NAAO+ is a podcast dedicated to the oral history of the National Association of Artists’ Organizations (NAAO). Artists’ organizations, also known as alternative art spaces, revolutionized the experience and presentation of  contemporary art in the US. NAAO was founded in 1982 to serve them and lasted about 20 years.

In this trailer we will take a short ride through some of NAAO’s advocacy efforts on behalf of artists and artists’ organizations. It can’t be emphasized enough how fast moving the far right attacks on art and artists were during the late 1980’s and early 1990’s coupled with the fumbling by the National Endowment for the Arts and its Chair, John Frohnmeyer. NAAO had to work quickly to get the word out, provide updated advocacy information and materials, and respond when demanded. This was the era of snail mail, telephone lines, pc’s and fax machines. Two reasons we and the field could move so quickly were our already established ties to advocacy on the left, both on a local and national level. The other was we knew our enemy —-Senator Jesse Helms (R-NC). We were well versed in his tactics against communities we counted ourselves as members and supporters of.

Here I cover board and staff advocacy activities, give an in-depth look at Nobody Remembers Everything by Vince Leo, a favorite publication of mine, and touch on the beginnings of the National Campaign for Freedom of Expression (NCFE), an organization that gave artists a strong uncompromising voice in DC and was co-founded by Joy Silverman. People mentioned in this podcast are Inverna Lockpez, Joy Silverman, Penny Boyer, Vince Leo, Lane Relyea,, Leonard Bernstein, Bella Lewitsky, David Wojnarowicz, and Cynthia Mayeda.