Just Above Midtown: Changing Spaces, is open from October 9th to February 18th at the MoMA. JAM was a gallery and an art space open from 1974-1986. The exhibit is curated by Linda Goode Bryant herself, in concert with MoMA curator Thomas Jean Lax. The exhibit opens with the early bursts of JAM at 50 West 57th St. Lint in a plexiglass box by Wendy Ward Ehlers hangs alongside a collage of cut and pasted colored punched paper by Howardena Pindell.
With two children and no money, Linda Goode Bryant founded JAM in 1974. Her will haunts the exhibit. Eviction notices are plastered against the wall in a small hallway leading to the second part of the exhibition. Against it are earphones where you can hear Linda’s words. “..never had any money” were the first words I heard when I put it to my ear. Acting before financing is the only way for BIPOC artists.
The hallway takes you to JAM’s second location at Franklin st in Tribeca. On the right is a piece made by Heap-of-Birds (Hock E Aye Vi Edgar). Cheyenne and English words for community, liberty, and other concepts are painted alongside each other. The extent of Linda’s mission is apparent through her inclusivity. During this period the space focused on workshops, acting, and other participatory forms, while the wider art world was focused on collectible objects at the end of the 80’s.
JAM feels more like a base camp than a showroom. A headquarters for Ms. Bryants invasion of the NYC art scene. Her collection of process based art chronicles her path to further inclusivity. A necessary process passed forward to a new generation of black artists. After fifty years her war path has brought JAM to MoMA, in the heart of midtown.
