Franklin Furnace Archive, Inc. is an arts organization, now located in Long Island City, New York City. Since its inception on Manhattan's Franklin Street in 1976, Franklin Furnace has been presenting and archiving avant-garde art and making it available to the public.Marie Sophie Beckmann, Films That Spill: Beyond the Cinema of Transgression, Rutgers University Press, 2026, pp.49 &159 Franklin Furnace is dedicated to serving emerging artists by providing both physical and virtual venues for the presentation of time-based art, including but not limited to artists' books and periodicals, site-specific installations, performance art, and live art on the internet. It focuses on time-based art forms that may be vulnerable due to institutional neglect, cultural bias, politically unpopular content or their ephemeral or experimental nature.
In 1990, Franklin Furnace's basement performance space was closed by the New York City Fire Department in response to an anonymous caller. Since that time, Franklin Furnace has been presenting performance art to new audiences throughout New York City by developing strategic partnerships with institutions large and small, from The Brooklyn Museum and The New School for Social Research to Dixon Place, The Knitting Factory, and public spaces across the five boroughs. Franklin Furnace moved to its new Long Island City location in 2025.
History Franklin Furnace was founded in 1976 by Martha Wilson to serve artists who chose publishing as a primary, "democratic" conceptual artistic medium and were not being supported by existing arts organizations. From its inception, Franklin Furnace's energies focused on three aspects of "time-based" art: its collection of artists' books; its performance art program for emerging artists; and its exhibitions of time-based arts, both site-specific installations by contemporary artists, and historical and contemporary exhibitions of artists' books and other ephemeral arts.Leimbach, Dulcie (September 1, 1997). "For an Avant-Garde Center, An End and a Beginning". The New York Times. Retrieved June 21, 2022.Zabielskis, Peter. (1976). Franklin Furnace Archive, Inc. ARLIS/NA Newsletter 5:1, 10-10.
In 1985, Franklin Furnace established the Franklin Furnace FUND for Performance Art, an annual grant program for early career artists chosen by peer panel review. The same year, the Franklin Furnace inaugurated Sequential Art for Kids, an arts-in-education program that places professional artists in New York City public school classrooms. Since its establishment, SEQART has grown into an award-winning arts education program that is fully integrated with public school curriculum, having by 2021 sent a total of 41 artists into 58 NYC public elementary schools to serve over 8,550 children. Starting in 2016, SEQART has also been providing arts education services for adults in senior citizen and wellness centers.
In 1993, Franklin Furnace and the Museum of Modern Art signed an agreement to merge Franklin Furnace's collection of artists' books published internationally after 1960—the largest repository of this nature in the United States—with that of MOMA, forming a permanent resource of unparalleled value.Museum of Modern Art. (1993, November 17) "The Museum of Modern Art to Acquire Major Artist Book Collection from Franklin Furnace" [press release]
During its 20th anniversary season in 1996 and 1997, Franklin Furnace sold its original loft and reinvented itself as a "virtual institution," not identified with its real estate but rather with its resources, made accessible by electronic and other means. No longer providing a venue for performance art projects, the organization continues to provide grants and other support to performance artists via the Franklin Furnace FUNDSant, Toni. Franklin Furnace and the Spirit of the Avant-Garde. (Bristol, UK: Intellect Books Limited, 2014). pp.28. for Performance Art. From 1998 to 2004, Franklin Furnace's headquarters were at 45 John Street in lower Manhattan.
Between 1998 and 1999, in the early days of the internet, Franklin Furnace presented new time-based art by 32+ artists to worldwide audiences through The Future of the Present, its pioneering online collaboration with Pseudo Programs, Inc. In 2023, British artist/curator Elly Clarke, who was an intern at Franklin Furnace from 1998-9, curated an exhibition in the library at Pratt Institute entitled 'Dragging the archive - a personal re:encounter with Franklin Furnace's cyber beginnings' that explored the shift Franklin Furnace took at that time from being a physical organization to a 'virtual' one.
In 2008, The Franklin Furnace FUND for Performance Art and the Future of the Present grant programs were combined to institute the Franklin Furnace FUND. With the continued support of Jerome Foundation, the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs and others, as of 2021, Franklin Furnace has awarded grants ranging between $2,000 and $10,000 to a total of 382 artists.
On October 1, 2004, Franklin Furnace moved from the Financial District to 80 Arts - The James E. Davis Arts Building in the BAM cultural district at 80 Hanson Place in Brooklyn where it remained until Fall, 2014 when Franklin Furnace relocated to Pratt Institute's Brooklyn campus under an organization-in-residence agreement.Heddaya, Mostafa (Dec. 11 2014). "Franklin Furnace, Performance Art Pioneer, Relocates to Pratt Under Long-Term Agreement". Hyperallergic. Retrieved June 21, 2022. The decision to "nest" within Pratt Institute coincided with the announcement of Pratt's new Master of Fine Arts program in Performance + Performance Studies.Vogel, Carol (Nov. 7 2014) A Franklin Furnace 'Nest', NY Times. Retrieved June 21, 2022.
In mid-2020 in response to the global pandemic, Franklin Furnace pivoted to continue offering services for avant-garde artists and their aficionados by launching the LOFT, an online digital presenting platform.History. (2021, October 22). Franklin Furnace. Retrieved June 21, 2022 By March 2022, the LOFT had presented the work of 300+ Franklin Furnace artist alumnsIn 2001, Franklin Furnace created and began using the gender neutral terms alumn (sing.) and alumns (pl.). in 24 free public programs.
During its 50-year history, Franklin Furnace has gained a national and international reputation for identifying artists who have changed the terms by which contemporary avant-garde art is discussed; mounted scholarly exhibitions that have embodied the history of 20th-century avant-garde activity; and stood up for the right of artists to freedom of expression as guaranteed under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Notable artist alumns Among hundreds of artists who Franklin Furnace gave the opportunity to mount their first New York shows are Ida Applebroog, Guillaume Bijl, Dara Birnbaum, Willie Cole, Jenny Holzer, Tehching Hsieh, Barbara Kruger, Matt Mullican, Shirin Neshat, and Krzysztof Wodiczko. Among the many performance artists who got their start at Franklin Furnace are Eric Bogosian, David Cale, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Karen Finley, Robbie McCauley, Theodora Skipitares, Michael Smith, and Paul Zaloom. Additionally, Franklin Furnace's programs have enabled more established artists like Vito Acconci, Laurie Anderson, Jennifer Bartlett, Lee Breuer, Richard Foreman, Joan Jonas, Pope.L, and William Wegman to experiment in ways that would be inappropriate for mainstream venues. Franklin Furnace's exhibition program has presented many historically notable exhibitions of time-based art of an ephemeral nature, including critically celebrated exhibitions on Cubist books and prints, Fluxus, and Hungarian and Russian Samizdat art, contributing to international art history scholarship.
Current projects
The Franklin Furnace FUND Granted annually, the Franklin Furnace FUND aims to help artists produce major performance art works in New York City. Rather than having a curator, the FUND relies on a peer review panel to select grant recipients. Each year, a new panel of artists reviews all applications and determines the allocation of funding. Eligible artists are early-career, non-student, vocational artists who create innovative, imaginative, and authentic performance art. Although artists from everywhere in the world can apply, grant recipients are expected to showcase their FUND projects in New York City.
Artists' Book Collection Franklin Furnace's Artists' Books Collection has been a core program since the organization's 1976 inception as an artists' book store. By 1977, Printed Matter bookstore had opened a few blocks away, leaving Franklin Furnace to continue its work as an artists' book archives and exhibition center.
When the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) acquired the Franklin Furnace collection of artists' books in 1993, the collection consisted of over 13,500 artists' books, magazines, and audiotapes, forming the largest collection of artists' books in the United States: the Museum of Modern Art/Franklin Furnace/Artist Book Collection. To this day, Franklin Furnace continues to maintain and build its own artists' books collection at the Pratt Institute campus in Brooklyn, and to give duplicate donations to the Museum of Modern Art/Franklin Furnace/Artist Book Collection.FAQ | MoMA. (n.d.). The Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved June 21, 2022
Event Archives and Moving Image Archives Franklin Furnace's virtual Event Archives is a searchable database with information about performance art works, temporary installations, exhibitions, and special events hosted by Franklin Furnace. Franklin Furnace's Moving Image Archives is a burgeoning research collection consisting in 2021 of 140 videos originally recorded as VHS tapes which document art events, particularly performance art, presented or supported by Franklin Furnace during the 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s. Franklin Furnace's archives have received important support from the Council on Library and Information Resources, The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, Pine Tree Foundation of New York, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Documentation of Franklin Furnace's artists and artworks are also available on the Artstor website. The public is invited to make appointments to conduct research in Franklin Furnace's physical archives at its Brooklyn offices.
The Sketchbooks of Ree Morton archives The Sketchbooks of Ree Morton, an American visual artist from the postminimalist period, are also available as an online research resource offered by Franklin Furnace. Importantly, this collection provides the only evidence of many of her ephemeral, yet important pieces. The estate of Ree Morton donated 22 sketchbooks, 16 notebooks, and more to Franklin Furnace in 1988, all of which is accessible online.
The Flue archives Conceived and instituted in 1980 by artist and printer Conrad Gleber, The Flue was a periodical totalling sixteen issues published by Franklin Furnace between 1980 and 1989.Wilson, Martha. 2005. "The Flue," TDR: The Drama Review. The MIT Press, Vol 49, No 1 (T 185): p. 96. The idea for an artist-driven publication was inspired by the tabloid-format catalog of Chicago Books' 1980 Franklin Furnace installation, "Chicago". The in-house periodical spanned a range of formats, including tabloids and posters, organizational newsletters, exhibition supplements and catalogs, and scholarly surveys of contemporary and historical artists book movements. The range in media formats reflect the multitude of editors and designers who worked on the periodical, including Barbara Kruger, Richard McGuire, Linda Montano, and Buzz Spector. In a collaboration with Primary Information, the entire run of The Flue has been digitized and made available online.
Exhibitions
In the Shadow of Duchamp: The Photomechanical Revolution