irs program accomplishments · form 990 part iii · fy2024
What they reported doing
- #1 primary $0FRANKLIN FURNACE PROVIDED ART EDUCATION BY PLACING PROFESSIONAL ARTISTS IN NEW YORK CITY PUBLIC SCHOOL CLASSROOMS. CREATIVE THINKING AND HANDS ON PROJECTS THAT BUILD HIGHER STANDARDS OF LEARNING ARE STRESSED.
named programs · 4 · from sources
What they call their work
Art in Education
Places professional artists in New York City public school classrooms to promote creative thinking and hands-on learning through performance and interdisciplinary projects
Franklin Furnace Fund for Performance Art
Grants awarded to emerging performance artists selected by peer panels; supports new work in a field often excluded from traditional funding sources
Future of the Present
Netcast series presenting live art on the internet through collaborations with Parsons School of Design and Pseudo.com, expanding access to performance art globally
Publications and Archival Dissemination
Produces and distributes artist books, DVDs, and catalogs documenting performance art history; maintains an archive of artist publications and provides access for research
activities · 5 groups
What they do
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Artist Support Grants 3 activities
- Administers XENO Prizes for vulnerable and avant-garde art formsProvides $5,000 grants to early-career LGBTQ+-identifying performance artists in U.S. states with restrictive gender-affirming care laws and to artists producing artists’ books on book banning or burning, with editions of at least 100 copies; awarded annually since 2023.
- Administers grant programs for early-career and mid-career performance artistsAwards annual grants through peer review to support the production of major performance artworks in New York City, including the Franklin Furnace Fund and the Jacki Apple Award, which provides $10,000 annually to one mid-career New York artist.
- Supports early-career avant-garde artists through programs and public engagementOffers dedicated programs and support for early-career artists working in experimental forms, including performance and installation art, while cultivating public appreciation of avant-garde art practices.
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Artist Legacy Preservation and Documentation 2 activities
- Curates and presents time-based avant-garde artProvides physical and virtual venues for performance art, installation art, and artists’ books; curates exhibitions from its Artists’ Books Collection; and produces documentation such as DVDs, CD-ROMs, and publications to preserve and disseminate experimental art.
- Maintains and provides access to the Franklin Furnace Artists’ Books CollectionPreserves and grows the Artists’ Books Collection in collaboration with MoMA, including the donation of the core collection in 1993 and ongoing stewardship of the MoMA/Franklin Furnace Artists’ Books Vertical Files Collection, which contains 52,737 images from over 3,500 artists documenting works from 1976 to 1993.
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Archival Digitization and Preservation 2 activities
- Digitizes and publishes historical performance and exhibition recordsDigitized and published archival records of performances, installations, and exhibitions from 1976 to 1996, including 52,737 images and online access to periodicals and documentation, to support research and public access.
- Operates archival databases documenting avant-garde artMaintains an archive of approximately 1,620 physical files and digitized records documenting performance art, installation art, new media art, and exhibitions from 1976 to the present, including digitized videos from the 1980s and 1990s and online access to the Ree Morton Sketchbooks and The Flue periodical.
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Arts Professional Advocacy & Equity Initiatives 1 activity
- Advances racial, social, economic, and environmental justice through arts coalition advocacyBecame a founding member of CASA – the Coalition of Small Arts – in 2020 and co-led a coalition fundraising effort that secured $1,600,000 from major foundations to support 31 small NYC arts organizations during the pandemic.
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Arts Education Access Programs 1 activity
- Provides arts education through artist-in-residence programs in public schoolsPlaces professional teaching artists in New York City public schools to deliver hands-on art programs that support creative thinking and learning standards, with long-term partnerships in Brooklyn elementary schools and documented programming in 19 schools in 1995.
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financials · form 990 · fy2024
revenue
Total revenue$1.10M
Contributions & grants$1.08M98%
Program service revenue$00%
Investment income$25K2%
Other revenue$0
expenses
Total expenses$467K
Program expenses75%
Admin / overhead20%
Fundraising5%
Salaries & benefits$175K
Grants paid out$0
Largest expense lineCompensation
balance sheet
Total assets$1.28M
Cash$301K
Investments$363K
Liabilities$110K
Net assets$1.17M
Liquid reserves17.1 mo
7 years on record · 2018–2024 · YoY revenue +112.5%
leadership · form 990 part vii · fy2024
Who runs it
board members · 13
- ADAM M COHEN — DIRECTOR
- CAROLE NAGGAR — EXECUTIVE DI
- CHRIS DAZE ELLIS — DIRECTOR
- COCO FUSCO — DIRECTOR
- DAVID S PERLMUTTER — CO-CHAIR
- JON HENDRICKS — DIRECTOR
- JUAN ARUEGO — DIRECTOR
- MARTHA WILSON — PRESIDENT
- PABLO HELGUERA — DIRECTOR
- RICARDO MIRANDA ZUNIGA — CHAIR
- RUSSET LEDERMAN — DIRECTOR
- SANDRA LIPSMAN — SECRETARY
- SUSAN WIDERMAN BLOG — TREASURER
relationships · 45
Who they work with
- ARTstor Partner — Partnership to leverage image resources for educational and scholarly use in support of conceptual and intermedia art.
- Abrons Art Center Partner — Hosted the event "The History of the Future!" documented in a five-DVD set produced by Franklin Furnace.
- Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Funder — Has provided financial support to Franklin Furnace through the Coalition of Small Arts New York City.
- Arison Arts Foundation Funder — Has provided financial support to Franklin Furnace through the Coalition of Small Arts New York City.
- Artstor Partner — Collaborated with Franklin Furnace on digitizing and publishing archival materials.
- Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art Partner — Hosted lectures by Martha Wilson that were later published as DVDs by Franklin Furnace.
- CASA – the Coalition of Small Arts Coalition — Founding member of a coalition of 31 small NYC arts organizations formed in 2020 to address the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and advance justice.
- Coalition of Small Arts New York City (CoSA NYC) Network — Network through which Franklin Furnace has received support from multiple foundations, including the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and Henry Luce Foundation.
- Conceptual & Intermedia Arts Online (Project CIAO) Partner — Collaborative partner in a multi-institutional project to provide networked access to educational and scholarly materials on conceptual and intermedia art.
- Council on Library and Information Resources Funder — Provided support for digitizing and making publicly available 140 videos from Franklin Furnace's Moving Image Archives.
- Franklin Furnace Network — Implied central entity in a network of artists and artistic practices focused on avant-garde and ephemeral works.
- Hemispheric Institute of Performance & Politics Partner — Collaborated on the archival collection "Franklin Furnace: Performance & Politics" hosted in the Hemispheric Institute Digital Video Library.
- Henry Luce Foundation Funder — Has provided financial support to Franklin Furnace through the Coalition of Small Arts New York City.
- Human Rights Campaign Foundation Partner — Uses data from the Human Rights Campaign Foundation to identify U.S. states with restrictive gender-affirming care laws for targeting XENO Prize eligibility.
- IMAP Partner — Partnership focused on the preservation of time-based media through documentation and management of media collections.
- Jerome Foundation Funder — Provided support for the initiation of the Franklin Furnace Fund in 1985.
- Jerome Foundation Funder — Supported the initiation of the Franklin Furnace FUND in 1985.
- LACE (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions) Partner — Collaborates with Franklin Furnace to distribute the Jacki Apple Award, with each organization awarding one $10,000 grant annually.
- LADA Partner — Partnership to support radical and inventive contemporary artists and practices.
- Marian Goodman Foundation Funder — Has provided financial support to Franklin Furnace through the Coalition of Small Arts New York City.
- Museum of Modern Art Partner — Acquired the Franklin Furnace Artists' Books Collection in 1993 to form the Museum of Modern Art / Franklin Furnace Artists’ Books Collection.
- Museum of Modern Art Partner — Collaborates with Franklin Furnace on the preservation and development of the Artists’ Books Collection.
- Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) Partner — Custodian of the Franklin Furnace/MoMA Artists’ Books Vertical Files Collection, jointly supporting research on artists’ books.
- MvVO ART Partner — Partnership with an innovative art venture to create opportunities for artists through marketing, media, and technology.
- National Endowment for the Arts Funder — Provided a $25,000 grant to SEQARTKIDS in 1995.
- National Endowment for the Arts Funder — Provided support for digitizing and making publicly available 140 videos from Franklin Furnace's Moving Image Archives.
- National Endowment for the Humanities Funder — Funded digitization of Franklin Furnace's event archives from its first and second decades.
- New York State Council on the Arts Government — Primary public funder supporting Franklin Furnace programs, with backing from the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
- New York University Libraries Partner — Partnership to advance teaching, learning, and research through open access to information and scholarly resources.
- P.S. 185, Walter Kassenbrock Elementary School Partner — Long-standing partner school for arts education programming.
+ 15 more
strategies · 5
How they approach the work
Named approaches extracted from this org’s sources. Where others share an approach, follow it to see the full set of orgs running it.
- Archival Preservation with Democratic and Contextual Accessmethodology: collaborative_collection_preservationBy building and maintaining collections of ephemeral art forms—especially artists’ books—and enriching them with contextual materials, while using liberal accessioning and democratic collecting policies, Franklin Furnace expands access and understanding because reproducibility, membership distribution, and historical context preserve works that would otherwise be lost.
- Artist-Centered Incubation and Grantmaking for Experimental Practicesmethodology: early-career_artist_supportBy providing direct funding, multi-year grants, and peer-reviewed selection to early- and mid-career artists, Franklin Furnace enables the development and presentation of avant-garde and time-based art because sustained financial and institutional support allows marginalized artists to innovate without commodification pressures.
- Non-Hierarchical, Intersectional Support Modelmethodology: non_hierarchical_support_modelBy operating outside the art commodity market and using non-hierarchical, intersectional structures, Franklin Furnace centers marginalized artists because this structural approach reduces systemic barriers related to race, gender, class, and geography in access to resources and visibility.
- Support for Vulnerable Art Forms through Advocacy and Recognitionmethodology: advocacy_for_vulnerable_art_formsBy presenting, preserving, and advocating for avant-garde art forms that face institutional neglect, cultural bias, ephemerality, or political controversy, Franklin Furnace sustains marginalized artistic practices because recognition and resourcing prevent their erasure from cultural discourse.
- Virtual and Digital Expansion of Avant-Garde Accessmethodology: virtual_presentation_modelBy using virtual platforms and the internet as venues for live performance and publication, Franklin Furnace expands public engagement with experimental art because digital presentation removes geographic and physical barriers to participation in time-based and ephemeral practices.