Founded in 1973, Creative Time is a nonprofit arts organization that supports the creation of innovative, site-specific works by professional artists for public presentation in vacant spaces of historical and architectural interest throughout New York City. Its history of commissioning, producing, and presenting adventurous public artworks of all disciplines began in the midst of a significant period in which artists were experimenting with new forms and media that moved their works out of galleries and museums and into the public realm. Programs sponsored by Creative Time include both the visual and performing arts and are designed to encourage a dialogue between the artist and the community.
Their earliest programs invigorated vacant storefronts as well as neglected public spaces such as the Great Hall of the Chamber of Commerce in Lower Manhattan and the arches of the Brooklyn Bridge Anchorage. From 1983-2001, Creative Time presented Art in the Anchorage for annual exhibitions of emerging creative practices in art, music, theater, and fashion until its closure in 2001 due to national security.
Creative Time gained early renown for initiating Art on the Beach on two acres of landfill known as Battery Park City, an area targeted for future residential and commercial development. From 1978-1985, this site became a laboratory for artists of all mediums to develop large scale works and collaborate, bringing together architects, sculptors, performers, and musicians. The success of Art on the Beach became a model for the presentation of temporary public art for other city governments and arts agencies.
Creative Time's Citywide program was inaugurated in 1989 and provided a forum for individual artists to control the presentation of their work in public places and for the public to have greater access to artists and their process. Presenting projects on billboards, landmark buildings, buses, deli cups, milk cartons, ATM machines, and the Internet, among numerous other venues, and encouraging artists to address timely issues such as the AIDS pandemic, domestic violence, and racial inequality, Creative Time broadened the definitions of both art and public space throughout the 1980s and 1990s.
From 1973-1986, Creative Time was under the leadership of Anita Contini and continued until Cee Scott Brown took over as director in 1987. Anne Pasternak stepped in as director in 1993 and continued in this position through the 2010s. Today, Creative Time continues to provide hundreds of emerging and established artists with opportunities to create new works that expand their practices and foster career growth. Creative Time's alumni community includes Laurie Anderson, Beth B., David Byrne, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Red Grooms, Jenny Holzer, Marcos Kurtycz, Takashi Murakami, Shirin Neshat, and Elizabeth Streb, among thousands more. Creative Time has remained committed to promoting collaboration within the creative community, frequently partnering with institutions like the The Kitchen, Lincoln Center, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, MTA Arts for Transit, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.
References:
1. Creative Time website, creativetime.org, Creative Time, Inc. copyright 1974-2008.
2. Unknown author, untitled Creative Time press document, unpublished, circa 1985.
3. Creative Time: 20 years of art in unexpected places.
4. Pasternak, Anne and Ruth A. Peltason, ed. Creative Time: The Book, 33 Years of Public Art in New York City (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2007).
