A State Avant-Gardism: Alternative Spaces and Cultural Policies in the United States

Abstract

It is well known that the development of alternative spaces in the United States during the 1970s benefited from government subsidies. However, either this fact is downplayed because it seems to taint the image of radical subversion on which the prestige of these spaces is based; or it is criticized as one of the main causes of the institutionalization of the alternative scene, or even as a pernicious way to co-opt and neutralize it. In this article, I examine in more detail the programs set up to support alternative spaces by the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York State Council on the Arts. I also study the interesting case of Artists Space, an alternative space that was directly founded by the second of these two government agencies. I show that this public support, far from having betrayed the original spirit of alternative spaces, has been from their beginnings a necessary condition for their development. This implies revising or, at least, qualifying the common narratives of an institutionalization or a co-option of the alternative spaces by the “art establishment.” However, this unexpected assistance from the state, traditionally rather hostile to experimental art, did result in eroding the critical and antagonistic dimension of the alternative (or avant-garde) art scene – but not in the way it is usually portrayed.