Celebrating Alison Knowles

The campus community is invited to participate in an event to celebrate the life and work Fluxus artist Alison Knowles, who had a long and impactful relationship with the arts at UMBC. Knowles passed away on October 29. An exhibition of her books, boxes, and performance work will be on display in the Library Rotunda, and attendees are invited to participate in a performance of Shoes of Your Choice.

In Shoes of Your Choice (1963) “a member of the audience is invited to come forward to a microphone if one is available and describe a pair of shoes, the ones they are wearing or another pair. They are encouraged to tell where they got them, the size, color, why they like them, etc.”

Dress code: wear shoes!

In the early 1960s, Alison Knowles (29 April 1933 – 29 October 2025) created the Notations book of experimental composition with John Cage, as well as Coeurs Volants, a print with Marcel Duchamp, both published by Something Else Press. She also traveled and performed with the Fluxus group throughout Europe, Asia and United States. With Fluxus, she made the Bean Rolls by invitation of George Maciunus, a canned book that appeared in the Whitney Museum exhibition The American Century (2000). The Big Book (1967), a walk in book installation was comprised of 8-foot pages, moving around a center spine, permitting the spectator/reader to go inside the book. In 1968, The House of Dust, programmed with the help of composer James Tenney, was recognized as the first computer poem on record, winning her a Guggenheim Fellowship; she brought this work to CalArts while she taught there from 1970–72.

On the occasion of Documenta X in Kassel, Germany, Knowles was appointed a Guest Professor. She taught at Sommerakademie in Salzburg in 1990. Her work was featured in the exhibition In the Spirit of Fluxus and Out of Actions, which toured from Los Angeles MOCA. In 2001, she performed and exhibited new paper and sound works at the Drawing Center in New York. The Time Samples (2006) exhibition traveled from Venice to New York. In May of 2008 she performed three Event Scores at the Tate Long Weekend in London. Make a Salad (recently performed by UMBC’s Ruckus ensemble) drew a record audience of 3,000 people. Her Event Threads series appeared for the first time in New York at Miguel Abreu Gallery, and traveled to Genova and Berlin. She performed in Berne and Zurich in December 2008. In January 2009, she exhibited and performed in The 3rd Mind: American Artists Contemplate Asia, 1860–1989 at the Guggenheim Museum. For the duration of the exhibit she performed weekly with the Giant Beanturner.

In 1999, Alison Knowles donated the material now known as the Dick Higgins Collection to UMBC. This collection provides an overview of Fluxus artwork and includes rare examples from the Something Else Press publications. Over 70 artists are represented in this collection, which includes a sampling of Dick Higgins’s artwork, publications, and exhibition materials; publications from Something Else Press; and individual and collaborative artwork and publications from members of the greater Fluxus movement. Lisa Moren, professor of visual arts, assisted with the acquisition process.

Admission is free.

This event is hosted by the Albin O. Kuhn Library and Gallery Special Collections, and the Department of Visual Arts, and is organized by Lisa Moren.

Photo of Alison Knowles by Jessica Higgins.