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Creator
Dewey, Ken
Call number
*T-Mss 1991-010
Physical description
32 linear feet (69 boxes, 2 tubes)
Preferred Citation

Ken Dewey Collection, Billy Rose Theatre Division, The New York Public Library.

Repository
Billy Rose Theatre Division
Access to materials
Request an in-person research appointment.Restrictions apply
Portions of this collection have been digitized and are available online.

Ken Dewey (1934-1972) was a performance artist, playwright, director, and arts administrator who was active in the Happenings movement of the 1960s. The Ken Dewey Collection contains project files, photographs and slides, and writings that represent Dewey's creative work; files that represent Dewey's work as an arts administrator at the American Cooperative Theatre, Action Theatre, the New York State Council on the Arts, the New York State Commission on Cultural Resources, and the Planning Corporation of the Arts; material pertaining the exhibition Action Theatre: The Happenings of Ken Dewey, a posthumous retrospective curated by Barbara Moore at Franklin Furnace in 1987; and a small amount of personal files and art by other artists.

Biographical/historical information

Ken Dewey (1934-1972) was a performance artist, playwright, director, and an arts administrator who was active in the Happenings movement of the 1960s. He was born on August 30, 1934 in Chicago, Illinois and attended Columbia University in the City of New York where he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1959. While at Columbia University, he studied sculpture with Oronzio Mandarelli and playwriting with Theodore Apstein. After college, Dewey moved to San Francisco where he studied mime with R. G. Davis and dance with Anna Halprin. He became a member of the Actor's Workshop of San Francisco where he was an assistant director.

Dewey became interested in Happenings when he saw Robert Whitman's piece American Moon performed in 1962. Performative art like Happenings appealed to Dewey as he had always desired to take theater off of the stage and into the streets. Dewey used geography, social science, architecture, and technology in his work. His projects were often designed for a particular city and focused on that city's infrastructure, history, and culture. One of his first pieces was City Scale, a series of musical and theatrical events that took participants to various locations around San Francisco.

The majority of his early work focused on European cities where he lived from 1963 to 1964. He founded two companies to support his art, the American Cooperative Theatre (ACT) in 1961, and Action Theatre in 1965. ACT was a theater collective co-founded with Lee Breuer, R. G. Davis, and Anna Halprin. Action Theatre was a corporation formed solely by Dewey for the purpose of acting as a business entity through which to initiate and produce his projects. In addition to his Happenings, he wrote short stories, poems, and plays.

Notable works of Dewey included Summer Scene (1964) in Jyväskylä, Finland, where 1200 people played capture-the-flag in groups led by composers, and Street Piece (1963) in Helsinki, where he scored eighteen events that would happen in one hour in the center of the city. Dewey achieved notoriety through his piece at the 1963 Edinburgh Festival Drama Conference which challenged Britain's nudity laws by having a nude model pulled across the stage. In Dewey's first New York City production, Without & Within (1965) at the Palm Garden Ballroom, he divided audience members into two teams who played a giant game of tug-of-war. Though he traveled extensively, he remained in New York for the rest of his life.

In 1966, Dewey became a staff member at the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA). While at NYSCA he held the positions director of program development and director of research. In 1970, he was appointed by Governor Nelson Rockefeller to serve on the New York State Commission on Cultural Resources, a temporary state commission started by Rockefeller to study the current and long-range fiscal needs of cultural institutions. That same year he was also director of Planning Corporation of the Arts, a one-year research project, partially funded by the NYSCA, into the role of arts in a democracy

Dewey died in 1972 in a plane crash. A posthumous retrospective of his work Action Theatre: The Happenings of Ken Dewey was curated by Barbara Moore at the Franklin Furnace Archive in 1987.

Scope and arrangement

The Ken Dewey Collection contains project files, photographs and slides, and writings that represent Dewey's work as a director, film maker, performance artist, and writer; files that represent Dewey's work as an arts administrator at the American Cooperative Theatre, Action Theatre, the New York State Council on the Arts, the New York State Commission on Cultural Resources, and the Planning Corporation of the Arts; material pertaining the exhibition Action Theatre: The Happenings of Ken Dewey, a posthumous retrospective curated by Barbara Moore at Franklin Furnace in 1987; and a small amount of personal files and art by other artists.

The project files and arts administration files make up the bulk of the collection. Project files consist of contracts, correspondence, diagrams, news clippings, photographs, posters, and scripts that represent Dewey's appearances, Happenings, and plays. His work is further documented by slides and photographs. Dewey's writing is represented in an extensive run of notebooks that contain diary entries, college writings, short stories, plot logs, and scripts and typescript drafts of short stories, scripts, and poems. There is a small amount of correspondence that is both personal and professional. Additional personal material includes resumes, subject files, and printed material. Files for the Action Theatre: The Happenings of Ken Dewey exhibit include diagrams used in Dewey's works, photographs, posters, and Barbara Moore's curatorial comments. The collection contains a small amount of art by other artists.

Inquiries regarding audio and video materials may be directed to the Billy Rose Theatre Division (theatrediv@nypl.org). Audio/visual materials may be subject to preservation evaluation and migration prior to access.

The Ken Dewey Collection is arranged in five series:

  • Series I: Personal and Performance Files
    1943-1972

    This series is divided into five subseries: I. A. Actor's Workshop, I. B. Correspondence, I. C. Photographs, I. D. Project Files, I. E. Personal Files, and I. F. Writings.

  • Series II: Arts Administration
    1961-1972

    This series is arranged by organization. The American Cooperative Theatre (ACT) was founded as a cooperative theater and Dewey still performed under the moniker after the organization had dissolved. ACT files include correspondence with founding members and information sheets for various productions. The Action Theater files contain correspondence and files regarding Trade Mart and Harlem on My Mind. The New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) files contains administrative and subject files; chronological files consisting of correspondence and memoranda; and files for projects sponsored NYSCA including the New York Avant Garde Festival, a study on the Erie Canel, Hudson Troubadour, and Intermedia '68. Appropriation grants detail financial awards given by the council. The New York State Commission on Cultural Resources contains research files and material regarding trips Dewey took in his capacity as commissioner around New York state to visit local art and cultural institutions, community leaders, and legislators. The files for the Planning Corporation of the Arts (PCA), a study that was partially funded by NYSCA, consist of correspondence, transcripts of interviews, reports and summaries from PCA's various committees, and drafts of the final report.

  • Series III: Other Artists' Work
    1959-1971

    This series consists of scores, scripts, and works of art acquired by Dewey; the majority of works appear to have been gifted to Dewey. The Yoko Ono file contains Dewey's contribution to Ono's Draw Circle project. The general file contains programs for Happenings by other performance artists. The unidentified file contains sketches of animals, a print of a boat, and a collage by unidentified artists.

  • Series IV: Sound and Video recordings
    1963-1987

    Sound recordings consist of recordings of rehearsals, productions, and post-Happening discussions with audience members, participants, and staff members. Additionally, there are recordings of various noises and sound effects used in plays and performances. Most of his productions were recorded in some capacity and there are particularly extensive sound recordings for Dewey's corporate projects, Trade Mart (for Monsanto) and Scott Paper Company. There are also recordings of Dewey's monologues and radio appearances, and anti-Vietnam marches he attended in New York and California. Dewey recorded interviews and casual conversations with other artists and writers including Stella Adler, Jose Benardete, Leil Lowndes, John McHale, Don McLean, Bill Parsons, Folke Rabe, Carolee Schneeman, and Bill Turnball, among others. The sound recordings contain musical performances by Folke Rabe and Terry Riley; poetry readings by Jim Brody, Allen Ginsberg, Judith Malina, Frank O'Hara, John Perant, and Tony Tole; a reading by Gore Vidal; a lecture by Allan Kaprow; and performances by Robert Chef, Al Hansen, and Emilio De La Vega. Additionally there are recordings of New York State Council on the Arts meeting and events, and the Planning Corporation of the Arts meetings, seminars, and retreat.

    Video recordings consist of recordings of Dewey's Happenings and his film The Man Who Abandoned Cars; his piece for Yoko Ono's This is Not Here show at the Everson Museum; footage of protest marches used in Selma Last Year; and a recording of Dewey's memorial service. In addition to Dewey, videographers include Jerry Chalem, and Aldo Tambellini.

    Inquiries regarding audio and video materials may be directed to the Billy Rose Theatre Division (theatrediv@nypl.org). Audio/visual materials may be subject to preservation evaluation and migration prior to access.

  • Series V: Action Theatre: The Happenings of Ken Dewey Exhibition
    1962-1987

    This series contains diagrams, photographs, news clippings, scripts, and Barbara Moore's curatorial comments used in the mounting of the Action Theatre: The Happenings of Ken Dewey exhibit at the Franklin Furnace Archive in New York City. The exhibit included performance diagrams, instructions, and photographs of Dewey's. Photographs depict Dewey and others, the bulk of which are affixed to foamboard.

Administrative information

Source of acquisition

Donated by Ariane Dewey Dannasch; Christopher Dewey; and Suzette Dewey, 1991.

Processing information

Compiled by Susan Malsbury, 2013

Material was reboxed and refoldered. Select slides were removed from carousels and put in archival sleeves. Original arrangement and folder titles were retained when apparent.

Related Material

Dewey, Kenneth/Selma Last Year Collection. Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library.

Using the collection

Location

Billy Rose Theatre Division
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center
40 Lincoln Center Plaza, New York, NY 10023-7498
Third Floor

Conditions Governing Use

For permission to publish, contact the Billy Rose Theatre Division. Material may not be duplicated without written permission of the rights holder.

Access restrictions

Inquiries regarding audio and video materials in the series may be directed to the Billy Rose Theatre Division (theatrediv@nypl.org). Audio/visual materials may be subject to preservation evaluation and migration prior to access.