The Real Estate Show facts for kids
The Real Estate Show was a special art exhibition created by a group of New York artists called Colab. It happened on January 1, 1980, in a vacant building at 123 Delancey Street in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York City. The artists used the building without permission, a practice known as squatting, to protest how real estate was being used in the city. They wanted to show how landlords were making a lot of money from empty buildings while people needed homes and spaces for art.
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The Exhibition Opens
Before the show, the artists had spent a year trying to rent the building legally from the city's housing department. When that didn't work, they decided to open the exhibition anyway.
On New Year's Day, 1980, The Real Estate Show officially opened to the public. It was planned to be an exhibition and occupation lasting two weeks. However, the police quickly shut it down. Even though it was very short, this exhibition inspired another, much larger and longer-lasting Colab show called The Times Square Show.
The Show is Closed Down
On the morning of January 2, the day after it opened, the Colab artists found the building locked. Their artwork was trapped inside. They soon learned that the city's housing department had closed the show. The Real Estate Show had been open for only one day.
On January 8, the artists gathered at the building to protest its closure. They were joined by an art dealer named Ronald Feldman and a famous German artist, Joseph Beuys. Reporters from major newspapers like New York Times were also there. A photo was taken of Beuys and other artists at the building's front door.
A few days later, on January 11, city workers entered the building. They removed all the artwork and took it to a warehouse. It took a few more days before the artists were allowed into the warehouse to collect their pieces.
How ABC No Rio Started
Because of the protest and the closing of The Real Estate Show, the artists and the city made a deal. On January 16, the city gave the artists control of a nearby building at 156 Rivington Street. This agreement led to the creation of ABC No Rio, a well-known arts center that still exists today.
Later Exhibitions Inspired by The Real Estate Show
Years later, in early 2014, four art exhibitions in New York City looked back at The Real Estate Show. These shows were held at different galleries, including ABC No Rio.
In June 2017, artists Becky Howland and Matthias Mayer organized another exhibition in Berlin, Germany. It was also called The Real Estate Show. This show used documents and information from the original 1980 exhibition. Many artists were part of this show, including some who were in the first Real Estate Show. Another related exhibition in Berlin, called The Real Estate Show Extended/Berlin, focused on topics like gentrification (when neighborhoods change and become more expensive) and real estate speculation.
See also
- Colab
- Mudd Club
- No wave cinema
- Post-punk
- The Times Square Show
