Artists' Choice Museum

Artists’ Choice Museum in New York City was started in 1976 by many of the same younger artists who were active in the Alliance of Figurative Artists and the Figurative Coops. First exhibition, a survey of 146 contemporary figurative artists was selected and organized by the artists of the Green Mountain, Bowery, Prince Street and First Street Galleries - although it was a broad survey and did not exhibit just artists from those galleries. After the first show older artists were brought into its structure. Other group shows followed in clusters of galleries on 57th street and in museums: “Benefit Exhibit” in 1979 (40 artists), “Younger Artists: Benefit Exhibit” in 1980 (61 artists),“Intimate Visions” in 1982 (14 artists), “Narrative Sculpture” in 1982 (12 Artists), “Painted Light” in 1983 (90 artists) and “Bodies and Souls” in 1983 (156 artists) to name some. By 1980 The Museum was publishing a bimonthly newsletter and by 1982 a magazine. By 1984 the Museum finally had a home; a building on West Broadway. This space only lasted until 1986 when the organization ceased to exist.

Board of Artists: Paul Georges (chairman), William Bailey, Jack Beal, Joseph Giordano, Stephen Grillo, Howard Kalish, Tomar Levine, Richard Mc Dermott Miller, Donald Perlis, Marjorie Portnow, Paul Resika, and Janet Schneider.

Board of Trustees: Hans van den Houten ( chairman), Franz Skyranz, Steven W. Wolfe, Patricia J. Murphy, Ann Leven, and Janet Schneider.

Museum Director: Robert Godfrey

The whole idea was Paul Georges' but, as you know and has been stated, it was given the necessary spark by the 1976 exhibit organized by the co-op galleries. The boards were established in 1979, and in that year an inaugural exhibit featuring leading figurative artists was staged in six major New York Galleries. By then, the CCF ( Cultural Council Foundation of New York) had become the museum's fiscal manager and through the CCF the ACM began functioning as a tax-exempt, not-for-profit organization. In 1980 the Board of Regents of the State of New York granted Museum Status to the organization.

In the Spring of 1979 director Robert Godfrey and the Board of Artists drafted the first mission statement of the newly structured museum.

--- "Aristodimos Kaldis at Artists’ Choice Museum.” The New York Times, Feb. 1, 1985.

--- “Six Gallery Show.” The New York Times, Sept. 14, 1979.

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