Event will take place at The Chocolate Factory Theater, 38-33 24th Street, Long Island City.

Join us for an intimate cocktail reception and reading to celebrate the launch of Collecting Choreography: Simone Forti and Performance in the Contemporary Art Museum by Megan Metcalf, published by University of California Press.

Reading will be followed by a conversation between Metcalf and cultural critic Jennifer Krasinski.

Collecting Choreography is the first major study on the history of dance and performance acquisitions in art museums. Turning to the Museum of Modern Art’s 2015 acquisition of Simone Forti’s Dance Constructions (1960–61), a groundbreaking achievement for both the choreographer and the museum, Megan Metcalf examines how performance, especially dance, has informed the experience of preserving and exhibiting contemporary art. Metcalf tracks Forti’s performances from their first appearances in the early 1960s to their institutional acquisition, arguing that dance is still novel for institutional collecting even as it has long been present in museums. In doing so, Metcalf shows that the art museum’s interest in continuing certain dance legacies offers an important yet contested site for “preserving” live performance for the future, while theorizing a larger choreographic model underlying contemporary art and institutional practices in museums, fairs, and biennials worldwide.

Megan Metcalf is Assistant Professor of Art History at New Mexico State University.