Out & About
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
Alanna Heiss sat back in a booth at the Roxy watching the twenty- and thirtysomethings whiz past her on the roller rink. Even though most of them hadn’t been born when she and a few others founded P.S. 1 in 1976, they were very successfully channeling the 1970s Tuesday for the contemporary art center’s 30th anniversary kick-off event.
Ms. Heiss, the executive director of P.S. 1, who was not yet in skates herself, looked amused, perhaps because she was the only one at the event who also attended P.S. 1’s first skating party back in the ’70s.
“It was a bizarre New York event,” Ms. Heiss said. “It took place at the height of the black roller skating craze at a fan tastic place in Brooklyn. The rink was much larger, and it was much more dangerous,” Ms. Heiss said, comparing it to the scene before her at the Roxy. Instead of comfortable booths around the rink, the 1970s party had tables in the middle of the rink, where critics and collectors sat and marveled. “The artists were jumping over the tables,” Ms. Heiss said.
Now things at P.S. 1 are perhaps a bit tamer, and stable given its affiliation with the Museum of Modern Art. “It’s great to have a solid floor — although I don’t see Glenn Lowry skating yet,” Ms. Heiss said, referring to MoMA’s director.
But Mr. Lowry’s presence was not missed at this event, be cause the young guests had strong enthusiasm for the exper imental and risk-taking outpost for the arts in Long Island City. “It’s a venue I really believe fosters creativity, and a place I know every single time I go, I’ll be introduced to something new and fantastic,” Dr. Jessica Krant, a dermatologist, said.
It’s with a sense of humor then that P.S. 1 is giving its 30th anniversary parties a nostalgic theme. The next event is school prom (related to P.S. 1’s location in a former elemen tary school, which of course is how it got its name, too).
“We’re going to have prom portraits,” fashion designer Cynthia Rowley, who is overseeing the festivities, said. Of course she remembers her own prom. “It was at Barrington High School in Barrington, Illinois. My date and I wore matching tuxedoes,” she said.
