Dona Ann McAdams: Performative Acts

June 19 - December 31, 2020

This exhibition includes approximately 45 photographs from
her expansive oeuvre over the last forty years.

It features essential documentation of the avant-garde performance and queer liberation scenes in New York in the ‘80s and ‘90s, humane in situ portraits of

those with cognitive disabilities, cloistered nuns, race track workers, Appalachians, and farmers as well as luminous photos of horses, oxen, and goats.

A longtime New York City resident, McAdams now lives on a goat farm in Sandgate, Vermont, with her husband, the writer Brad Kessler.

After showing at BMAC from June 22 through September 23, “Dona Ann McAdams: Performative Acts” will tour Vermont through November 2020, visiting Castleton University’s Bank Gallery in Rutland, Catamount Arts in St. Johnsbury and Helen Day Art Center in Stowe.

Public Programs

Culture Wars with Dona Ann McAdams and John Killacky

In the 1990s, artists such as David Wojnarowicz, Karen Finley, and Ron Athey served as lightning rods for outrage over the appropriateness of their receiving support from the National Endowment for the Arts. In this video, photographer Dona Ann McAdams and curator John Killacky discuss the culture wars of this era and McAdams’ exhibition at the Helen Day Art Center, “Dona Ann McAdams: Performative Acts.”