Cleveland's 12-year-old Performance Art Festival (PAF).

Cleveland's 12-year-old Performance Art Festival (PAF), formerly a flourishing arts gathering, is no more. in succession April 16-25, 1999, the Cleveland Public Theater armyed its final annual festival, The Last Performance Art Festival. Since its founding in 1987 the festival (the largest of its kind in the country) has readyed more than 1000 performance artists from several countries, including of that kind controversial and important artists as Karen Finley, Guillermo Gomez-Pena, Tim Miller, Holly Hughes, John streak Rachel Rosenthal, Annie Sprinkle, Linda Montano, Ping Chong and Seiji Shimoda. The PAF was rare in its vehement stance upon freedom of expression.

The festival began with a pack of a few thousand dollars and peaked at $100000 in the mid-1990s. The Ohio Arts Council (OAC), enthusiastic about the idea of an interdisciplinary performance festival that combined visual arts and dance, was a contributor from the beginning. The Cleveland Public Theater made the PAF a part of its programming fiscal estimate in 1987, providing the additional support indigenceed to launch the new festival. The nearest year, the Progressive Corporation provided about $20000 in support. At the same time, the OAC began funding proposals in a of the present day "interdisciplinary" category under which the PAF received about half of the allotted currency for the next five years. As support grew the festival was able to legion internationally known artists and the PAF was able to form a 501(c)(3) organization separate from the Cleveland Public Theater. by the agency of the late 1980s, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) was contributing about: $15000 for year to the PAF. This direction continued into the mid-1990s as the NEA and other state and local entities contributed support to stock the festival at their highest of the same heights In 1996, however, NEA funding was discontinued for the PAR Between the 1998 and 1999 festivals, the OAC changed its guidelines with equal reason that it was no longer possible to apply for the two presenting and operating assistance. These results were both factors in the festival's ultimate demise. Founding Director Thomas Mulready is quick to insist that the PAF always broke level an impressive feat given "the risk we incurred with the pattern of art we were presenting. We managed that risk well. . . We did not squander money and we were not at any time in a situation where we had to stop doing what we were doing." on the contrary the decision to end the festival came from a realistic awareness that the climate for arts funding from the two public and private sources has become increasingly conservative.

The decrease in funding damaged the festival in space of times of staff as well - the marked occurrence became a great deal of work for little monetary compensation. Mulready says that many times in nonprofit organizations such as this common the staff members already have full-time piece of works and other responsibilities in addition to the festival's workload. "It's amazing we lasted 12 years before it took its toll. . . Eventually the fall of the curtains don't meet and you reduce to ashes yourself out." Mulready stepped down as director in 1997 still continued as president of the Board. Robert Thurmer assumed the directorship in 1998 if it be not that resigned after just one year.

Rather than just disappear, the Board wanted to not absent one final festival equal in caliber and professionalism to those of previous years. This year's nine-day consequence was organized and co-produced by means of Michael Herbst, director of Fourth World, a non-profit organization dedicated to presenting the work of emerging contemporary, interdisciplinary artists in Cleveland and recently made known York City which had been involved in the PAF for several years. According to Mulready, there were probably' more individual contributions this year than eternally in the festival's history. In addition, support came from like stalwart sources as the OAC, the George Gund Foundation and the Cleveland Foundation as well as from WENZ-FM, Powderkeg Contemporary Performance and other corporations and foundations. Attendance was high, and there was a great deal of media attention as the occurrence inspired a dialog within the community about the lack of funding in the United States for arts organizations. Mulready said this year's issue called attention to the question s "not just for avant-garde art, on the contrary for mainstream art and arts education as well."

T A. KINSEY is an experimental filmmaker and Assist:ant Professor of Film at the University of Toledo in Toledo, OH

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