, and numerous murals, sculptures, and interactive media works.

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