Mary Griffin

Mary Griffin
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Nationality	American
Citizenship	United States of America
Occupation	Artist

Mary J. Griffin is an American artist and arts producer.

Education

Born in Cardiff, Wales, Mary Griffin (a.k.a. Mary MacArthur) was educated at St. Joseph's Elementary School, Heathfield House High School, took her undergraduate degree at the University of Wales in Cardiff and received an MA in English Literature from the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Early Career (1968-1978)

While living in Buffalo Griffin was one of a group of people involved with Domus, one of the first Artist Spaces in the US which was situated on the second floor in an old Pierce Arrow factory. The organization presented artists, many of whom had yet to gain worldwide recognition they earned in later decades. Among them were Cornelius Cardew, Meredith Monk, Gelsey Kirkland and Julius Eastman. She moved to New York in 1971 and took a different and rewarding work gambit, becoming a Supervisor of one of the first New York City Methadone Treatment Centers on the Lower East Side which emphasized intensive counseling, medical treatment and job training for recovering addicts.

In 1974 she returned to work in the arts with a short stint at Poets and Writers leading to the Creative Artists Program Service (CAPS), the New York State forerunner of government-funded agencies giving support to individual creative artists. She became Director of the Fellowship Program and for three years assembled and chaired panels of artists to review work and award grants in twelve disciplines.

The Kitchen (1978-1985)

In December 1978 Griffin became Director of The Kitchen, a center for experimental performing, visual and media arts in a Soho loft.

Under her direction, The Kitchen presented over 100 events each year including experimental music and dance concerts, Performance art events, film and video screenings and gallery exhibitions. She also raised funds to commission innovative artists to make work at a time when funding for experimental art was scarce. These included Anthony Davis’s opera X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X (1985) and Robert Ashley’s seven-part opera for television Perfect Lives (1984).

In 1979 The Kitchen presented the New Music, New York Festival, the first survey of what was then called “Downtown Music” which presented 54 composers over 9 days and generated the New Music Alliance, a national organization of presenters and composers which became the umbrella organization for an annual festival of new music, New Music America, The Festival was presented in various US cities for the next ten years.

In 1981 Griffin established The Kitchen's Touring Program when she secured sponsorship from the United States Intelligence Agency to send a group of young artists on a tour of Europe and the USSR. The group which included Julius Eastman, George Lewis, Molissa Fenley, Bill T Jones and Arnie Zane, Douglas Ewart, Eric Bogosian, Robert Longo, Joseph Hannan, Jeff Lohn and Lisa Fox demonstrated the vitality of the New York art scene at the time, and the collaborative relationships between the artists who performed in each other’s pieces. This inaugural tour was succeeded by extensive tours of emerging artists through Europe and the US.

Griffin also secured funds for a television show, Two Moon July (1986) a lyrical documentary directed by Tom Bowes and produced by Carlota Schoolman both of whom had been central to the development of the video and television programs at The Kitchen. The program included some of the artists whose careers had been supported by The Kitchen during Griffin's tenure. It included work by Laurie Anderson, David Byrne, John Lurie, Evan Lurie, Arto Lindsay, Nana Vasconcelos, Cindy Sherman, Brian Eno, Robert Longo, Anthony Davis, Philip Glass, Molissa Fenley, Toni Nogueira, Eric Mitchell, Dara Birnbaum, Vito Acconci, John Sanborn, Jonathan Borofsky, Michel Auder, Bill Viola, Bruce Conner, and Bill T. Jones

Griffin left the Kitchen to develop her work as a writer and a video maker. However she continued to earn her rent as a consultant and producer while she investigated different ways to create and present her work.

New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) (1985-1989)

As a consultant to the New York Foundation for the Arts Griffin helped create the Artist Fellowship Program, a successor to the Creative Artists Program Service, which gives grants to New York State creative artists in twelve disciplines. She also organized the first national conference, Imaginary Needs: Creative Support for the Creative Artist. (Montauk, NY, 1986) which for the first time brought together artists, presenters, and officers of state agencies and private foundations to discuss, the condition of US creative artists. The Montauk conference and a second event, The Orcas Conference (Orcas Island, WA ,1989) are credited with stimulating the creation and growth of programs across the US which support creative artists through commissions, residencies, and other services. Other projects with NYFA included a national survey of Artists Colonies for the National Endowment for the Arts and the Pew Charitable Trusts.

Providence Productions International (PPI) (1990-Current)

In 1990, under the aegis of their small non-profit organization, Providence Productions International, (PPI) Griffin and Carlota Schoolman began to commission and produce artists’ works. In 1990 with Hester Stinnett and The Samuel S. Fleisher Art Memorial they organized The Electrical Matter, a Philadelphia festival honoring Benjamin Franklin with a program of work dependent on voltage. Artists presented included Nam June Paik, “Blue” Gene Tyranny, George Lewis, Maryanne Amacher, Ron Kuivila, and Peter Rose.

In 1992 in cooperation with Tyler School of Art they created Arranged Introductions: ARTworks in Different Places, which over the next eight years brought over thirty innovative artists to make new work in the context of Philadelphia community situations and gave others space to rehearse and develop works in progress.

Artists in this program included Jamie Avins, Diamanda Galas, AP Gorny, Jeanne Jaffee and Leah Stein, David Mahler, Elizabeth Streb, Maryanne Amacher, Pepon Osorio and Merian Soto, Leroy Jenkins, Homer Jackson, Rennie Harris, Anthony Gorny, Ishmael Houston-Jones and Headlong Dance Theater, Constance DeJong, Tony Oursler and Stephen Vitiello, Tim Buckley, Douglas Ewart and Richard Torchia. ARTworks collaborated with such organizations as the LaMott Community Center, Bartram's Garden 4H Club, the Samuel Fleisher Art Memorial, the Northern Liberties Recreation Center, The Franklin Institute, Action Aids, United Communities, William Penn High School, the Schuylkill River Development Council, the John Welsh School, The Prison Society and Seeds of Hope. Several of the works commissioned through this program were subsequently presented at other venues. The Three Willies (composer Leroy Jenkins, librettist Homer Jackson), first performed in Philadelphia in 1996, made its New York premiere at The Kitchen in 2001.

As Artist (1985-Present)

Griffin writes poetry, and librettos. She also makes video. Her work includes:

• Christina the Astonishing: Patron Saint of Psychiatrists, (1994) with music by Joseph Hannan, Ex Statics: A Processional for Audience as part of the Whitney Museum of American Art's Performance on 42nd series, and was subsequently performed at Roulette (1996) the Delaware Valley Opera and other ensembles (Friday, September 19, 2014).

• Lovers and Sick Cattle, (1996) with music by Joseph Hannan, was performed at Roulette, The Performing Garage, and the Delaware Valley Opera.

• Iland, an extended duet with music by Frankie Mann was performed at Roulette in 2000 and is part of Roulette’s TV series.

• Coincidents, an opera with music by Leroy Jenkins and libretto and video by Griffin was performed in workshop versions at Roulette (2004), at the 2001 Warwick Summer Arts Festival, and at 651 Arts. A version with video by Hisao Ihara was presented by Roulette in 2012 after Jenkins’ death.

• Nil Nisi Bonum, a shaggy dog song with music by Joseph Hannan premiered in an evening of Hannan's "Songs of Canine Experience" (2009) at Roulette.

• Recollections: Songs from Aphasia, a multi-media oratorio with composer “Blue” Gene Tyranny inspired by the “Aphasians” — people who lost their ability to speak as a result of strokes, traumatic brain injuries, or other kinds of brain damage, and who are reclaiming their memories and their language. Griffin recorded several video interviews with "Aphasians" which were incorporated into the piece. Commissioned by Roulette, it premiered in April 2016.

• Everything in the Garden, the third section of the “holy” trilogy on Saints with composer Joseph Hannan (in progress).

• Elpenor, a site specific work for tidal waters created by Steve Barry while Artist in Residence at Kohler Art Center is a ladder providing access to the water and incorporates two texts by Griffin meditating on time and changing place (in progress).

• An untitled collaboration with composer Frankie Mann (in progress)

Funding

Griffin's work has been supported by residencies and fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Atlantic Center for the Arts, and 651 Arts, and by grants from The New York State Council on the Arts, the Brooklyn Arts Council, The Phaedrus Foundation, the MAP Fund, MediaThe, and the Lifton Foundation.

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