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

For the past eight months, the cultural venues associated with PASC have been closed to support the worldwide effort to slow the spread of the Covid-19 virus.
As area institutions cautiously reopen, PASC wishes good health to all. 

Click image to buy a copy of "Invisible City: Philadelphia and the Vernacular Avant-garde" via the UArts online store. "Invisible City" is an interdisciplinary exploration of Philadelphia's mid-century cultural impact, thoroughly illuminated in nine essays by Rachel Churner, Jennie Hirsh, Sid Sachs, John Szwed, and Anne Wilke Tucker, augmented with interviews and writings by Willoughby Sharp, Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Robert Venturi, and Progressive Architecture. Hardcover; 304 pages; 210 images; $40.

SAVE THE DATE / CALL FOR PAPERS
PASC invites you to participate in its sixth annual Symposium:
“Ad Absurdum: The Politics and Poetics of Absurdity in Avant-Garde Art and Thought,”
 Friday, Dec. 4, 2020, 1 to 4 p.m. U.S. Eastern Time, live-stream/Zoom. Join program headliners
The Idiopathic Ridiculopathy Consortium,
as well as presenters Cheryl Harper,
Theodore A. Harris, John Heon,
Laurel V. McLaughlin, and Orchid Tierney
... and we'll have time for one or two more; please send your proposals for papers, performances, or small exhibitions by: Sunday, Nov. 1, 2020. Details, here.

You're invited! Halloween Buffet Special, Saturday, Oct. 31, 5 p.m.
Idiopathic Trick or Treat Storytelling Mayhem with guests John Zak, Sonja Robson, Jane Moore, Jenna Kuerzi, Tomas Dura, John Rosenberg and Sharon Geller all telling tall tales. Tina Brock hosts this special edition of "Into the Absurd."
Every week, join The Idiopathic Ridiculopathy Consortium for "Into the Absurd" to hang out with artists, writers, theater-makers, Saturdays at 5 p.m., brought to you by Philadelphia's own theatre of the absurd. Click image for IRC's Facebook page; Zoom link changes each week, or you can drop in via Facebook Live. Grab your seat and join the conversation at the virtual IRC table.

#pascarts
#phillyavantgarde

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

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.