This event is sold out.

When the Curtain Never Comes Down endeavors to examine the historical implication of the concept of self-taught performance art through many lenses, including the history of art brut. Join performance scholars, contemporary artists, curators, and Dr. Valerie Rousseau, the museum’s curator, self-taught art and art brut, as they explore the range of art, artists, and actions included in the term “performance art”; discuss performance studies as a discipline; and seek to situate self-taught artists within this broad continuum. The conversation will consider, in particular, artists whose work is primarily concerned with issues of identity, transformation, public and private ritual, and employs the use of costumes, masks, and related performances.

Speakers: Dr. Valerie Rousseau, Professor Karmenlara Ely, and Martha Wilson.

Moderator: Professor Barbara Browning, Associate Professor, Performance Studies at the Tisch School of the Arts, New York University

Image: Deborah Berger (1956–2005), Untitled (Mask), East Windsor, New Jersey, before 1984, knitted Orlon, 26 ½ × 33 ¼ × 13 in., Collection American Visionary Art Museum, Baltimore, gift of the Art Council of New Orleans, FIC.2014.67. Photo by Mary Dwan, courtesy Visionary Art Museum.