Negotiations: Constituency and Community

Many of the “alternative spaces” of the 1970s were funded in part by state and national arts agencies, which encouraged audience development and community participation. A number of groups supported particular populations, often defined by ethnicity or gender, that were part of larger alternative movements. En Foco, for example, originally promoted Latino photographers; A.I.R. was the first independent women’s gallery. But the Midtown Y had a broader, artist-based constituency of emerging photographers. At the same time, housed as it was within the YM-YWHA (Young Men’s–Young Women’s Hebrew Association), the gallery was part of a specific New York community.

During its first decade, the gallery reached out to a large number of photographers through open calls for themed group shows. In this way, artists who did not have enough photographs for a solo exhibition were able to show their work. The Midtown Y Gallery also organized a series of films on or about photographers, and in 1976 Larry Siegel wrote and published Photo Review: A Critical Newsletter. In the mid-1980s, Michael Spano organized a series of conversations and slide lectures by dealers, curators, and photographers. While these programs were aimed specifically at photographers and photography enthusiasts, the gallery also exhibited work with direct ties to New York generally, and to its Jewish population specifically.

Perhaps the most notable example of how the gallery brought these various communities together is the group exhibition The Jew in New York. Intended in part as a tribute to the Midtown Y itself, the show explored the “Jews’ image as a cultural, social, political, economic and religious force in the city.” Necessarily falling short of a complete overview, the exhibition concentrated on post-1960 photography, and received wide media attention. “I find myself wishing for more such shows, exploring the different subcultures of the city in all their glory,” wrote A. D. Coleman in 1974, very much in the spirit of the times. “The ‘melting pot’ theory of urban life has proved itself unworkable; perhaps it’s time to take a closer look at distinctions rather than samenesses.”

Malcolm E. Barker
“Israeli Jubilee, Central Park, April 1971”
Included in the exhibition The Jew in New York, December 18, 1973–January 31, 1974

“Anti War Demonstration,” 1971
Included in the exhibition The Jew in New York, December 18, 1973–January 31, 1974

Nancy Rudolph (b. 1923)
Untitled [Dressed up for Purim]
Included in the exhibition The Jew in New York, December 18, 1973–January 31, 1974

Dena
Untitled, 1950
Included in the exhibition The Jew in New York, December 18, 1973–January 31, 1974

Untitled
Included in the exhibition The Jew in New York, December 18, 1973–January 31, 1974

Morris Huberland (b. 1909)
Untitled
Included in the exhibition The Jew in New York, December 18, 1973–January 31, 1974

Various Artists
The Jew in New York
Brochure for the exhibition The Jew in New York, December 18, 1973–January 31, 1974

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