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    What is a Happening?

    Allan Kaprow, Kaprow explaining Household, photographer unknown, Allan Kaprow Papers, © Research Library, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, CA (980063)

    “What is a Happening? A game, an adventure, a number of activities engaged in by participants for the sake of playing.”
    –Allan Kaprow

    Happenings, a term coined by Allan Kaprow in the late 1950s, define an art form in which an action is extracted from the environment, replacing the traditional art object with a performative gesture rooted in the movements of everyday life. Thanks to a generous grant from the Getty Foundation, MOCA has invited Los Angeles-area art schools, academic institutions, arts organizations, museums, and artist-run spaces to reinvent a diverse selection of Kaprow’s Happenings.

    This website provides a comprehensive calendar of Happenings being reinvented by 29 local institutions throughout Southern California. Click on a Happening title for a description of how it will be reinvented, to learn where and when it will take place, and to read a historical note on how Allan Kaprow originally performed each Happening.

    This website is also a living archive. After reinventions take place, participants will upload photo and video documentation. Visitors are then encouraged to leave comments, building upon the dynamic relationship between interaction and interpretation embodied in Allan Kaprow’s work.

    The Happenings listed on this website are FREE unless otherwise noted. Please consult the schedule to see which institutions invite audience participation, spectators only, or are closed to the public. In all cases, interested participants or spectators are encouraged to contact the organizing institutions for more detailed information or questions about the events.

    IMAGE: Allan Kaprow, Kaprow explaining Household, photographer unknown, Allan Kaprow Papers, © Research Library, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, CA (980063)