Alanna Heiss to Retire from P.S. 1

The Museum of Modern Art has announced the retirement of Alanna Heiss from her position as the director of the curatorial department at P.S. 1 after thirty-seven years of running the institution. Alanna Heiss founded P.S.1 in 1971 in an old public school building in Long Island City, Queens, as a space for large-scale visual and performing art works of established and emerging contemporary artists. Heiss's original mission was to organize exhibitions in underused and abandoned spaces in New York City. Today it's considered one of the most respected exhibition spaces in the city. P.S. 1 became a venue for video and performance art, including performances by Gordon Matta-Clark and Dennis Oppenheim. It later expanded to include dance, film and music. In 1999, P.S. 1 formed an affiliation with the Museum of Modern Art, resulting in collaborations with the Manhattan-based institution. Each summer, P.S. 1 presents experimental musicians and DJs. Its annual Young Architects Program, in collaboration with MoMA, awards commissions to young architects for projects in P.S. 1's courtyard. The New York Press’s Jerry Portwood calls Heiss the “powerful force that put the former schoolhouse on the cultural map as an experimental, edgy art destination” before it became affiliated with MoMA in 2000. Portwood notes that John Baldessari has said, “She is P.S. 1, and P.S. 1 is her. It doesn’t seem like she could be replaced.” Following her retirement, Heiss will launch Art International Radio, “an organization that will be devoted to artistic, musical, performance, and experimental programs, in early 2009. Taking its lead from Heiss’s brainchild Art Radio WPS1.org, Art International Radio will bolster a tradition of bringing thought-provoking conversations with noteworthy artists, curators, and academics to a listening audience.” A search committee will be formed in 2009 to locate the person who will replace the retiring director.