The Kislak Center at UPenn celebrated the Gotham Book Mart with an exhibition, "Wise Men Fished Here," Feb. 18 - May 20, 2019. Congratulations to David McKnight: the catalogue was reviewed by Lise Jaillant in the April 16 issue of the 'Times Literary Supplement.'

DJ Spooky and UPenn student perform at Slought during the "Philadelphia à la Pataphysique" 2014 conference.

Click for video and more about our April 18 panel discussion with playwright Kate Tarker, whose 'Dionysus Was Such A Nice Man' premiered at Wilma Theater April 23 - May 12, 2019.

Bespoke rug poem, Craig Dworkin, 2018 symposium

#pascarts
#phillyavantgarde

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

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-Michael Rabaté

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

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.

An 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.

"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

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.