Franklin Furnace Archive

Dread Scott’s performance went really well! It was the summer solstice, longest day of the year, no rain in sight. Dread came to Franklin Furnace at 10:45 to meet with us and with his crew. I got a call from NYSCA asking if I could clarify the funding credit on the flyer; they were anxious because it looked like Stimulus funding was going directly to Dread Scott. I said it was too late to reprint the flyer, but that I would answer press inquiries with the information that Stimulus funding was awarded to FF in support of the Program Coordinator’s salary. Then we left for Wall Street. Dread emerged from the subway station, walked along Wall Street singing “Money to Burn, Money to Burn” like Oscar Brown Jr.’s “Rags and Old Iron” song. He had $250 pinned to the front of a black cotton shirt. A videographer was close upon him, and his wife Jenny had a bucket of sand and another bucket of water. Andrea, a FF student intern and I started handing out flyers as Dread rounded the corne...

June 22, 2010 is a day to go down in history. On this seemingly normal Tuesday traders, workers, and tourist's on wall street didn't know what was in store for them. Franklin Furnace funded this particular street performance and as an intern I had the wonderful opportunity to attend, hand out the artist cards and await the press. We started at the Franklin Furnace office and I met Dread and the crew. Martha Wilson and I left first and got to Wall Street where we waited on the steps of the Federal Hall for Dread to emerge from the subway station.The whole performance was planned perfectly. Everyone involved met at the steps to wait for Dread. To the general public we were only a group of people on Wall Street with no intentions of "disorderly conduct". Shortly before Dread arrived, a fire truck had stopped on the corner. I thought it may have been an omen, but it was just an opportunity for tourists to take pictures. Then came Dread wearing a shirt with saf...

Welcome to Franklin Furnace's new blog. Note that our site is www.blogspot.com/franklinfurnacearchive and not www.blogspot.com/franklinfurnace. That blog was a test blog and this blog is the legitimate one. Keep coming back for updates and goingson. If you are an artist with a blogspot, make sure to follow us to keep in tune with what we do at Franklin Furnace and how we can help you!