Welcome to the
Philadelphia Avant-Garde Studies Consortium (PASC)
Thanks to all who attended our sixth annual PASC symposium on Dec. 4, and many thanks to our learned and talented panelists. The topic was “Ad Absurdum: The Politics and Poetics of Absurdity in Avant-Garde Art and Thought,” featuring
Cheryl Harper, rod jones ii, Theodore A. Harris, John Heon, Laurel V. McLaughlin, Orchid Tierney, Loraine Wible, Lindsey Whittle, Steve Kemple, Tina Brock and Peggy Mecham for The Idiopathic Ridiculopathy Consortium, and Barbara Yoshida and Ralph Lewis for Peculiar Works Project. We expect to make the video recording of the webinar available soon. |
![]() 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.
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You're invited!
Every Saturday at 5 p.m., Tina Brock, Producing Artistic Director of The Idiopathic Ridiculopathy Consortium, hosts "Into the Absurd," artists, writers, and theater-makers. 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. Enjoy past events on IRC's Youtube channel, here. |
#pascarts
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What we doWe 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 areCO-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 collectorsThe 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.
Support for projects and collaborationsArtists 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.
An interdisciplinary focusGiven 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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Join usIf 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.
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