Performa Records

Call Number

MSS.471

Date

2003-ongoing, inclusive

Creator

PERFORMA (Organization)

PERFORMA (Organization) (Role: Donor)

Extent

44.5 Linear Feet

26 record cartons, 12 manuscript boxes, 9 flat boxes, and 7 oversize flat boxes.

Extent

1.78 Terabytes

Extent

24.54 Gigabytes

in 58 pieces of optical media

Extent

12 websites

in 12 archived websites.

Language of Materials

Materials in English.

Abstract

Founded in 2004 by art historian and curator RoseLee Goldberg, Performa is a New York City-based multidisciplinary non-profit arts organization dedicated to exploring the critical role of live performance in the history of twentieth century art and encouraging new directions in performance for the twenty-first century. The institution is primarily known for its biennial event, which began in 2005 with Performa 05, through Performa 15. The biennials offer a program of performances, exhibitions, symposia, and film screenings organized in collaboration with a consortium of leading museums, galleries, alternative spaces, and independent curators in New York. The Performa Records feature archived websites and files from the planning of events, specifically the organization's biennials, beginning with Performa 05 through Performa 23. Biennial material includes program schedules, invitations/announcements, memorabilia, posters, video recordings, and clippings. Material generated by the Development Department includes items related to donations and membership. Board of Director minutes and a small amount of financial material can also be found in these records.

Historical Note

Performa is a New York City-based multidisciplinary non-profit arts organization dedicated to exploring the critical role of live performance in the history of twentieth century art and encouraging new directions in performance for the twenty-first century. Founded in 2004, Performa is the brainchild of art historian and curator RoseLee Goldberg, whose definitive book, Performance Art: From Futurism to the Present (1979 and 2000), pioneered the study of performance art. In 2001, Ms. Goldberg originated and produced visual artist Shirin Neshat's first live performance, Logic of the Birds, with critical and popular success in both New York and London. Evolved from this production, the idea came about to create the Performa biennial in 2005, called Performa 05, with a specially commissioned new performance at its core. The event offered a program of performances, exhibitions, symposia, and film screenings organized in collaboration with leading museums, galleries, alternative spaces, and independent curators in New York. It was a critical and popular success, setting a standard for the positioning of live performance in the international contemporary art world. Over 25,000 people attended events at more than twenty venues across the city during Performa 05's entire three-week run. Since that first year, the Performa biennial has presented new works by artists working in performance, first performance works by artists working in other mediums, and re-staging of seminal performance works from history. The Performa biennial has taken place every other year since then and has become a crucial component of Performa's mission.

Arrangement

This collection has not been arranged by an archivist. The materials are arranged in the order in which they were received from the donor.

Scope and Contents

The Performa Records is made up of material relating to Performa's biennial events, beginning in 2005 with Performa 05, through Performa 23. Biennial material includes press kits, mailers, program schedule booklets, individual event programs, t-shirts, tote bags, biennial catalogs/booklets, websites, and related work files, press clippings, posters, video recordings of events/interviews/performances, 10th anniversary material/planning files, and tote bags. The Biennial is documented physically and digitally. Also included in this collection are a small amount of membership, development, and Board of Director material, as well as correspondence and office files generated by founder RoseLee Goldberg.

Subjects

Organizations

PERFORMA (Organization) (Role: Donor)

Genres

Clippings (information artifacts); Invitations.; Press kits.; Posters.; Video recordings.; Video tapes.; CD-ROMs.; DVDs.

Topics

Performance art -- 21st century.; Performance artists.; Performa 09 -- (2009) -- New York, N.Y.; Performa 11 (2011 : New York, N.Y.); PERFORMA05 (2005 : New York, N.Y.)

Donors

PERFORMA (Organization)

Conditions Governing Use

NYU's Fales Library & Special Collections is not the copyright owner for this collection. Collection use is subject to all copyright laws. Researchers wishing to reproduce collection material should contact rights holders for permission.

Preferred Citation

Identification of item, date; Performa Records; MSS 471; box number; folder number; Fales Library and Special Collections, New York University.

To cite the archived website in this collection: Identification of item, date; Performa Records; MSS 471; Wayback URL; Fales Library and Special Collections, New York University.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Donated by Performa in February 2017, with further accretions in March 2017 and February 2018; the accession numbers associated with this collection are 2017.006, 2017.015, 2017.034, and 2018.028.

In 2017, https://performa-arts.org/, http://15.performa-arts.org/, http://13.performa-arts.org/, http://11.performa-arts.org/, http://07.performa-arts.org/, were selected by curators and captured through the use of Archive-It. Archive-It uses web crawling technology to capture websites at a scheduled time and displays only an archived copy, from the resulting WARC file, of the website. In 2018, http://17.performa-arts.org/ was added. The accession number associated with this website is 2019.052. In September-October 2019, http://05.performa-arts.org/ and http://performamagazine.tumblr.com/ was added to the web archive. The accession number associated with these websites is 2019.075. In November 2019, http://performa19.org/ was added to the web archives. The accession number associated with this website is 2020.002. In October 2021, https://www.performa2021.org/ was added. The accession number associated with this website is 2022.016. In October 2023, https://performa2023.org/ was added. The accession number associated with this website is 2023.058. In Spring 2025, https://archive.performa-arts.org/ was added. The accession number associated with this website is 2025.017.

Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements

Advance notice is required for the use of computer records. Original physical digital media is restricted. Born-digital materials have not been transferred and may not be available to researchers. Researchers may request access copies. To request that material be transferred, or if you are unsure if material has been transferred, please contact fales.library@nyu.edu with the collection name, collection number, and a description of the item(s) requested. A staff member will respond to you with further information.

Take Down Policy

Archived websites are made accessible for purposes of education and research. NYU Libraries have given attribution to rights holders when possible; however, due to the nature of archival collections, we are not always able to identify this information.

If you hold the rights to materials in our archived websites that are unattributed, please let us know so that we may maintain accurate information about these materials.

If you are a rights holder and are concerned that you have found material on this website for which you have not granted permission (or is not covered by a copyright exception under US copyright laws), you may request the removal of the material from our site by submitting a notice, with the elements described below, to the special.collections@nyu.edu.

Please include the following in your notice: Identification of the material that you believe to be infringing and information sufficient to permit us to locate the material; your contact information, such as an address, telephone number, and email address; a statement that you are the owner, or authorized to act on behalf of the owner, of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed and that you have a good-faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; a statement that the information in the notification is accurate and made under penalty of perjury; and your physical or electronic signature. Upon receiving a notice that includes the details listed above, we will remove the allegedly infringing material from public view while we assess the issues identified in your notice.

Collection processed by

Stacey Flatt

About this Guide

This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2025-07-18 14:23:08 UTC.

Using Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Language: Finding aid written in English

Processing Information

At the time of accessioning, materials were moved into archival housing and described on the collection level, complemented by a box-level inventory. Born-digital materials have been identified and inventoried; the electronic records stored on hard drives have been imaged and analyzed.

In 2018-2025, the archived websites were added into the container list.

Revisions to this Guide

July 2025: Edited by Nicole Greenhouse to reflect additional administrative information and added archived websites

Repository

Fales Library and Special Collections