About: Alanna Heiss

Alanna Heiss (born May 13, 1943, in Louisville, Kentucky) is the Founder and Director of Clocktower Productions, a non profit arts organization, online radio station, and program partnership with six cultural institutions in three boroughs in New York. She founded The Institute for Art and Urban Resources, Inc. in 1971, an organization focused on using abandoned and underutilized New York City buildings for art exhibitions and artists' studios, of which P.S.1 was a part. She served as the Director of P.S.1 and its later incarnation, the P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center (now MoMA PS1) from its founding in 1976 until her retirement in 2008. She is recognized as one of the originators of the alternative space movement.