Welcome to the
​Philadelphia Avant-Garde Studies Consortium (PASC)

PASC celebrates ’Pataphysics Unrolled, edited by Katie L. Price and Michael R. Taylor and published by Penn State University Press. The Kindle version is available here.

Scenes from the book-release party for 'Pataphysics Unrolled, at Slought April 29

The Idiopathic Ridiculopathy Consortium is back! 
SEPT. 7 - 25: "The Two-Character Play" (Out Cry) by Tennessee Williams, produced by The Idiopathic Ridiculopathy Consortium (IRC), at The Bluver Theatre at The Drake. The IRC's production of "The Two-Character Play" is a surreal, poetic fever dream featuring John Zak and Tina Brock, both of whom also direct. The Bluver Theatre at The Drake, 302 S. Hicks Street, Philadelphia (between Spruce & Pine, 15th & 16th Streets). Preview: Wednesday, Sept. 7 at 7:30 pm; opening: Thursday, Sept. 8 at 7:30 pm. Tickets here. 
During the past 18 months, The IRC created a series of interviews with creators in the Philadelphia area and around the world on Into the Absurd: A Virtually Existential Dinner Conversation. The weekly conversations debuted in June 2020 on Zoom and Facebook Live, and the 63 talks are archived on the IRC’s You Tube channel and Facebook page. Check out past episodes and pop-up talks as The IRC continues conversations in 2022.

Graphic courtesy of the Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts

Opening reception on May 19 was delightful....

Chilling with Warhol

Scene at the opening

Collector Gregory McCoy among multiple Marilyns

A few of Gregory McCoy's 300+ Marilyns

THROUGH JULY 7: Exhibitions and symposium, "Warhol @ Penn Again," curated by David McKnight, with Maureen McCormick and Reva Wolf, explores the 1965 Institute of Contemporary Art exhibition held in the Furness Building (now the Fisher Fine Arts library) at Penn, including:

• "Marilyn Monroe: From Stage to Silkscreen," Kamin Gallery (April 18 - July 7)
• "Out of Sight: A Discovery, a Collector, and Andy Warhol," in the Goldstein Gallery (May 18 - July 28)
• "Translations of Warhol," Snyder-Granader Study Alcove, Kislak Center (June 20 - July 1)
• June 24 - 25: symposium, "Translating Warhol." Inspired by Warhol’s 1968 Swedish exhibition. Details here; the symposium is sponsored by the Terra Foundation for American Art. Hybrid event. Free and open to the public with registration.

The Kamin and Goldstein Family Galleries are on the first and sixth floors of the Van Pelt-Dietrich Library, 3420 Walnut Street, Philadelphia. Free and open to the public (please show photo ID at entrance). Planning to visit the Penn campus in person? Read about current corona virus precautions here. ​

Click here for full list of PASC-recommended events.

What we do 

We believe PASC is a timely initiative that will be a resource for inquiry and collaboration among like-minded scholars, curators, artists, and collectors, generating new research, exhibitions, and performances relating to local and global avant-gardes, as well as Philadelphia’s unique role in the genre.

Who we are

CO-DIRECTORS
John Heon
David McKnight
Michael Taylor

STEERING COMMITTEE
Tina Brock
Christiana Dobrzynski
Cheryl Harper
Sid Sachs
Emily Brewton Schilling

ADVISORY BOARD
Charles Bernstein
Robert Cargni Mitchell
Matt Neff
Katie Price
Jean-Michel Rabaté
​Mari Shaw

Join us

​If you're interested in participating in PASC or would like to recommend individuals or institutions to be included, please contact us or email pascinitiative [at] gmail.com.

A resource for scholars, curators, artists and collectors 

The Philadelphia Avant-Garde Studies Consortium (PASC), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, is a network of educational and cultural institutions and associated scholars, artists, curators, and collectors who combine expertise and resources to foster the advanced study of avant-garde movements and promote related special collections, exhibitions, and performances in the greater Philadelphia area and Delaware Valley region.

"Locating the Avant-Garde," PASC's inaugural annual symposium, October 2015

“Ad Absurdum: The Politics and Poetics of Absurdity in Avant-Garde Art and Thought” online, December 2020

Support for projects and collaborations

Artists of all types who have strong local connections and whose works or archives are in collections in the region are important elements of PASC’s focus. These include, among others, Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray, Morton Schamberg, Charles Sheeler, Thomas Chimes, James Brewton, David Lynch, William Carlos Williams, H.D., Ezra Pound, and Harry Mathews. Likewise, certain fields such as literature, the visual arts, theater, film, music, and architecture are central, as are movements or groups such as Dadaism, Surrealism, Futurism, Fluxus, Oulipo, and the L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poets.

Rare 'Pataphysics books from the James Brewton Archive ...

... at the University of Pennsylvania's Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts

Original lithograph by Alfred Jarry for the 'Ouverture d'Ubu roi pour piano à quatre mains,' par Claude Terrasse (1898). Presented in 2013 to the Kislak Center, Penn Libraries, by John Heon.

Interdisciplinary focus

Given the deeply interdisciplinary nature of so many avant-garde movements, other fields not usually considered are pertinent, such as the medical humanities, psychology, philosophy, linguistics, and the history and sociology of science, to name a few. Similarly, although PASC’s main focus is on avant-gardes in Europe and North America, it is not limited to them; the increasingly global nature of avant-garde art and culture requires a global perspective.

"Apolitical My Ars" symposium, 2017

"RE: ACT" with PASC and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, March 2017

"Re: Actions," PASC's second annual symposium, December 2016

Cover of the program for "Pataphysics Then and Now" conference in Philadelphia, March 2014