Nostalgia & History: The LOST Venues
As part of our Nostalgia & History series, Mary Campbell takes us on a journey through Staten Island’s lost venues—once-thriving spaces that nurtured creativity, performance, and community. Staten Island’s underground art scene has thrived in unexpected places—cafés, pop-up spaces, and DIY venues that became creative hubs before vanishing into memory. From the Muddy Cup to Art at Bay, this reflection honors the ephemeral nature of artist-run spaces and the resilience of local creatives who brought them to life.
I don't like to brood over the past, but while producing Dada in the House: 20 Years of Performance Art on Staten Island, I was compelled to remember all the places we had performed that no longer exist or have changed.
When I moved to Staten Island in 1989, I did not do it for the cultural scene; it was a way to get an economical living space. We had been married for two years and continued to live in studio apartments in Brooklyn and Manhattan because search efforts in Brooklyn, where we wanted to live, had been fruitless. In Staten Island, we got a house in our price range within walking distance of the ferry to Manhattan.
Since we still rented the Manhattan apartment, our art associations, events, and opportunities continued there, but settling into Staten Island, we wanted to also be part of the cultural community here. It turned out we chose a house on a street where several other artists were already living, so we soon got the word on the local activities. At that time, I was a visual artist, and exhibit space was minimal here. The beautiful Newhouse Galleries at Snug Harbor Cultural Center had few opportunities for local artists. The galleries were curated with wonderful themed exhibits of off-island art. There was one room allotted to local artists through a selection committee. I don’t remember any other exhibit spaces available at that time.
In 1992, artists met to establish the Council on the Arts & Humanities for Staten Island to redistribute government grant funding. I think it kicked off more cultural events, but art venues still remained few, and because they were often produced and funded by artists, their lifetime was usually short.
Viv Vassar held the first Day de Dada Performance Art show in 2002 at the Muddy Cup (388 Van Duzer St.), a café successful for many years. The back room had a stage and enough seating for a good-sized audience. Our performance event, which was annual for several years, used the venue for the first three years. A comfortable place, like somebody's living room, I attended many music and film events there. The space changed hands and eventually closed.
We participated in the Art by the Ferry events in 2008 when vacant North Shore offices were turned into art spaces for a few weekends. From that, the Staten Island Creative Community organization developed, producing two venues—first Art at Bay (70 Bay St.) and, when that closed, Art on the Terrace (776 Richmond Terrace), which unfortunately recently closed. Both had a good run, being administered by energetic artists through the years.
Day de Dada was given a room for a month at Art at Bay (2010), and we were able to show the final paintings along with documentation of the process from a series we produced during Second Saturdays. We held workshops to remake some existing paintings, or we brought the work around to the Second Saturday venues for the public to manipulate.
Second Saturdays (a monthly series of open studios and art events) had too many pop-up venues to list, opening every month. We took advantage of the roaming aspect of the event, and in April 2010, we did Art in a Van, where we went to several of the venues for that month, invited people to get into the van, and then videotaped them telling a car memory.
Vlepo (36 Richmond Terrace), Show (156 Stuyvesant Pl.), Creative Photographers Guild (5 Tyson St.), and Culture Lounge (St. George Ferry Terminal) were dream galleries for exhibits—clean, bright, open spaces. They were also perfect for our interactive offerings. We scheduled BYO Dada at Vlepo, where people carried their art or performance. Show was a stop for activity on several of our Dada parades. Gail Middleton invited us to do an afternoon of performance art at the CPG Gallery, so we collected and executed scores about earth, air, fire, and water, which was the theme of the exhibit for the month. We were also honored in 2015 to be invited to present What Do You Wish? at the Culture Lounge, exposing the public to mail art and Day de Dada Wish Sisters actions.
Another artist-run space, Deep Tanks (150 Bay St.), hosted Day de Dada several times. We presented a Dada Game Night with Twisted Twister and Murder Shadow Theater, among other games and actions. The space had been Café Verboten in the 1990s, a performance site you entered by descending a tight staircase, with sand on the floor. That venue later moved to Canal Street for a while before closing.
Can Lumen itself be considered a lost venue? The SI Arts organization certainly produced fun events at Lighthouse Point, Lyons Pool, and Atlantic Salt, offering opportunities for local artists to have a space for an evening.
I touched on the places that Day de Dada experienced; I know there were other venues, and some places still survive. KUDOS to all the places on Staten Island that have opened their doors to artists for one day or several years. Your existence is appreciated!
Dada in the House: 20 Years of Performance Art on Staten Island was at the Newhouse Galleries in Snug Harbor Cultural Center, Staten Island, NY (10/14/2023 - 12/31/2023), exhibiting props, costumes, and video from the 20 years of the Day de Dada Performance Art Collective.
Mary Campbell is an interdisciplinary artist exploring ritual, social attitudes, and public interaction through collage, installation, video, and performance. A key figure in the Fluxus-inspired community, she organizes Day de Dada events. Active in the East Village art scene of the 1980s, she curated shows and created a six-foot wooden heart sculpture at 2B Gas Station. Born in New Britain, CT, she is a Pratt Institute graduate. Her work aligns with Fluxus and Dada principles, emphasizing experimentation, humor, and anti-commercialism in art.
www.marycampbell.net