Scope and arrangement
This collection is divided into five series: Office files, Press materials, Performers, Performances, and Photographs. It includes press information, photographs, programs, and correspondence concerning engagements of the Grand Union, ca. 1970-1976. It also includes correspondence, financial records, and photocopies of photographs borrowed by Margaret Hupp Ramsay for her 1986 thesis entitled The Grand Union (1970-1976) : an improvisational performance group, published in 1991. The majority of the correspondence is between Performing Artservices and the members of Grand Union about upcoming engagements and other administrative issues. Included in the press materials are program notes, mission statements, observations from Grand Union members and critics, reviews, programs, and flyers. Of particular interest are the transcript and other materials from Grand Union talks to critics, an October 1974 meeting between Robb Baker, Carolyn Brown, Kathy Duncan, John Howell, James Klosty, Deborah Jowitt, Andy Mann, Robert Pierce, Sara Rudner, Valda Setterfield and Marcia Seigel and Grand Union members Trisha Brown, Barbara Dilley, Douglas Dunn, David Gordon and Nancy Lewis. More than half of the collection concerns the performers and performances of the members of the Grand Union and includes information on engagements, reviews, grant applications, correspondence and press materials. Yvonne Rainer, with eight folders, is the most represented of the performers; included is her fellowship application for a film project in 1974-1975. Of interest in the materials pertaining to performances and teaching residencies is the Dance Gallery Festival in April/May, 1973, in which the Grand Union mainly performed, but other artists were also invited to present their works at the festival. Other Festival materials include schedules, budgets, correspondence about technical and production needs, and a final grant report that explains the successes and difficulties of this endeavor. Also of interest are the scripts that exist for some of the engagements.
The Grand Union records are arranged in five series:
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3 folders
Correspondences and financial records related to administrative needs and potential engagements, arranged alphabetically and chronologically within each folder.
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14 folders
Reviews, articles, biographies, press releases, arranged chronologically within each folder. Multiple reviews from a single publication are filed under the publication's name.
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11 folders
Individual folders on the performers are filed alphabetically and arranged chronologically within each folder.
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22 folders
Arranged alphabetically by performance venue and arranged chronologically within each folder.
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4 folders
Performances and performers documented in photographs and contact sheets.