Desiring to engage a more diverse, multicultural audience, in 1986, Creative Time expanded performance programming into more populated, less traditional venues. The first of these series was Performance in the Park, which was held in Central Park—at the time, it was not the gentrified arcadia it is today—where a large cross-section of tourists and residents could stop and watch the puppetry of Paul Zaloom or experience newly choreographed dances by Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane.

The conceptual artwork of Performance in the Park 1 grappled with issues such as the monumentality of public art; the role of the individual in sculpture; and the space of the park itself.

Photography by Peter Bellamy

Multiple Artists

Performance in the Park 1

Manhattan

1986