LETTER OF APPRECIATION: GRRACE EXHIBITION SPACE

.

LETTER OF RECOMMENDATION FOR GRACE EXHIBITION SPACE

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN

Since 1969 I have been performing in museums and galleries; teaching at venues world -wide and have been on panels, written over 5 books and am an active participant in the performance art world. See my website if you wish.

As a result I feel totally qualified to speak for GRACE EXHIBITION SPACE and it's mission in the art world. To explain let me use a backstory.  In the 1970's, performance art was a very intensely powerful process that was in collaboration with the many movements of that time: 

the feminist movement

the consciousness movement

the shamanic movement

the close community movement

the aesthetic movement

the compassion movement

the meditation movement

Performance art addressed the unspoken needs of that time and we were radicals who lived and worked outside the system. When I became acquainted with Grace Exhibition Space about five years ago, I felt as if I was going back in time because GES was doing things the way we did them: with inspiration and freedom and with concern for changing consciousness, not with making a dent in the world of commodification and stardom.

And over these years I have presented workshops and performances in their Brooklyn venue and also at their performance space in Rosendale. I felt as if I were home, as if I were in art "heaven" where things were being seen and accepted and offered in a spirit of transformative change. GES is a venue needed and necessary and is a model of correct  view.

Performance art is about seeing and being without the confines of rules, regulations and repressions.  It heals because it releases the subconscious secrets that need to be  aired in an atmosphere of aesthetic trust. GES is highly regarded by the performance community and their spirit of generosity and care for  THE ARTIST is overwhelmingly praise worthy.

As a working artist, as a publishing and performing artist, I applaud the vision and scope of this generous path, the path of freedom and love.  They and the artists who perform at  GES,  feed people with both physical  food and with deeply important messages that produce positive change. 

With applause for ART=LIFE and for GRACE EXHIBITION SPACE,

Linda Mary Montano, performance artist.

Saugerties NY 2017