Hall of Issues Proclamation

Judson Gallery:
In 1954, Bob Spike hired Bud Scott, a seminary intern, and assigned him to hang out with the artists in the Village and to report what their concerns might be. The pastors thought that the budding artists in the Village might need studio space, and the church was prepared to offer some small rooms in its parish house basement for this purpose. But Scott reported that what the artists really needed was gallery space - none of the existing art galleries in the City would show their art, which appeared chaotic and essentially unsaleable to the mainstream art world.

So the church turned a basement room in Judson House into the Judson Art Gallery. From 1958-1962, it showed works by Claes Oldenburg, Jim Dine, Tom Wesselmann, Red Grooms, Marc Ratliff, Dick Tyler, and Phyllis Yampolsky, and was a center for them and their friends to discuss and experiment with new artistic forms. Allan Kaprow, inventor of the "happenings" art form, staged several early examples at the Judson Gallery.

(As part of the Judson Centennial celebration Claes Oldenburg created the "flaming J" Judson logo seen at the top right of this page.)

In 1967-69, the Gallery reopened, directed by Jon Hendricks, who was fulfilling his conscientious objector alternative service requirement by working at Judson Church. His first show was by Anthony Cox and Yoko Ono (then married to Cox). Later shows featured work by artists (several of whom were then founding the Fluxus movement) including Kate Millett, Al Hansen, Lil Picard, Jean Toche, Ralph Ortiz, Carolee Schneemann, Nam June Paik, Charlotte Moorman, Geoffrey Hendricks, Bici Hendricks (now Nye Ffarrabas), Jud Yalkut, and Allan Kaprow.

Hall of Issues:
In 1960, Village artist, Phyllis Yampolsky, proposed a new type of gallery program in which citizens could post statements in the form of various types of art works for public viewing for a week, followed by an evening of open discussion between artists and public. Judson opened a small meeting room (then known as the "long room") for this purpose; early sessions of this "Hall of Issues" were moderated by Village Congressman Ed Koch (who later became Mayor). The program ended two years later after the public forums were dominated by followers of an art cult who shouted down everybody else.

click here to view the Hall of Issues Proclamation

Flag Show:
In 1970, Judson Church turned its Meeting Room into an art gallery for a group show, to which artists of all varieties were invited to contribute a piece that incorporated the American flag in some way. This was during the height of protests against the Vietnam War, and the vast majority of the art works conveyed a protest message. It was also a period when the government was censoring art that it deemed improper in some way. Acting on a complaint that the show contained illegal desecrations of the flag, the police arrested both of Judson's ministers, Rev. Howard Moody and Rev. Al Carmines, and confiscated several of the art works on display. The legal case against the clergy was dismissed when the complainant failed to appear in court, but three artists, who were arrested on the last day of the show (Faith Ringgold, Jon Hendricks, Jean Toche), were convicted and given suspended sentences.

Yoko Ono Pieces:
Two participatory pieces by Yoko Ono were presented at Judson Church in more recent years. In 1990 she loaned her Cross with Hammer and Nails to be displayed for several months in the Meeting Room, where people could hammer a nail into the cross if they were moved to do so. Displaying this piece in a church sanctuary rather than a secular art gallery significantly raised the emotional response level to the piece.

In 2003, Ono presented "Mending Piece" in protest against the Iraq war, again in the Meeting Room. For several evenings, people were invited to sit around tables and try to reassemble and glue back together pieces of broken crockery, a symbol of peace-making.