Franklin Furnace’s mission is to present, preserve, interpret, proselytize, and advocate on behalf of avant-garde art, especially forms that may be vulnerable due to institutional neglect, their ephemeral nature, or politically unpopular content. Franklin Furnace is dedicated to serving early-career artists, cultivating appreciation of avant-garde art for all, and fostering artists’ zeal to circulate ideas. Franklin Furnace envisions a world where all artists are empowered to express their ideas.

Franklin Furnace was founded by Martha Wilson in 1976 to serve artists who choose publishing as a primary, democratic artistic medium, and are not being supported by existing arts organizations. From its inception, Franklin Furnace’s energies have been focused on three aspects of “time-based” programming: a collection of artists’ books; a performance art program for emerging artists; and exhibitions of time-based arts, both site-specific works by contemporary artists, and historical and contemporary exhibitions of artists’ books and other ephemeral arts. Currently led by Director Harley Spiller, Franklin Furnace’s primary goal is to embed the value of ephemeral, avant-garde art practice in art and cultural history. They pursue this goal by providing grants to early career artists so they may prepare, present, and document major performances. Franklin Furnace then preserves these records of art history for posterity, making them accessible to all. Franklin Furnace is dedicated to serving artists by providing both physical and virtual venues for the presentation of time-based visual art, including but not limited to artists’ books and periodicals, installation art, performance art, and unforeseen contemporary avant-garde artforms; and to undertaking other activities related to these purposes, including SEQuential ART for KIDS , its education program which sends avant-garde teaching artists into New York City public school classrooms. 

Jerome Foundation supports Franklin Furnace’s FUND for Performance Art program. Initiated in 1985, Franklin Furnace annually awards grants to between 8–15 early career performance artists or collectives selected by peer panel review to enable them to produce major performance art works in New York City. Artists receive financial support through the grant, as well as administrative support, access to Franklin Furnace networks, venue and supply contacts, promotion for events, and archival documentation which is made available to the public in perpetuity. Grant recipients are expected to present their funded projects within one year, dependent upon securing a venue within that time. The FUND program is managed by Program Manager Xinan Ran.