In Franklin Furnace Fights for First Amendment Rights (1990), the artist community addresses the political climate of the arts during the culture wars in the United States. The presenters confront the heightened censorship of queer, erotic, and feminist art, as well as conservative agendas projected onto the artistic landscape. This event was prompted by the recent closure of Franklin Furnace by the New York Fire Department for mistakenly being an illegal social club, despite the organization’s growing recognition as a preeminent avant-garde gallery. Following the closure, Franklin Furnace was demonized by Republican Senator Jesse Helms for presenting Karen Finley's A Woman's Life Isn't Worth Much (1990), which led to audits by the Internal Revenue Service and rescinded grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. Featured presenters include Spalding Gray, Dr. Mary Schmidt Campbell, Eric Bogosian, Cee Brown, Allen Ginsberg, Diane Torr, Paul McMahon, Nancy Spero, Leon Golub, Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, Annie Sprinkle, Frank Maya, Lynne Tillman, and Karen Finley.
Franklin Furnace Archive, Inc. was founded by artist Martha Wilson in 1976 to champion ephemeral forms neglected by mainstream arts institutions. Franklin Furnace’s mission is to present, preserve, interpret, proselytize, and advocate on behalf of avant-garde art, especially forms that may be vulnerable due to institutional neglect, their ephemeral nature, or politically unpopular content. The organization is dedicated to serving artists by providing both physical and virtual venues for the presentation of time-based visual art, including artists’ books, installation art, performance art, and unforeseen contemporary avant-garde art forms. Franklin Furnace is committed to serving emerging artists; to assuming an aggressive pedagogical stance with regard to the value of avant-garde art to life; and to fostering artists’ zeal to broadcast ideas. The organization has developed a place in art history for artists’ books, temporary installation art, and performance art. www.franklinfurnace.org
