Contents for December 22nd, 2025
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Weekly Spotlight: Standing Slightly Outside: Franklin Furnace 1976—2026, an exhibition at BAM – Brooklyn Academy of Music, thru April 11, 2026
Weekly Spotlight: Franklin Furnace receives inaugural Cai Guo Qiang Foundation Archival Contribution Award
1. Linda Montano, Marina Abramović, Jaime Davidovich, Mary Beth Edelson, Claire Fergusson, Bill Gordh, Coco Gordon, Jon Hendricks, Spalding Grey, Tony Labat, Michael Osterhout, Aysha Quinn, Aviva Rahmani, Frank Shifreen,Barbara Smith, Terry Sullivan, Mierle Laderman Ukeles, FF Alumns, at NYU Fales Library, Manhattan
2. Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful Espejo Ovalles Morel, FF Alumn, now online at InteriorBeautySalon.com
3. Karen Finley, Coco Fusco, FF Alumns, now online at Hyperallergic.com and more
4. Ogemdi Ude, FF Alumn, at New York Live Arts, Manhattan, Jan. 7-10, 2026
5. Annie Lanzillotto, FF Alumn, now online at The New Verse News
6. Justin Allen, FF Alumn, at St. Mark’s Church, Manhattan, Jan. 1 and more
7. Epstein/Hassan, FF Alumns, chosen as 2025 Top Ten Off Broadway show, TheaterScene.org
8. Paul Zaloom, FF Alumn, now online at https://youtu.be/JDiSg6cQ86M
9. Mark Bloch, FF Alumn, now online at WhiteHotMagazine.com
10. David Cale, FF Alumn, now online at FilmMusicReporter.com
11. Judith Bernstein, FF Alumn, at The Jewish Museum, Manhattan, thru May 31, 2026
12. James Johnson, FF Alumn, now online at DiscoPie.com
13. George Peck, FF Alumn, December news
14. Paul Zelevansky, FF Alumn, now online at https://vimeo.com/1148110527
15. Andrea Fraser, FF Alumn, now online at NYTimes.com
16. Walter Krochmal, FF Alumn, at La Nacional, Manhattan, and more, Jan. 11-18, 2026
17. Jay Critchley, FF Alumn, at Harbor Hotel beach, Provincetown Harbor, MA, Jan. 7, 2026, and more
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Weekly Spotlight: Standing Slightly Outside: Franklin Furnace 1976—2026, an exhibition at BAM – Brooklyn Academy of Music, thru April 11, 2026
Please visit this link for complete information on Standing Slightly Outside, a retrospective exhibition curated by Patrick Pardo and Raul Zamudio, FF Alumns:
https://franklinfurnace.org/bam-gallery/
Thank you very much.
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Weekly Spotlight: Franklin Furnace receives inaugural Cai Guo Qiang Foundation Archival Contribution Award
When Artist Archive Becomes a Method
Archival Thinking: Artist Archive Symposium at MoMA PS1
On December 4, the inaugural Archival Thinking: Artist Archive Symposium took place at MoMA PS1 in New York, jointly organized by Asian Cultural Council (ACC) and Cai Foundation.
Over the course of a single day, the symposium brought together two keynote speeches and three panel discussions, drawing nearly 200 attendees from across the fields of art, archives, and the humanities. Attendees included the Commissioner of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the Director of Metadata Systems at MoMA, the Director of the Huntington Art Museum in Los Angeles, professors from NYU and Pratt Institute, as well as archivists from the New York Public Library, the studios of Richard Serra, and the Joan Mitchell Foundation. Together, they explored the contemporary significance and future potential of the artist archive.
The ten invited speakers spanned the worlds of art, archival studies, literature and translation, philosophy, and intellectual history. They included: Ross Benjamin, translator of The Diaries of Franz Kafka; Mel Yimeng Chu, archives manager of Cai Guo-Qiang Archive; archivist and writer Lisa Darms, Samantha Rose Hill, scholar of Hannah Arendt; Amy Hau, Director of the Noguchi Museum in New York; interdisciplinary artist Jennifer Wen Ma; Glenn Phillips, Chief Curator at the Getty Research Institute; Rani Singh, Director of the Harry Smith Archives; David Walker, archivist at the Easton Foundation, and Martha Wilson, founder of Franklin Furnace. The symposium was moderated by Paul Holdengräber, former Director of Public Programs at the New York Public Library.
The day concluded with the presentation of the inaugural Archival Contribution Award, established by the Cai Foundation. Dr. Reiko Tomii and Franklin Furnace were honored as the recipients in the “Individual” and “Organizational” categories. They received a specially designed artwork-trophy by Cai Guo-Qiang, together with a cash prize—an expression of deep respect and support for those who have long labored, often invisibly, to sustain the field of artist archives.
Judy Kim, executive director of Asian Cultural Council confers the inaugural Archival Contribution Award in the organizational category to Franklin Furnace.
“I chose for the trophy to be glass cast in the shape of a natural stone because I hoped it might symbolize the historical responsibility inherent in archival work: something raw, uncarved, silent, transparent—complex in structure yet calm and ordinary, a crystallization of time. The small gunpowder explosion sealed within the glass represents the inner force of archival work. This year the powder is blue; in future years, the colors will change. My hope is that the trophy will not only be a mark of honor but become an archive in itself—left to the individuals and institutions who help ensure the continuity of art history.”—Cai Guo-Qiang
In 1995, supported by an ACC fellowship, Cai Guo-Qiang arrived in New York for a year-long residency at PS1. That experience marked the beginning of his expansive artistic journey across the United States and the world. The three decades since have witnessed and embodied the reciprocal evolution of the artist’s archive and his artistic practice.
Against this backdrop, the symposium brought the archive from backstage to the center of discourse. It catalyzed interdisciplinary dialogue and intergenerational exchange, inviting artists and archivists alike to reconsider how knowledge is preserved, reframed, and shared.
“I ask myself why we are so devoted to archives. Perhaps it is as cosmology now suggests: everything is information; the essence of the universe and of life is information! The universe and life themselves form the greatest archival repository. Our archival work participates in this immense process: information answers what is, while the archive answers how—how information is organized for future use, how it enables searching, discovery, or the possibility of mutation under new conditions.” —Cai Guo-Qiang
The “Artist Archive Symposium” plans to be held biennially. It aspires to open a door for the next generation of artists—to discover the power, purpose, promise, and pleasure of archival thinking. It serves as a reminder that an archive is not merely a repository of memory, but a tool for action. It invites every creator to adopt the archive as a method, and to reimagine their participation in the future of art.
What follows captures the central ideas and discussions that emerged during the symposium. The text is extensive; readers may wish to bookmark it for careful reading.
Cai Guo-Qiang comes from a family with a strong inclination toward preserving records. His archive—rooted in materials dating back to his youth—has grown over decades into a vast system comprising 16 major categories. These include approximately 80 linear feet of project documentation, 40 linear feet of exhibition-related publications, more than 5,000 bibliographic entries, and nearly 200 terabytes of video and moving-image material.
Mel began by asking a foundational question: Why does the artist’s archive matter? She illuminated the value of Cai’s archive as a living archive—one that not only preserves information about artworks but actively nourishes artistic creation. It documents the artist’s persistent ideas, charting how his concepts and philosophies evolve across time, geography, and technological change. She emphasized that the archive sits at the intersection of art and memory, serving as a generative force rather than a static repository. It also compels us to confront a profound question: What, ultimately, cannot be archived? Through this, the archive becomes not merely a system of preservation but a framework for understanding the future of artistic practice.
When distinguishing between a sketch that enters a collection and a preliminary study filed within a project archive, we must ask: Is the artwork defined by its final, crystallized idea, or does the initial spark—the earliest trace of thought—possess equal value?
The archive compels us to reconsider where meaning resides: in the finished form, or in the unfolding of the creative process itself. The value of an archive lies not only in preservation but in sustaining a network of creative logic. The extensive keyword system developed within Cai’s archive has become a foundational training resource for AI, supporting the development of the cAI™ model—an artificial intelligence rooted in Cai’s artistic practice and his lifelong methodology of “dialoguing with the unseen world.”
When everything can be preserved, where do the boundaries of the archive lie? How does an archive remain alive rather than becoming a mere warehouse of accumulated records?
“An artist’s archive isn’t just a drawer of private memories. It becomes part of how a moment is remembered, part of a shared record. In that way, it makes history a little fuller, and maybe also a little more human.”–– Mel Chu
Keynote Speech (2/2): Rani Singh, Director of the Harry Smith Archives
Rani’s keynote centered on a fundamental inquiry: why artist archives matter, and how they shape art history and an artist’s legacy. Tracing her career—from assisting Allen Ginsberg, to researching Harry Smith, to her work with artists at the Getty Research Institute—she emphasized that archives rarely originate as fully formed entities. Instead, they emerge from fragmented moments, shaped not by passive accumulation but by acts of intention, selection, and meaning-making. An artist’s archive, she argued, is a living structure, continually generating new interpretations rather than freezing history in place.
Rani underscored that artist archives do more than document the creative process: they reshape historical narratives, catalyze new scholarship, and allow overlooked artists to re-enter the field of vision. The archive, in her understanding, is not oriented solely toward the past; it is the soil from which future work grows, a mechanism for ongoing generation of meaning. Preservation ensures that artworks continue to be seen, interpreted, and reanimated—rather than erased by history.
Panel Discussion (1/3): The Symbiotic Relationship Between Art and Archives
Moderator: Rani Singh
Panelists: David Walker, archivist at the Easton Foundation; artist Jennifer Wen Ma; Amy Hau, Director of the Noguchi Museum in New York.
David Walker, who joined the Easton Foundation after receiving his Master’s Degree in Library Science from CUNY Queens College, began by cataloguing Louise Bourgeois’s home in Chelsea, where she lived for 48 years. He described the Bourgeois archive as vast yet intentionally “loose”—a constellation of manuscripts, letters, family writings, photographs, moving images, audio recordings, interviews, and extensive studio documentation. Together, these materials reveal an unfiltered portrait of the artist’s life.
David emphasized that an archive should not be used to fixate the meaning of an artwork. Instead, they are “diagnostic and prognostic.” He used Bourgeois’s Insomnia Drawings—220 works created during sleepless nights—as an example. “But being able to see this material in the archive complicates this idea of determining a discrete body of work.” Meaning, David argued, is not assigned after a work is completed; it is continuously produced throughout the creative process.
Jennifer Wen Ma, who served as Director of Cai Studio from 1999 to 2007, recalled the early archival challenges—when sending images to Artforum still required producing color slides. She advocated for acquiring the studio’s first slide scanner and initiating the shift to digital archiving. Through this experience, she realized that an artist’s secondary narrative—how their work is remembered and interpreted—is profoundly shaped by how the artwork is recorded and preserved. Speaking as both archivist and artist, she noted: “I’m not thinking long-term about preserving these for others to look at. I keep an archive because I am the primary beneficiary—they help me see where I’ve come from.”
Jennifer argued that contradictions and conflicting memories enrich art history and bring it closer to lived truth. This is also the essence of oral history: its purpose is not to interrogate or guide, but to create a spaciousness in which the narrator determines the trajectory. Quoting her oral-history mentor, she said: “An oral history session is like jointly holding a vessel filled to the brim with emotions and memories. The interviewer’s role is to accompany the narrator—attentively, gently—toward wherever they choose to go, ensuring that not a single drop is spilled.”
From this perspective, Jennifer sees oral history as a way for individuals to reclaim authorship of their own stories. Its significance lies in honoring subjective experience as a form of truth—even when those experiences come from communities traditionally excluded from canonical history.
In her “Percent for Art” commission for Chinatown, Jennifer applied this methodology by recording residents’ memories and aspirations connected to a historic building. These voices will be embedded into glass-cast time capsules integrated into her sculpture. For her, this underscores a crucial idea: history is not a finished past, but an ever-emerging present, continually shaped by the act of recording.
Amy Hau, who began working with Isamu Noguchi in 1986, first assisted with the publication of his catalogue raisonné. She soon realized that Noguchi’s global projects—sculptures, public works, exhibitions—had generated an enormous body of fragile materials requiring systematic preservation. She helped establish the Noguchi Foundation’s earliest archival structure. After Noguchi’s death, she and her team continued tracing uncollected materials: documentaries, footage of distant commissions, miscellaneous documents scattered worldwide. Even today, new materials continue to surface. As Amy described it: “archives are living branches.”
Amy noted that while Noguchi did not oppose documentation, he strongly resisted being codified or “fixed” through a catalogue raisonné. Yet paradoxically, he meticulously preserved his own papers: carrying a typewriter everywhere, keeping carbon copies of every letter he wrote. Both of his parents were writers, and his mother, who envisioned an artistic life for him from birth, preserved extensive correspondence—materials that later entered the archive.
An audience member asked whether archives risk stripping away the mystery of an artwork. Amy replied that Noguchi never prescribed meaning for his works; he wanted viewers to walk around them, to encounter them physically, allowing each person to generate their own interpretation. Thus, the archive’s purpose is not to speak on behalf of the artwork, but to offer present and future viewers pathways into the artist’s thinking, sources, and process. She described the archive as a teacher’s tool—not fixing meaning, but fostering new understandings with each encounter.
Turning to technology, Amy emphasized that digitization is not a threat to the archive but a way of protecting the original while broadening access. She described the Noguchi Museum’s Digital Catalogue Raisonné—launched as early as 2000—as one of the first of its kind, now comprising over 75,000 images.
David added that the future artist archive will contain millions of photos, texts, and mobile records—an unimaginable volume for humans to process manually. This, he argued, is precisely where AI becomes indispensable: in classification, identification, and cataloguing at scale.
Jennifer observed that in the age of social media—where artistic output is flattened into a linear timeline—young artists should learn to build multi-dimensional archival systems, such as personal websites, to actively author their own narratives when “authority is being decentralized in digital age.”
Panel Discussion (2/3): The Politics of Absence — What Is Omitted?
Moderator: Paul Holdengräber
Panelists: Glenn Phillips, Chief Curator at the Getty Research Institute; Lisa Darms, archivist and writer; and Martha Wilson, performance artist and founder of Franklin Furnace.
Approaching the subject from the perspectives of major institutions, community archives, and independent artistic practice, the panel examined the politics of absence within archives—the lives and ethics of objects, the thresholds between preservation and destruction, and the cultural responsibilities borne by archivists in an era of structural scarcity.
Paul opened by citing Glenn’s essay in the symposium booklet, noting that archives do not offer absolute truth: “We comfort ourselves by thinking archives have a solid connection to truth, when in fact they are a representational medium that can be just as partial and deceptive as any other.”
Glenn responded that absence and silence within archives are as significant as what remains. Artist archives often reflect the maker’s temperament—emotions, vulnerabilities, obsessions, and the pressures of their era. When working with sensitive materials, he frequently asks himself: “Does the world need to know how pathetic and petty this person was?”
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1. Linda Montano, Marina Abramović, Jaime Davidovich, Mary Beth Edelson, Claire Fergusson, Bill Gordh, Coco Gordon, Jon Hendricks, Spalding Gray, Tony Labat, Michael Osterhout, Aysha Quinn, Aviva Rahmani, Frank Shifreen,Barbara Smith, Terry Sullivan, Mierle Laderman Ukeles, FF Alumns, at NYU Fales Library, Manhattan
There are about 38 PUBLISHED interviews in my book with introductions by writers. But there are MANY UNPUBLISHED INTERVIEWS in my archive at FALES LIBRARY and although many 80’s artists are in the book PERFORMANCE ARTISTS TALKING IN THE 80’s, there are I think over 65 UNPUBLISHED interviews sitting somewhere in Fales Archive!!!The book is out of print BUT if you go to my blog JANUARY 13, 2025, there is a free PDF of that book and all the other books that I have written. And if you wish to research any of the UNPUBLISHED INTERVIEWS from that project, here is a list of names:
UNPUBLISHED INTERVIEWS FROM THAT PROJECT AT FALES ARCHIVE:
FOOD: YUSHIN, CYNTHIA SINCLAIR, BILL GORDH, JACQUES HALBERT, TAKAHESHI KOSUGI, LINDA MONTANO, MILDRED MONTANO, BARBARA SMITH,
SEX: KATHY ACKER, BARBARA SMITH, MARINA AND ULAY, LUTZ BACKER, JUDITH BARRY, MARGARET FABRIZIO, MELVIN FREILICHER, BILL HARDING, TOM JARIMBA,SUSAN KLECKNER, ANNA KOSTER, TONY LABAT, SYLVIA NAKKACH, AVIVA RAHMANI
MONEY/ FAME: ELIZABETH MONRO CROSS,SUSANNAH DAIKEN, JAIME DAVIDOVICH, NORMA JEAN DEAK, COCO GORDON, SPALDING GRAY, JEFFREY GREENBERG, JON HENDRICKS, PAUL KOS, PHIL NIBLOCK, MICHAEL OSTERHOUT, LIL PICARD, MARK RENNIE, TERRY SULLIVAN, BETH ANN SWARTZ, MIERLE UKELES,
RITUAL/DEATH: BARRY BRYANT,MOLLY DAVIES, MARY BETH EDELSON, CLAIRE FERGUSSON, ALLYSON GREY, SALLY JACQUE, LISA LYON, MASA, TONY MAY, DOMINIQUE MAZNAUD, LINDA MUSSMAN&CLAUDIA BRUCE, SUSANNA OISHI, MICHAEL PEPPE, AYSHA QUINN& JOHN STURGEON, PAUL RYAN, FRANK SHIFREEN.
These unpublished interviews can be found in my archive at Fales . This post is not only about making information about these names available but it’s also a thought about what happened 40 years ago when size and paper were decision making factors. Today, electronic SPACE is unlimited. INCLUSIVITY.
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2. Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful EspejoOvalles Morel, FF Alumn, now online at InteriorBeautySalon.com
Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful EspejoOvalles Morel publishes new essay with The Interior Beauty Salon
The Warehouse of Forgotten Objects Offers Memories Wholesale / Museo Folklórico Don Tomás Morel
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3. Karen Finley, Coco Fusco, FF Alumns, now online at Hyperallergic.com and more
Please visit these links:
https://hyperallergic.com/first-amendment-day-rally-in-new-york
https://www.artforum.com/news/artists-rally-for-first-amendment-in-nyc-federal-hall-1234740948
Thank you.
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4. Ogemdi Ude, FF Alumn, at New York Live Arts, Manhattan, Jan. 7-10, 2026
MAJOR is a dance theater project exploring the physicality, history, sociopolitics, and interiority of majorette dance, a form that originated in the American South within Historically Black Colleges and Universities in the 1960s. These Black femme teams accompanied by marching bands created a movement style that requires master showmanship with allegiance to count, undulation, groove, and sensual yet strong performativity. In MAJOR, six Black femmes embrace majorette form – a fundamental relic of Black girlhood – to pursue the intimate journey of returning to bodies they thought lost.
Dates:
January 7-10, 2026
Location:
New York Live Arts
219 W 19th St, New York, NY 10011
Tickets can be purchased here: https://newyorklivearts.org/event/major/
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5. Annie Lanzillotto, FF Alumn, now online at The New Verse News
Please visit this link:
I wrote this poem “Alma Mater / Soul Mother” published in The New Verse News today, dedicated to Brunonia, Brown U community.
read, comment, share… Give words wings…
Thank you
Annie Rachele Lanzillotto
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6. Justin Allen, FF Alumn, at St. Mark’s Church, Manhattan, Jan. 1 and more
Happy Holidays!
On New Year’s Day, I’ll be sharing a new poem at The Poetry Project’s Annual New Year’s Day Marathon. In February, I’m opening a night of performances by former ISSUE Project Room artists-in-residence, sharing a new solo performance. More details below, and see you in 2026!
The Poetry Project’s 52nd Annual New Year’s Day Marathon
Thursday, January 1, reading between 4-5PM
St. Mark’s Church
131 E. 10th St
New York, NY 10003
Raúl de Nieves & Dawn Kasper / Justin Allen
Friday, February 13, 8PM
ISSUE Project Room
22 Boerum Place
Brooklyn, NY 11201
Thank you.
Justin Allen
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7. Epstein/Hassan, FF Alumns, chosen as 2025 Top Ten Off Broadway show, TheaterScene.org
Very proud that 39 Years Between First Kisses was chosen as a TOP TEN Off Broadway show for 2025. It was a love letter to Naimah. When Your Soul Mate Dies was the first love letter written with Naimah from her nursing home bed 3 years ago. Steve https://theaterscene.org/2025/12/a-2025-10-best-list/
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8. Paul Zaloom, FF Alumn, now online at https://youtu.be/JDiSg6cQ86M
Just in time for some happy holidaze, Lynn Jeffries + Paul Zaloom present their newest epic, I HATE TREES, an exposé of Santa’s aversion to our wooden pals. Watch as conifers stealthily communicate with each other while Claus schemes to rid the world of the leafy objects of his loathing!
Click me:
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9. Mark Bloch, FF Alumn, now online at WhiteHotMagazine.com
Hi my latest article in Whitehot Magazine is about Greek-American artist Antonia Papatzanaki‘s art-science-light interfaces. I hope you enjoy it and I wish everyone a happy holiday season and a new year with miraculous positive surprises for us all.
https://whitehotmagazine.com/articles/antonia-papatzanaki-light-nature/7410
Thank you.
Mark Bloch
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10. David Cale, FF Alumn, now online at FilmMusicReporter.com
Please visit this link:
https://filmmusicreporter.com/2025/12/15/the-testament-of-ann-lee-soundtrack-album-details/
Thank you.
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11. Judith Bernstein, FF Alumn, at The Jewish Museum, Manhattan, thru May 31, 2026
JUDITH BERNSTEIN FEATURED IN
JOAN SEMMEL: IN THE FLESH
Dec 12, 2025–May 31, 2026
Included in the Jewish Museum’s exhibition, Joan Semmel: In the Flesh, is Judith Bernstein’s 1966 work, Invest Your Sons (War is Good Business). Bernstein’s early graffiti work plays on the philosophical overtones embedded in the extravagantly idiomatic language of crude bathroom scrawl – a theme that has remained central throughout her career. Opening December 12, 2025 and running through May 1, 2026, the show presents Semmel’s iconic paintings and self-images alongside works from the Museum’s collection to explore parallel themes of the body, intimacy, and autonomy.
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12. James Johnson, FF Alumn, now online at DiscoPie.com
I’m delighted to finally announce the long overdue 2025 update to my website – Discopie.com aka Jim Johnson Studio.
If you’ve visited the site before you’ll notice some major changes. Gone is the Type section of the site and the Books and Exhibitions sections, as well as a few other pages.
You can still find links for most of these older pages on SPOT: https://spot.colorado.edu/~johnsoja/Home.html
I’ve also heavily edited the amount of work included. And again, there’s still plenty left over on SPOT.
I hope you enjoy the new look.
Peace,
Jim
Jim Johnson
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13. George Peck, FF Alumn, December news
Greetings my friends,
At this end of the year I am looking back to a time when the pandemic started and how curious and uncharted our lives were. Although we have come out of it our world continues to be a precarious one. The following studio update is the first one I originally created during the pandemic, made out of an urge to reach out and feel connected. This is a new synopsis of those events with additional reflections. You can read it at the link below.
In the spirit of rebirth and rejuvenation I’d like to wish everyone happy holidays and New Year. Hopefully our world will reach a better place in 2026.
My studio practice continues and you will be getting more information in the near future.
With my best wishes,
George
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14. Paul Zelevansky, FF Alumn, now online at https://vimeo.com/1148110527
Please visit this link:
PZ, 12/19/2025
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15. Andrea Fraser, FF Alumn, now online at NYTimes.com
Please visit this link:
Thank you.
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16. Walter Krochmal, FF Alumn, at La Nacional, Manhattan, and more, Jan. 11-18, 2026
[ARTHOUSE FILM IN MANHATTAN]: A Bouquet of Film Premieres Marks Fifteenth Anniversary of Art House Pioneer Bronx World Film
FULL PROGRAMME LINK: https://www.bronxworldfilm.org/guidebwfcycle
DATES & TIMES: January 11-18, 2026
MANHATTAN VENUE: La Nacional – 239 West 14th Street (JAN. 11-13)
BRONX VENUE: Andrew Freedman Home (Jan. 17, more venues TBA)
New York, New York. Dec. 3, 2025. – Pioneer arthouse cinema presenter Bronx World Film returns with world-class programming to Manhattan and The Bronx in celebration of its fifteenth anniversary January 11-18, 2026 with its flagship Bronx World Film Cycle, Winter 2026, boasting of a marquee with 22 films from 16 different countries, a World premiere, three US premieres, five NYC premieres, an avant-première and its first incursion into horror.
Programme highlights include the world premiere of Spray Can Stories: TATS CRU, Bronx filmmaker Emmitt Thrower’s documentary tribute to the legendary Bronx muralists and pioneers of hip-hop culture; I, Father, a film adaptation of Hamlet in Albanian with Makfire Miftari and Besim Ajeti, celebrated artists in Kosovë; Spotlight Artist Alan Rexroth, a filmmaker and photographer who will offer a large-format photo exhibit, screen his intrepid border-crossing film #WAY_Aurelio, and offer free photo box gallery shoots on a first-come-first-served basis for all days of the event. The marquee also welcomes a showcase of micrométrages edited by students of longtime collaborator Jennida Chase at UNC Greensboro Film Department.
Bronx World Film Cycle, Winter 2026 follows on the heels of the wildly successful nine-month pilot of “A Night at La Nacional,” the monthly world cinema and arts event that brought new spark to downtown Manhattan’s arts life during 2025. The experiment extended the unusual fifteen-year-old partnership between La Nacional – among the city’s oldest non-profits now in its 100th year at its present location and last redoubt of Manhattan’s “Little Spain,” dubbed “a hidden gem” by Daily News — and Bronx World Film, its protegé institution. Bronx World Film is thankful to La Nacional for the continuous support it has offered over this time, allowing our organization to grow into an internationally respected arthouse film entity.
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17. Jay Critchley, FF Alumn, at Harbor Hotel beach, Provincetown Harbor, MA, Jan. 7, 2026, and more
Here’s to an Uncycled New Year!
43rd Re-Rooters Day Ceremony, Wednesday, January 7, 2026, 4:00 pm, Harbor Hotel beach, Provincetown Harbor.
Online podcast published December 29, The Art Colony with Gaston Lacombe
Provincetown Public Art Foundation, online: The Cold Warmth
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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 for Artists is compiled weekly by Rohan Subramaniam, Archive Intern, 2024/2025
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