Lenora Champagne Papers
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Abstract
Lenora Champagne is a performance artist, playwright, and director. The Lenora Champagne Papers (1969-2023) is comprised of video footage of numerous performances by Lenora Champagne between 1984-1991. The collection also contains project files, drafts of plays and manuscripts, original writings, photographs, correspondence, posters, Fulbright scholarship and conference materials, teaching and employment materials related to Purchase College, journals, and appointment books.
Biographical Note
Lenora Champagne (www.lenorachampagne.com) came to New York from Louisiana to be a painter, but found her voice in performance. Since receiving her Ph.D. in Performance Studies from NYU in 1980, Champagne has been making work as a performance artist, playwright, and director. She received a NYFA Fellowship in Playwriting in 1998 and a NYFA Fellowship in Performance Art in 2003. Champagne has been awarded three fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts (in solo performance, directing, and an artist's residency in Canada); recieved commissions and project support from NYSCA, DCA, the Peg Santvoord Foundation, the Joyce Gilmore Foundation, the Jerome Foundation, the Puffin Foundation, the Franklin Furnace Fund for Performance Art, among others; and has been in residence at the MacDowell Colony and Yaddo. Her work in galleries and arts spaces such as Franklin Furnace, the New Museum, and Creative Time's Art on the Beach is mostly live performance, though she also co-created an installation for the New Museum's Art Mall as Social Space show in 1992, and wrapped babies in words for Shattered Anatomies, a box anthology of objects and texts on performance, Arnolfini, 1997. Champagne frequently collaborates with sculptors, installation artists, and media artists. She is an alumna of New Dramatists, a former resident HARP artist at HERE Arts Center (where she developed TRACES/fades, an intergenerational performance with music and video that is a meditation on memory, loss, and our national inability to remember history), and is Professor of Theatre and Performance at Purchase College, SUNY. Champagne edited and contributed to Out From Under: Texts by Women Performance Artists (Theatre Communications Group, 1990); her publications include performance texts, plays and essays published by Smith & Kraus, Performing Arts Journal, Performance Research, Plays and Playwrights 2009 and The Iowa Review.
Arrangement
Materials in Series I: Video are arranged alphabetically. Materials in Series II: 2024 Accretion have not been arranged by an archivist; the materials are arranged in the order in which they were received from the donor.
Scope and Content note
The Lenora Champagne Papers (1969-2023) is comprised of video footage of numerous performances by Lenora Champagne between 1984-1991. The collection also contains project files, drafts of plays and manuscripts, original writings, photographs, correspondence, posters, Fulbright scholarship and conference materials, teaching and employment materials related to Purchase College, journals, and appointment books. The project files document Champagne's artistic projects, including art installations, plays.
Subjects
Conditions Governing Access
Materials are open without restrictions.
Conditions Governing Use
This collection is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use materials in the collection in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).
Preferred Citation
Identification of item, date (if known); Lenora Champagne Papers; MSS 153; box number; folder number; Fales Library and Special Collections, New York University Libraries.
Audiovisual Access Policies and Procedures
Audiovisual materials have not been preserved and may not be available to researchers. Materials not yet digitized will need to have access copies made before they can be used. To request an access copy, or if you are unsure if an item has been digitized, please contact Fales Library and Special Collections, special.collections@nyu.edu, 212-998-2596 with the collection name, collection number, and a description of the item(s) requested. A staff member will respond to you with further information.
About this Guide
Processing Information
Decisions concerning description and physical interventions taken on the collection prior to 2024 were not recorded. In February 2024, an accretion was rehoused in archival boxes. Some items were placed in folders. The accretion was inventoried on the box-level. All metadata was recorded before the binders were discarded. The accession number associated with this accretion is 2024-013.
Revisions to this Guide
Repository
Series I: Video
Conditions Governing Access
Researchers may request to view material from Subseries B: Access Copies.
Subseries A: Originals
As Ready, Apart From Herself - Pick Up Shots (at Franklin Furnace), 1986
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Format: 3/4" U-Matic
Duration: [00:10:00]
As Ready, Apart From Herself, Written & Directed by Lenora Champagne, Recorded 16 May 1986, 1986
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Format: 3/4" U-Matic
Duration: [00:34:00]
Eye of the Garden Complete, Undated
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Format: 3/4" U-Matic
Duration: [00:48:00]
Eye of the Garden - Tape 1 of 3, Undated
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Format: 3/4" U-Matic
Duration: [00:15:00]
Eye of the Garden - Tape 2 of 3, Undated
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Format: 3/4" U-Matic
Duration: [00:21:00]
Eye of the Garden - Tape 3 of 3, Undated
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Format: 3/4" U-Matic
Duration: [00:17:00]
Fractured Juliet by Lenora Champagne (at Real Art Ways), 1985 - 1986
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Format: 3/4" U-Matic
Duration: [00:23:00]
Fractured Juliet, Getting Over Tom (studio version taped at Real Art Ways), circa 1986
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Format: 3/4" U-Matic
Duration: [00:13:00]
Home: A Performance by Lenora Champagne (at Danspace Project), 1986
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Format: 3/4" U-Matic
Duration: [00:45:00]
Isabella Dreams The New World Reel #1, 1990
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Format: 3/4" U-Matic
Duration: [01:01:00]
Isabella Dreams The New World Reel #2, 1990
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Format: 3/4" U-Matic
Duration: [00:26:00]
Lenora Champagne: "Fractured Juliet," "The Eye of the Garden" (Excerpts), Undated
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Format: 3/4" U-Matic
Duration: [00:37:00]
Lenora Champagne, Reptile Warmth (excerpt with video treatment), 1985
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Format: 3/4" U-Matic
Duration: [00:23:00]
Lenora Champagne with Kevin Duffy and Patricia Pretzinger P.S. 122, 19 November 1984 [1] - From The Red Light District, 1984
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Format: 3/4" U-Matic
Duration: [00:51:00]
"Lenora's Tape" (taped at Real Art Ways) : [1] - Getting Over Tom [2] - Fractured Juliet [3] - The Ways to the River [4] - Reptile Warmth (excerpt), circa 1986
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Format: 3/4" U-Matic
Duration: [00:54:00]
[1] - Manna [2] - Flying Home, Undated
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Format: 3/4" U-Matic
Duration: [00:46:00]
Manna, Unedited Original - Tape 1, Undated
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Format: 3/4" U-Matic
Duration: [00:22:00]
Manna - Tape 2, Undated
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Format: 3/4" U-Matic
Duration: [00:20:00]
Manna - Tape 3, Undated
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Format: 3/4" U-Matic
Duration: [00:13:00]
Master: Excerpts from Works by Lenora Champagne, [1] - As Ready, Apart from Herself [2] - Home [3] - Eye of the Gardent [4] - Fractured Juliet [5] - From the Red Light District [6] - Manna [7] - Getting Over Tom [8] - Fractured Juliet, Undated
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Format: 3/4" U-Matic
Duration: [00:24:00]
Monsters, "The Face" (Performance in Support of the NEA, Master Tape from MK's), 1990 - 1991
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Format: 3/4" U-Matic
Duration: [00:28:45]
Reptile Warmth, April 18, 85, Nicky Keiji, 2nd Take Copy, 1985
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Format: 3/4" U-Matic
Duration: [00:11:00]
Winter Heat: A Performance by Lenora Champagne with Andre Gribou, Recorded 18 January 1987, 1987
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Format: 3/4" U-Matic
Duration: [00:50:00]
Women Without Parts - Written & Performed by Lenora Champagne, Recorded 11 January 1988, 1988
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Format: 3/4" U-Matic
Duration: [00:40:00]
Subseries B: Access Copies
Conditions Governing Access
Access copies for some materials are available by appointment for reading room viewing and listening only. Please contact fales.library@nyu.edu, 212-998-2596.
As Ready, Apart From Herself - Pick Up Shots (at Franklin Furnace), 1986
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Format: DVD
Duration: [00:10:00]
Original Format: 3/4" U-Matic
As Ready, Apart From Herself, Written & Directed by Lenora Champagne, Recorded 16 May 1986, 1986
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Format: DVD
Duration: [00:34:00]
Original Format: 3/4" U-Matic
Eye of the Garden Complete, Undated
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Format: DVD
Duration: [00:48:00]
Original Format: 3/4" U-Matic
Eye of the Garden - Tape 1 of 3, Undated
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Format: DVD
Duration: [00:15:00]
Original Format: 3/4" U-Matic
Eye of the Garden - Tape 2 of 3, Undated
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Format: DVD
Duration: [00:21:00]
Original Format: 3/4" U-Matic
Eye of the Garden - Tape 3 of 3, Undated
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Format: DVD
Duration: [00:17:00]
Original Format: 3/4" U-Matic
Fractured Juliet by Lenora Champagne (at Real Art Ways), 1985 - 1986
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Format: DVD
Duration: [00:23:00]
Original Format: 3/4" U-Matic
Fractured Juliet, Getting Over Tom (studio version taped at Real Art Ways), circa 1986
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Format: DVD
Duration: [00:13:00]
Original Format: 3/4" U-Matic
Home: A Performance by Lenora Champagne (at Danspace Project), 1986
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Format: DVD
Duration: [00:45:00]
Original Format: 3/4" U-Matic
Isabella Dreams The New World Reel #1, 1990
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Format: DVD
Duration: [01:01:00]
Original Format: 3/4" U-matic
Isabella Dreams The New World Reel #2, 1990
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Format: DVD
Duration: [00:26:00]
Original Format: 3/4" U-Matic
Lenora Champagne: "Fractured Juliet," "The Eye of the Garden" (Excerpts), Undated
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Format: DVD
Duration: [00:39:00]
Original Format: 3/4" U-Matic
Lenora Champagne, "Reptile Warmth" (excerpt, with video treatment), 1985
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Format: DVD
Duration: [00:23:00]
Original Format: 3/4" U-matic
Lenora Champagne with Kevin Duffy and Patricia Pretzinger P.S. 122, 19 November 1984 [1] - From the Red Light District, 1984
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Format: DVD
Duration: [00:51:00]
Original Format: 3/4" U-Matic
"Lenora's Tape" (taped at Real Art Ways) : [1] - Getting Over Tom [2] - Fractured Juliet [3] - The Ways to the River [4] - Reptile Warmth (excerpt), circa 1986
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Format: DVD
Duration: [00:54:00]
Original Format: 3/4" U-Matic
[1] - Manna [2] - Flying Home, Undated
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Format: DVD
Duration: [00:46:00]
Original Format: 3/4" U-Matic
Manna, Unedited Original - Tape 1, Undated
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Format: DVD
Duration: [00:22:00]
Original Format: 3/4" U-Matic
Manna - Tape 2, Undated
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Format: DVD
Duration: [00:20:00]
Original Format: 3/4" U-Matic
Manna - Tape 3, Undated
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Format: DVD
Duration: [00:13:00]
Original Format: 3/4" U-Matic
Master: Excerpts from Works by Lenora Champagne, [1] - As Ready, Apart from Herself [2] - Home [3] - Eye of the Gardent [4] - Fractured Juliet [5] - From the Red Light District [6] - Manna [7] - Getting Over Tom [8] - Fractured Juliet, Undated
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Format: DVD
Duration: [00:24:00]
Original Format: 3/4" U-Matic
Monsters, "The Face" (Performance in Support of the NEA, Master Tape from MK's), 1990 - 1991
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Format: DVD
Duration: [00:32:00]
Original Format: 3/4" U-Matic
Reptile Warmth, April 18, 85, Nicky Keiji, 2nd Take Copy, 1985
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Format: DVD
Duration: [00:11:00]
Original Format: 3/4" U-matic
Winter Heat: A Performance by Lenora Champagne with Andre Gribou, Recorded 18 January 1987, 1987
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Format: DVD
Duration: [00:50:00]
Original Format: 3/4" U-Matic
Women Without Parts, Written & Performed by Lenora Champagne, Recorded 11 January 1988, 1988
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Format: DVD
Duration: [00:40:00]
Original Format: 3/4" U-Matic
