Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center (aka Hallwalls) is a non-profit art organization located in
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from Sou ...
. Since 1974, Hallwalls has shown and shows the work of contemporary artists of diverse backgrounds who work in film, video, literature, music, performance, media and the visual arts. The ideology behind Hallwalls has always been one of a cooperative with artists and the gallery has made it a mission to show work that directly shows Buffalo’s fading industrial past.
History
Hallwalls was established by
Charles Clough,
Robert Longo
Robert Longo (born 1953) is an American artist, filmmaker, photographer and musician.
Longo became first well known in the 1980s for his ''Men in the Cities'' drawing and print series, which depict sharply dressed men and women writhing in cont ...
, Diane Bertolo,
Nancy Dwyer, Larry Lundy,
Cindy Sherman
Cynthia Morris Sherman (born January 19, 1954) is an American artist whose work consists primarily of photographic self-portraits, depicting herself in many different contexts and as various imagined characters.
Her breakthrough work is often co ...
and
Michael Zwack
Michael Zwack (1949 – May 5, 2017) was an American artist most often associated with The Pictures Generation.
He studied sculpture at Buffalo State College and later, with artists such as Robert Longo and Cindy Sherman, he co-founded the Hal ...
in 1974 in a converted ice packing warehouse, the Essex Art Center, which had been converted into studios for artists.
The focus of Hallwalls since its inception has been to produce a space that will accommodate artists from diverse backgrounds. Works from varying mediums, which include film, video, performance art, music, painting, photography, and sculpture, have come together since the beginning, to confront
the prevailing social issues of contemporary culture.
In the 1980s, Hallwalls moved to 700 Main Street. During this time, the curators found it increasingly difficult to counterbalance the initial intentions of the founders, which were to create a space where artists could freely show works that were not creations sponsored or funded by corporate interests, and grow as an arts institution that could serve the largest possible audience. Funding increases allowed for a larger gallery space in the 700 Main Street complex, as well as opportunities for more artists to show their work in the gallery, but required the input and compensation of more staff and organizers.
Funding has been a consistent issue, but Hallwalls has been able to survive. Despite severe cuts in the 1990s, Hallwalls has remained a strong presence in the Western New York community.
In January 2006, Hallwalls moved into its new home, which it shares with
Righteous Babe Records
Righteous Babe Records is an American independent record label that was created by folk singer Ani DiFranco in 1990 to release her own songs in lieu of being beholden to a mainstream record company.
History
Righteous Babe Records was originally ...
, at 341 Delaware Ave., in a former
Asbury Methodist Church, purchased by
Ani DiFranco.
A catalog of some of the films shown at Hallwalls are archived at The Poetry Collection at the
University at Buffalo
The State University of New York at Buffalo, commonly called the University at Buffalo (UB) and sometimes called SUNY Buffalo, is a public research university with campuses in Buffalo and Amherst, New York. The university was founded in 18 ...
.
Some of the performers who have performed at Hallwalls include:
Kathy Acker
Kathy Acker (April 18, 1947 isputed– November 30, 1997) was an American experimental novelist, playwright, essayist, and postmodernist writer, known for her idiosyncratic and transgressive writing that dealt with themes such as childhood trau ...
,
Glenn Branca Glenn may refer to:
Name or surname
* Glenn (name)
* John Glenn, U.S. astronaut
Cultivars
* Glenn (mango)
* a 6-row barley variety
Places
In the United States:
* Glenn, California
* Glenn County, California
* Glenn, Georgia, a settleme ...
,
Fifth Column,
The Kipper Kids
The Kipper Kids were a duo composed of Martin Rochus Sebastian von Haselberg (born 20 January 1949) and Brian Routh (born 9 March 1948) two artists known for the extreme and often comedic performance art they made together in the 1970s and after. ...
,
Ann Magnuson,
Christian Marclay
Christian Marclay (born January 11, 1955) is a visual artist and composer. He holds both American and Swiss nationality.
Marclay's work explores connections between sound, noise, photography, video, and film. A pioneer of using gramophone records ...
,
Harvey Pekar
Harvey Lawrence Pekar (; October 8, 1939 – July 12, 2010) was an American underground comic book writer, music critic, and media personality, best known for his autobiographical ''American Splendor'' comic series. In 2003, the series inspired a ...
,
Richard Serra
Richard Serra (born November 2, 1938) is an American artist known for his large-scale sculptures made for site-specific landscape, Urban area, urban, and Architecture, architectural settings. Serra's sculptures are notable for their material q ...
and
Karen Finley.
Babel
The annual literary festival, Babel, which Hallwalls co-sponsors, featured a reading by
Michael Ondaatje
Philip Michael Ondaatje (; born 12 September 1943) is a Sri Lankan-born Canadian poet, fiction writer, essayist, novelist, editor, and filmmaker. He is the recipient of multiple literary awards such as the Governor General's Award, the Giller P ...
, the winner of the 1992
Man Booker Prize for ''
The English Patient
''The English Patient'' is a 1992 novel by Michael Ondaatje. The book follows four dissimilar people brought together at an Italian villa during the Italian Campaign of the Second World War. The four main characters are: an unrecognisably burn ...
,'' in 2008.
Hallwalls also collaborates with other non-profit organizations in Western New York. Since 1986, ARTGREASE, both Hallwalls' and Squeaky Wheel's shared timeslot on Buffalo
Public-access television
Public-access television is traditionally a form of non-commercial mass media where the general public can create content television programming which is narrowcast through cable television specialty channels. Public-access television was creat ...
cable TV, Channel 20, has given the institution a chance to serve the community with its half-hour television program, Artwaves. Hallwalls also co-sponsors, along with organizations
Just Buffalo Literary Center
Just Buffalo Literary Center (JBLC) is a not-for-profit literary organization centered in Buffalo, NY which serves the greater Western New York region as a literary curator.
Just Buffalo Literary Center's business office is currently located abov ...
, Gay & Lesbian Youth Services of WNY, and Compass House, Spotlight on Youth, an open-mic poetry program dedicated to young poets and artists in Buffalo.
''The Buffalo News'' "Spotlight on Youth: Teens offer poetry, music and more at open mic." Binder, Galia. September 24, 2008.
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Gallery
Image:Hallwallsimage.jpg, Artists and Models fundraiser event in the Buffalo Central Terminal, 2007
References
External links
*
Hallwalls Archive housed in the University at Buffalo's Poetry Collection
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Culture of Buffalo, New York
Arts centers in New York (state)
Museums in Buffalo, New York