Goings On | 05/18/2026

Contents for May 18th, 2026

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Weekly Spotlight: **VOICES from the FIRST FIFTY**

VALIE Export, FF Alumn, In Memoriam

1. Karen Finley, Marian Goodman, Ana Mendieta, Yoko Ono, Carolee Schneemann, FF Alumns, now online at NYTimes.com

2. Dona Ann McAdams, FF Alumn, at Southern Vermont Arts Center, Manchester, opening June 7

3. Jane Goldberg, FF Alumn, at Older Adults Center, Manhattan, June 5

4. Pablo Helguera, FF Alumn, at Centre del Carme Contemporary Culture, Valencia, Spain, opening May 20

5. David Antonio Cruz, FF Alumn, at Wave Hill Gardens, The Bronx, thru Aug 9 and more 

6. Lois Weaver, Ed Woodham, FF Alumns, at La MaMa, Manhattan, May 28

7. Micki & Harley Spiller, FF Alumns, at WHAM! Woodside Heights Art Museum, Queens, May 25 and more

8. Bob Goldberg, FF Alumn, now online at https://www.personaland.com

9. Laurie Anderson, Alfredo Jaar, Guadalupe Maravilla, FF Alumns, now online at Hyperallergic.com

10. Le Petit Versailles, FF Alumn, 9 films from France, Manhattan, May 24

11. Lawrence Weiner, FF Alumn, new publication with Primary Information

12. Beth B. Joseph Keckler, FF Alumns, at Roxy Cinema, Manhattan, May 27, 30

13. Bob Goldberg, FF Alumn, at Herbert Von King Park, Brooklyn and Culture Lab, Long Island City, May 24

14. Joseph Kosuth, Richard Prince, FF Alumns, now online at NYTimes.com

15. Frank Gillette, FF Alumn, at MoMA, Manhattan, thru 2027

16. Jay Critchley, FF Alumn, at Orlando City Hall, FL, June 8-14

17. Nina Sobell, FF Alumn, at The Tank, Manhattan, May 19

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Weekly Spotlight: **VOICES from the FIRST FIFTY**

What happens when a Franklin Furnace Alumn, Guggenheim Fellow, and renowned performance artist wishes the Furnace a happy birthday? A unique and irreverently heartfelt serenade you may be singing to yourself the rest of the day.

Pablo Helguera, whose brilliant work has been exhibited at MoMA, the Whitney, and museums and community-based organizations across the globe, is an artist alumn, Board member, and longtime devotee of the Furnace. Enjoy his song and consider joining as a supporter of our mission to make the world safe for avant-garde art. 

Watch Pablo’s tribute: https://www.instagram.com/p/DW9t-ovDIW6/

Help us keep the music playing for the next 50 years and we will sing your praises too!

**Support FF’s First Fifty campaign:** https://secure.givelively.org/donate/franklin-furnace-archive-inc/first-fifty-campaign

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VALIE Export, FF Alumn, In Memoriam

It is with great sadness that we learned of the death of VALIE Export. 🖤 Today we had to say goodbye to an exceptional artist whose work, vision and voice have permanently shaped the art world.

ALBERTINA looks back with great appreciation and gratitude on the numerous exhibitions where their works were presented – especially their large solo exhibition in 2023.

Our thoughts are with her family, her friends and all who were touched and inspired by her art. Her legacy will live on far beyond the museum walls.

The Albertina Museum, Vienna Austria

Please visit this link:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/may/14/renowned-feminist-artist-and-film-maker-valie-export-dies-aged-85

Thank you.

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1. Karen Finley, Marian Goodman, Ana Mendieta, Yoko Ono, Carolee Schneemann, FF Alumns, now online at NYTimes.com

Please visit this link:

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/30/t-magazine/feminist-performance-art-yoko-ono.html

Thank you.

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2. Dona Ann McAdams, FF Alumn, at Southern Vermont Arts Center, Manchester, opening June 7

Southern Vermont Arts Center Announces Troubleshooting: Making Photographs with Dona Ann McAdams; On View June 7, 2026 – January 3, 2027

Opening Reception: June 7, 3–5 PM (free and open to the public)

MAY, 2026—MANCHESTER, VT

Southern Vermont Arts Center (SVAC) presents Troubleshooting: Making Photographs with Dona Ann McAdams, a major exhibition inaugurating the Van Degna Gallery. Spanning decades of McAdams’s practice, the exhibition considers photography not as an act of capture, but as something that emerges through shared presence, attention, and circumstance.

Working across performance, activism, and community-based contexts, McAdams has developed an approach to image-making rooted in sustained relationships and lived experience. Rather than positioning the photographer at a distance, Troubleshooting foregrounds a way of working that unfolds from within—through trust, proximity, and time. The exhibition brings together work from New York’s downtown performance scene, including her long tenure as house photographer at Performance Space 122 (PS 122), alongside images connected to political organizing and protest movements. Also included are photographs from the Saratoga racetrack backstretch, where McAdams worked as a licensed hotwalker, and from farming communities in and around Sandgate, Vermont.

“Troubleshooting begins from the idea that a photograph is not simply taken, but made through a set of conditions that have to come into alignment,” said Danny Volk, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at SVAC. “Across this work, what comes forward is a way of being present—of staying with a moment long enough for something to happen. The photographs hold that process.”

The exhibition marks the opening of SVAC’s new contemporary gallery space and highlights McAdams’s long-standing commitment to working within the contexts she photographs. Across these images, the camera becomes part of an ongoing exchange—one shaped as much by attention and care as by formal or technical decisions.

McAdams will be present for the opening reception on June 7 and will return for additional public programs throughout the exhibition’s run. These include an artist talk with longtime collaborator John Killacky on August 20, and a two-part hands-on workshop, Making a Photograph, in September and October.

Admission to the exhibition at the opening reception is free.

Dona Ann McAdams is the recipient of numerous national and regional honors recognizing her contributions to photography, performance documentation, and socially engaged art practices. Selected highlights include:

2025 Vermont Governor’s Arts Award, recognizing outstanding artistic achievement and contribution to the cultural life of Vermont

Meredith S. Moody Residency, Yaddo (2019), Saratoga Springs, NY, awarded by one of the country’s most respected artist residency programs supporting writers, visual artists, and composers

Obie Award (1997), Special Citation for Performance Photography, recognizing excellence in documenting Off-Broadway and experimental theater

Dorothea Lange–Paul Taylor Prize (2002), Center for Documentary Studies, Duke University, awarded for innovative work in documentary photography and socially engaged practice

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About Southern Vermont Arts Center

Southern Vermont Arts Center (SVAC) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to nurturing the arts and culture of the Northshire and beyond. With a mission to draw on Vermont’s spectacular landscape and vibrant artistic heritage to inspire lifelong relationships with the arts for all, SVAC serves as an important cultural hub for artists, art lovers, and the community. The Arts Center is home to world-class exhibitions, theater performances, workshops, and educational programs. SVAC offers an expansive 100+ acre campus, with onsite dining at curATE café, and breathtaking views of the surrounding Green Mountains—making it a premier destination for visitors from near and far.

For more information about upcoming events and programming at Southern Vermont Arts Center, please visit svac.org or follow SVAC on social media at @sovtarts on Instagram, and @southernvermontartscenter on Facebook.

Press contact:

Sean Osborne

Marketing Director

sosborne@svac.org

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3. Jane Goldberg, FF Alumn, at Older Adults Center, Manhattan, June 5

The Traveling Tap Museum returns to the Older Adults Center at 310 Greenwich Street, 2nd Floor on Friday, June 5th at 1:30PM.

Jane will be joined by dancers Karen Calloway Williams, Herbin van Cayseele aka Tamangoh and Conner Kelly. The dancers are traveling in from near and far.

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4. Pablo Helguera, FF Alumn, at Centre del Carme Contemporary Culture, Valencia, Spain, opening May 20

Pablo Very happy to announce Magnetic Theater, my new exhibition at the Centre del Carme Contemporary Culture in Valencia.

Inspired by Franz Mesmer’s theories of animal magnetism—that strange historical moment where science, spectacle, pseudoscience and collective desire were confused—the exhibition proposes a theater of inductions, suggestions and shared experiences.

The sample includes performative scores, stage devices, objects, sessions and interventions conceived as exercises of collective perception: a space where intuition, credibility, empathy and imagination work as magnetic forces.

In a time dominated by algorithms, conspiracy theories, and increasingly totalizing belief systems, Magnetic Theater wonders why we continue to yearn to be mesmerized.

Opening: May 20, 19h

Until September 13, 2026

Thanks to the team of the Consorci de Museums of the Valencian Community and the PERMEA program for making this project possible #centredelcarmeculturacontemporània

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5. David Antonio Cruz, FF Alumn, at Wave Hill Gardens, The Bronx, thru Aug 9 and more 

Dear Friends and Fam, 

I hope this email finds you well and in good spirits. I want to invite you to my exhibition, iknowyou’vewonderedwherei’vebeen;adrift,astare,atilt,asigh,exhale, at Wave Hill Gardens. The multi-room site-specific installation includes new drawings, paintings, chandeliers, and a wall drawing.

Below are links to other projects happening right now across the country.

Current Exhibitions:

American Portraiture Today

The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery

January 24 – August 30, 2026

Let Us Gather in a Flourishing Way

Buffalo AKG Art Museum

March 6- September 6, 2026

black/backroom

PES Futures

March 17 – August 1, 2026

Seeing America: 20th & 21st Century: The Spanish Caribbean Body

Newark Museum of Art

Ongoing

Best regards,  

David Antonio Cruz  

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6. Lois Weaver, Ed Woodham, FF Alumns, at La MaMa, Manhattan, May 28

Lois Weaver, Ed woodham are performing in this upcoming production.

“AT THIS TABLE…”

Experiments in Digital Storytelling

La MaMa | Community Arts Space

74A E 4th Street, NYC

May 28, 2026

2pm and 7pm ET

Online & In-Person

FREE

To RSVP visit: https://www.culturehub.org/events/at-this-table

Presented by La MaMa, CultureHub, and Performance Project at University Settlement in collaboration with Wellness Together Home-Based Care

Created and performed by Breaking the Walls Ensemble: Alicia Justiniano, Areerata (Aree) Sudhasirikul, Edeliz Pagan, Ed Woodham, Elisa de la Roche, Elizabeth (Liz) Haak, Francis Del Duca, Kendra Meisler, Linda (Lin) Berg, Maryann DeLeo, Nandan Baruah, Reverend Rhythm aka Chas Fristachi, Tina Hansen, Valerie Kerr

Directed by Rita Liu and C Meranda Flachs-Surmanek

Creative Coding by Jay Reiner

Long Table format by Lois Weaver

Wellness Together Team: Penelope Hernandez Gonzalez (Director), Zhuohao Charles Wu (Program Coordinator), Jia Xin Huang, Jeannie Chan, Huiying Yang, Massiel Franco

Creative Producing by Mattie BB, Billy Clark, Baba Israel

Technical Direction by DeAndra Anthony

Emerging Media Direction by Sangmin Chae

CULTUREHUB BROADCASTER TEAM

Lead Developer/Concept: Aidan Nelson

Producer/Senior Advisor/Concept: Shawn Van Every

Concept/Creative Producer: DeAndra Anthony, Sangmin Chae, Billy Clark

UI/UX Designer: Deron Gopie

Project Manager: DeAndra Anthony

@culturehub_org

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7. Micki & Harley Spiller, FF Alumns, at WHAM! Woodside Heights Art Museum, Queens, May 25 and more

Friends and Neighbors, come one come all to the 

Opening and Community Celebration

celebrating the new exhibition

CURLY, WAVY & STRAIGHT:

Barber Shops and Beauty Salons of Woodside Heights

on view 24-7-365 May 25, 2026-May 10, 2027

Memorial Day Monday, May 25, 2026

12 noon – 2 pm

WHAM! Woodside Heights Art Museum

4148 54th Street  (between Roosevelt Avenue and Queens Boulevard)

7 train and/or Q32 or Q60 bus stop nearby

Free Popcorn & Seltzer Bar.

Free Guessing Contest – Grand Prize BBQ for 4 in WHAM!s sculpture garden!

Score amazing random things, clothing, art supplies, furniture, records, kitchen goods and more at MUSEUM DOLLAR – the world’s first and only Museum Gift Shop where everything is only $1 and all proceeds are reinvested in our community.

Viva Woodside Heights!

This exhibition and community celebration made possible in part by The Create & (Re)Connect Fund which offers support to Laundromat Project Alumni projects, and also with public funds from the Queens Art Fund, a re-grant program supported by New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and administered by New York Foundation for the Arts.

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8. Bob Goldberg, FF Alumn, now online at https://www.personaland.com

Greetings friends and neighbors!

My video, “Thunderstorm over Breganzona” is featured in the online gallery “Weather” at Personaland, here: https://www.personaland.com/hut/exhibition/weather/video

Hope you enjoy.

Bob

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9. Laurie Anderson, Alfredo Jaar, Guadalupe Maravilla, FF Alumns, now online at Hyperallergic.com

Please visit this link:

https://hyperallergic.com/dozens-of-venice-biennale-artists-withdraw-from-awards-en-masse

Thank you.

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10. Le Petit Versailles, FF Alumn, 9 films from France, Manhattan, May 24

Sunday May 24th, 2026  @8pm

Le Petit Versailles, 247 East 2nd St.   Rain or Shine https://www.eventbrite.com/e/faits-divers-9-films-from-france-1979-1994-tickets-1989159681153?aff=oddtdtcreator

Film Screening w/ Carlos Saldaña and Francisco Algarín Navarro, guest curators. 

This program brings together nine films by different filmmakers from the scene of the French avant-garde of the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, who worked intertwining personal and formal cinema, the exploration of intimacy and of the possibilities of the moving image through a fascinating and varied series of optical strategies and devices. These films have rarely or never been shown in the United States, and this selection invites you to discover a fragment of the rich history of French avant-garde cinema.

Program:

Systema (Françoise Thomas, 1984, 4’)

Radio-Serpent (Unglee, 1980, 12’)

Divers-épars (yann beauvais, 1987, 12’)

Swimmer (Michael Mazière, 1987, 6’)

Sécan ciel (version courte) (Jean-Michel Bouhours, 1979, 4’)

Parcelle (Rose Lowder, 1979, 3’)

Palme d’or (Marcelle Thirache, 1993, 4’)

Log Abstract – 1988 (Scott Hammen, 1988, 16’)

New York Long Distance (yann beauvais, 1994, 9’)

16mm prints courtesy of Light Cone, Paris.

Francisco Algarín Navarro (Sevilla, 1983) is an independent writer, editor, and film curator. His work focuses on the dissemination of experimental, queer, and feminist approaches to analog film. He wrote a monograph about Jacques Rivette and has edited books on correspondences between filmmakers, Mani Kaul, Jean-Claude Rousseau, Jeannette Muñoz, Nathaniel Dorsky & Jerome Hiler, and will soon publish on Warren Sonbert, Sandra Lahire & Sarah Pucill, and Maria Klonaris & Katerina Thomadaki. 

Carlos Saldaña (Jerez de la Frontera, 1996) is a film preservationist and programmer. He has edited books on Mani Kaul, Jean-Claude Rousseau, Frans van de Staak, Nathaniel Dorsky & Jerome Hiler, and will soon publish on Warren Sonbert, Sandra Lahire & Sarah Pucill, and Maria Klonaris & Katerina Thomadaki. He also shoots on film and video.

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11. Lawrence Weiner, FF Alumn, new publication with Primary Information

Please visit this link:

https://primaryinformation.org/product/terminal-boundaries/

Thank you.

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12. Beth B. Joseph Keckler, FF Alumns, at Roxy Cinema, Manhattan, May 27, 30

Reunion and Sandra Schulberg Present

Beth B’s

GLOWING

PLUS Preview screening of

NEAR DEATH

 Beth B’s films take you deep into the darkness of the human psyche.

-Filmmaker Magazine

Social taboos, unarticulated dreams and repressed experiences of violence

are addressed in Glowing. – Der Tagesspiegel

A dizzying dive…immersive and intimate, but also deeply political. – Spike Art Magazine

Featuring ROSE WOOD, JOSEPH KECKLER, NICK FLYNN, ROSE TANG,

LITTLE ANNIE, ROBERT O. LEAVER, NO ANGER, EVELYN FRANTTI

Original Music by JIM COLEMAN

World Premiere

ROXY CINEMA NYC, 2 6th Ave

Wed May 27 – 7pm

Q&A by SEAN GLASS

with ROBERT O. LEAVER, ROSE TANG, JIM COLEMAN, BETH B

TICKETS HERE

Sat May 30 – 4:30 pm

Q&A by SANDRA SCHULBERG

with ROSE WOOD, JOSEPH KECKLER, NICK FLYNN, JIM COLEMAN, BETH B

TICKETS HERE

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13. Bob Goldberg, FF Alumn, at Herbert Von King Park, Brooklyn and Culture Lab, Long Island City, May 24

Greetings!

In just under 2 weeks, I’ll be taking part in “Composer Soup Throwdown”, an event combining the work of 25 composers mixing their work together in an immersive sonic environment.  

Produced by Ensemble Ipse, this work will take place at two sites, and it’s free!

Sunday 5/24/26 – 12:30pm

Amphitheater @ Herbert Von King Park

670 Lafayette Brooklyn, NY 11216

AND

3:00pm – Culturelab LIC

5-25 46th Ave, Long Island City, NY 11101

RSVP HERE: https://events.humanitix.com/siteworks-composer-soup-throwdown

Read on for details – hope to see you there!

Two chances to witness (and participate in) this fun and immersive sound experience

“Siteworks: Composer Soup Throwdown”

Sunday 5/24/26

12:30pm

Amphitheater @ Herbert Von King Park

670 Lafayette Brooklyn, NY 11216

AND

3:00pm

Culturelab LIC

5-25 46th Ave, Long Island City, NY 11101

RSVP HERE

FREE TO THE PUBLIC

25 composers will participate in a “Siteworks: Composer Soup Throwdown” event on 5/24/26 at Herbert Von King Park in Brooklyn and CultureLab LIC in Long Island City, Queens. Composers’ audio files will have been loaded into MIDI triggering webcam stations, which will be placed in a spatial arrangement around the performance area. Composers (and any park/gallery viewers) can wander around the stations throughout the event, triggering sounds as they like with their movements. Composers will hear their own sounds and the sounds of the other participating composers as the MIDI instruments cycle through the sounds periodically (and anonymously). Additionally, four Ensemble Ipse musicians will wander among the stations and improvise with the sounds. Participating composers and viewers can “cook” with the musicians!

Participating composers:

Adam Mamula

Alon Nechushtan

Alyse Murray

Andy Li

Bob Goldberg

Brian Ellis

Chris Zacharias

Dustin Carlson

Edmund Song

Edwin O. Munera

Eleonor Sandresky

Emma Cardamone

Erich Barganier

Ian Wiese

James Budinich

Jason Matthew Malli

Jon F. Howe

Josiah Seth Pervis

Julienne K. Tsang

Peter Vukmirovic Stevens

Robert Carl

Seong Ae Kim

Smee Wong

Tianyi Wang

Zachary Ritter

And featuring Ensemble Ipse + guest musicians:

Eileen Mack, clarinet

Stephanie Griffin, viola

Geoff Burleson, melodica

Chris Nappi, percussion

Ensemble is very pleased to have received a significant NYC Cultural Development Fund grant to stimulate neighborhood engagement. It is our hope that this event will encourage community and levity in contemporary music. Our “Siteworks” series of events offers free concerts in unusual spaces around New York City, often in locations where passers-by can experience sounds with dispersed placement.

ABOUT ENSEMBLE IPSE:

Ensemble Ipse is a 501(c)(3) contemporary music ensemble dedicated to showcasing the wide variety of practices in the current new music scene. The ensemble presents concerts of recent music that transcends aesthetic categorization and strives to create a forum for composers and sound artists on the edges of the mainstream of contemporary music. With this in mind, Ensemble Ipse is committed to performing and commissioning the music of emerging composers, as well as composers who have been traditionally under-represented in the larger new music community, including women, people of color, and LGBTQ+.

Since forming in 2016, Ipse has premiered 46 works, 21 of them commissions, held numerous calls for scores for emerging composers, received support from the New York State Council on the Arts, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, New Music USA, the Queens Council on the Arts, the Brooklyn Arts Council, Network of Ensemble Theaters, the Amphion Foundation, and the Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University, and released an album on New World Records in May, 2019.

Ensemble Ipse’s programs are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature.

This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the city council.

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14. Joseph Kosuth, Richard Prince, FF Alumns, now online at NYTimes.com

Please visit this link:

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/09/arts/venice-biennale-shows-to-see.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

Thank you.

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15. Frank Gillette, FF Alumn, at MoMA, Manhattan, thru 2027

https://www.moma.org/collection/works/435329?artist_id=34843&page=1&sov_referrer=artist

Permanent Collection

On exhibit until 2027 – Floor 4, 414

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, artists responded to a world increasingly shaped by mass media and consumer culture. They repurposed tools of commerce and communication to explore alternative models of distribution free from corporate control. As video became available outside the television industry, it made possible new forms of art making, activism, critique, and connection. The technology of this period exposed the feedback loop between spectatorship and surveillance period. As a landmark video installation, Wipe Cycle (1969) disrupts the traditional flow of visual information by incorporating a live feed of the viewer. 

Frank Gillette attended Columbia University, dropping out after two years. He studied painting at Pratt Institute in New York, dropping out after two years. Gillette is the recipient of numerous awards, including fellowships from the Rockefeller Foundation and the Guggenheim Foundation, and grants from the New York State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. He was artist-in-residence at the American Academy in Rome in 1984-85. He is the author of numerous published works, including Between Paradigms (1973) and Of Another Nature (1988). His work has been presented in solo exhibitions including: The Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse; Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston; The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.; Howard Wise Gallery, New York; Leo Castelli Gallery, New York; Long Beach Museum of Art, California; The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. In addition, Gillette’s work has been included in numerous group shows including: Kunsthalle, Cologne; Documenta 6, Kassel, Germany; Venice Biennale; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin; and Castello di Rivoli, Turin, Italy, among others.

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16. Jay Critchley, FF Alumn, at Orlando City Hall, FL, June 8-14

The Prayer Ribbons from the Provincetown Community Compact will commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Pulse nightclub shooting with an installation outside Orlando City Hall in Florida from June 8-14, 2026

May 15, 2026

Contact: Jay Critchley, jay@thecompact.org

Provincetown Community Compact

thecompact.org

VIDEO: Prayer Ribbons – From Provincetown to Orlando

The City of Orlando has invited the Provincetown Community Compact to the 10th commemoration of the Pulse nightclub massacre to install a special strand of Prayer Ribbons outside Orlando City Hall. The tenth anniversary is June 12, 2026, with the Prayer Ribbons on view from June 8-14, 2026. The installation has occurred on all years except during COVID.

Mayor Buddy Dyer has stated: “The Prayer Ribbons are another reminder for our residents that communities around the nation were standing with us during a difficult time. Having the Prayer Ribbons return to Orlando would help our city continue the healing process and provide another way to celebrate the unity of our community and inclusive communities like Provincetown.” 

 With the horrific killing of 49 people at Pulse nightclub, The Compact felt a kinship with the city of Orlando and an urgency to respond to such unimaginable violence against the LGBTQ+ community. At a special ceremony at Provincetown Town Hall to honor the victims, each person’s name was inscribed in gold on black ribbons and then attached to a strand of colored ribbons. An additional ribbon was dedicated to those injured. Each name was read aloud by a different member of the community.

 In November of 2016, The Compact was invited to bring this strand to share with the city of Orlando. We were honored to install it at beautiful Leu Gardens and meet privately with the families of the victims. The ribbons were then on view outside Orlando City Hall.

Prayer Ribbons were initiated in 1993 at the Provincetown Swim for Life to provide a visual witness to the swimmers as they crossed the Provincetown Harbor from Long Point to the Boatslip, each swimmer with their own personal images, hopes and fears. All are invited to inscribe the names of those they love on one of the five-foot long colored ribbons – and personal messages – to those they wish to celebrate in their lives, both living and deceased.

Prayer Ribbons commemorates the devastation that AIDS has done to the community, the courage of the town to fight governmental indifference, and to symbolize the model supportive community that responded. Prayer Ribbons also challenges us to live our lives more fully and joyfully. It creates a visual statement about Provincetown as a community – its contradictions, its conflicts, its possibilities.

The 39th Provincetown Swim for Life & Paddler Flotilla sponsored by the Provincetown Community Compact will take place September 12, 2026. thecompact.org

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17. Nina Sobell, FF Alumn, at The Tank, Manhattan, May 19

Nina Sobell at the Tank Theater, Tuesday May 19th, 9:30-10:30 at 312 W. 36th Street forthe final night of UN-LANGUAGE 4 Gender Equality https://www.cityguideny.com/event/Tank-Theater-2026-05-17-2026-05-17

This improvised, spontaneous performance piece explores themes of feminism and gender through non-verbal, wordless action.

https://thetanknyc.org/tankcalendar

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For subscriptions, un-subscriptions, queries and comments, please email mail@franklinfurnace.org

Join Franklin Furnace today: 

https://franklinfurnace.org/membership/

Goings On is compiled weekly by Rohan Subramaniam, Archive Intern

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