PASC | The Philadelphia Avant-Garde Studies Consortium
  • Home | About
  • Projects | Events
    • Upcoming >
      • Past recommended events
    • Absurd
    • Illuminating the 'Invisible City' | November 2019
    • A very nice panel on 'Dionysus' | April 2019
    • The 'Vivifying Current of Science' | December 2018
    • Apolitical, My Ars! | December 2017
    • RE: ACT | March 2017
    • Re: Actions | December 2016
    • Locating the Avant-Garde | October 2015
    • Philadelphia à la Pataphysique | March 2014
  • Interviews | Blog
    • Taji Ra'oof Nahl Named 2024 Guggenheim Fellow | April 2024
    • Metafiction by Matt Madden | October 2021
    • Matt Madden's EX LIBRIS | September 2021
    • Slought Statement | March 2020
    • Black Women Make Art by Janyce Denise Glasper
    • Charles Bernstein wins Bollingen Prize
    • Cheryl Harper interview by John Heon
    • Slought Post-Election Statement
    • A Necessary Luxury by Tina Brock
    • Jim Brewton by Emily Schilling
    • Workshop Series at Princeton
    • Welcome to PASC
  • Partners | Presenters
  • Calls for Papers
  • Contact us

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

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PASC congratulates visual artist TAJI RA'OOF NAHL, aka TR7, named a 2024 Guggenheim Fellow! [More]

What we do 

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"Pataphysics Then and Now" conference in Philadelphia, March 2014
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
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
"Locating the Avant-Garde," PASC's inaugural annual symposium, October 2015
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“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.
Brewton Archive at UPenn 1
Rare 'Pataphysics books from the James Brewton Archive ...
Brewton Archive at UPenn 2
... at the University of Pennsylvania's Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts
Ubu Roi by Alfred Jarry
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.
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"RE: ACT" with PASC and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, March 2017
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"Re: Actions," PASC's second annual symposium, December 2016

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.
Copyright 2025, The Philadelphia Avant-Garde Studies Consortium, a Pennsylvania-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Thank you for visiting.
All rights to creative work reproduced on these pages are retained by the individual creators.
Suggestions or issues with the website? Please send us an email, pascinitiative [at] gmail.com, with "website" as the subject.
  • Home | About
  • Projects | Events
    • Upcoming >
      • Past recommended events
    • Absurd
    • Illuminating the 'Invisible City' | November 2019
    • A very nice panel on 'Dionysus' | April 2019
    • The 'Vivifying Current of Science' | December 2018
    • Apolitical, My Ars! | December 2017
    • RE: ACT | March 2017
    • Re: Actions | December 2016
    • Locating the Avant-Garde | October 2015
    • Philadelphia à la Pataphysique | March 2014
  • Interviews | Blog
    • Taji Ra'oof Nahl Named 2024 Guggenheim Fellow | April 2024
    • Metafiction by Matt Madden | October 2021
    • Matt Madden's EX LIBRIS | September 2021
    • Slought Statement | March 2020
    • Black Women Make Art by Janyce Denise Glasper
    • Charles Bernstein wins Bollingen Prize
    • Cheryl Harper interview by John Heon
    • Slought Post-Election Statement
    • A Necessary Luxury by Tina Brock
    • Jim Brewton by Emily Schilling
    • Workshop Series at Princeton
    • Welcome to PASC
  • Partners | Presenters
  • Calls for Papers
  • Contact us