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Judson Memorial ChurchThe Judson Memorial Church is located in Greenwich Village of Manhattan on the south side of Washington Square Park. The church's misison is devoted to social outreach, and established programs designed to help those in need despite the controversial or sometimes, unpopular, nature of that help. The church, for example, established local networks to aid women who needed abortions, housed and cared for drug addicts and runaway teens, established a Professional Women's Clinic for women engaged in prostitution, and helped provide medical resources for people with AIDS. The Judson Memorial Church also supported a radical arts ministry. The Church made space available to artists for art exhibitions, rehearsals, and performances. The church also assured that this space was to be a place where these artists could have the freedom to experiment in their work without fear of censorship. In 1957, the Judson Memorial Church offered gallery space to Claes Oldenburg, Jim Dine, and Robert Rauschenberg, who were then unknown artists. In 1959, the Judson Gallery showed work by pop artists, Tom Wesselman, Daniel Spoerri, and Red Grooms. The Judson Dance Theater, which began in 1962, provided a venue for dancers and choreographers such as Trisha Brown, Lucinda Childs, Steve Paxton, David Gordon, and Yvonne Rainer to create and show their work. Among others, these dancers and choreographers shaped dance history by creating postmodern dance, the first avant-garde movement in dance theater since the modern dance of the 1930's and 1940's. In the 1970's, the Judson Memorial Church hosted various art shows and multimedia events. Most notable among these multimedia events was the People's Flag Show of November 1970, a six-day exhibition of painting and sculpture on the theme of the American flag. The exhibit and the accompanying symposium, featuring speeches by Abbie Hoffman and Kate Millet, attracted widespread attention from the public, the press, and the police. During the final days of the exhibit, three of the contributing artists were arrested, Rev. Howard Moody was served with a summons, and the District Attorney closed the exhibit on charges of desecration of the American flag. In the 1980's, the Judson Memorial Church sponsored various political theater performances, such as those by the Vermont-based Bread and Puppet Theater. These performances included Insurrection Opera and Oratorio, performed in February and March of 1984. In this performance, the Bread and Puppet Theater, under the direction of founder, Peter Schumann, used opera and the company's now signature oversized puppets to convey an anti-nuclear message. The Judson Memorial Church celebrated its Centennial in 1990 with performances and symposia involving many of the artists who had been involved with the arts ministry in the 1960's and 1970's. The Judson Memorial Church continues its support of the arts and its social outreach to the community today. External links *Judson Memorial Church Archive at Fales Library, New York University
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