When the Lower East Side was struggling with poverty, high crime, and the AIDS epidemic, a group of art and social service organizations – among them Performance Space – transformed a historic public-school building into a thriving community center that is still in use today.

Our early acts engaged in radical experimentation, challenging form, and defining contemporary performance for a generation. By 1980, we were officially founded as Performance Space 122 – which is now Performance Space New York.

Today’s Performance Space is a Queer and BIPOC-led arts organization that partners with its communities to present emergent multidisciplinary works with a focus on contemporary performance. Programming reflects the needs of our communities and is led by culture bearers from within our communities.

Each year, 7-12 major commissions appear alongside free artist-led workshops, readings, talks, and other works of sociality and joy. In our programming, we center QTBIPOC and disabled experience, which reflects our own communities. Programs arise from a fervent belief that art is an expression of a community’s unique cultural perspective and ideas therein. With 44 years as a home for radical artists, our enduring legacy reflects the effectiveness of our efforts in creating a home for art and culture.