Clocktower Productions is a non-profit art institution working in the visual arts, performance, music, and radio. It was founded in 1972 as The Clocktower Gallery by Alanna Heiss, the Founder and former Director of MoMA PS1 under the aegis of the Institute for Art and Urban Resources. From 1972 until 2013, the institution operated out of a City-owned McKim, Mead & White building in Lower Manhattan, the former New York Life Insurance Company Building. In 2013, the City of New York sold the building to a private developer, and the organization relocated its operations through program partnerships with other arts institutions around the city, including Pioneer Works in Red Hook, Knockdown Center in Queens, and Times Square Arts, among others.
History
Clocktower Productions is the organization formerly known as The Clocktower Gallery and ARTonAIR.org. Opening in 1972 with inaugural shows by Joel Shapiro, Richard Tuttle, and James Bishop, the Clocktower presented work in the visual arts, performance, and music by artists including Gordon Matta-Clark, Lynda Benglis, Max Neuhaus, Dennis Oppenheim, Richard Artschwager, Pat Steir, Vito Acconci, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Charlotte Moorman, Laurie Anderson, and Marina Abramović, among others. After September 11, 2001, security procedures in the organization’s City-owned building suspended ongoing activity and exhibitions in the Clocktower. From 2004 until 2008, the Clocktower space operated as a satellite of P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, housing the headquarters of Art Radio WPS1.org, the museum’s all-art Web-based radio station. In December 2008, Alanna Heiss left P.S.1 and returned to the Clocktower Gallery in order to run the radio station full-time, renaming the organization AIR, Art International Radio. In June 2009, installations and artworks commissioned by AIR went on view in the Clocktower’s galleries and project spaces. Works by Tony Oursler, Todd Eberle, Mary Heilmann and Sabina Streeter reinaugurated the Clocktower Gallery's exhibition program. From 2009 until 2013, the Clocktower Gallery produced exhibitions, residencies, and performances by artists including James Franco , Shoplifter, Michael Stipe, Muck, Antony Hegarty, Pat Spadine, Sabisha Friedberg, and others. In December 2013, after the sale of the Clocktower Gallery building to a private developer, the organization relocated its offices and activities through a network of program partnerships with other institutions around the city: Pioneer Works in Red Hook, Knockdown Center and Playland Motel in Queens, Times Square Arts, Jones Day, and Red Bull Studios in Manhattan.
Clocktower Radio
The online radio station of Clocktower Productions was founded in 2004 as WPS1.org. In 2009, it was renamed AIR, Art International Radio after Director Alanna Heiss left P.S.1, and in 2014 it was renamed again after Clocktower’s relocation from its City building. The collected online archives at clocktower.org contain over 7,000 programs of interviews, DJ sets, concert recordings, and music surveys covering literary figures, contemporary music, restored historic broadcasts, and artist profiles.
