A Different World: A Personal History of Franklin Furnace.

This article presents a historical background on Franklin Furnace, an institution that provides gallery for exhibitions and installations and even a publisher for artists and curators in the U.S. founded by Martha Wilson in April 1976. In the 1980s, the philosophical underpinnings of the artist space movement faced problems of inflated budgets and ambitions and marketplace values brought about either the demise or co-option of many such spaces. Thus, the artists space become a seriously endangered species, almost extinct in some parts of the country. However, Furnace survived the hard times and is very much alive due to the fact that as an artists institution it has mutated and adapted to the needs and conditions of the times. Ironically perhaps, it has been able to evolve in form in response to the cultural environment without surrendering its primary raison d'etre because it has not lost sight of those principles on which it was founded. The Furnace opened initially as a bookstore in the front part of the Franklin Street space in New York City. However, Franklin Furnace evolved to became an informal gathering place where sculptors video artists, performance artists, composers, dancers, poets and experimental theatre directors, all came to see each other's works and exchange ideas.