Conditions Governing Use

The donor of this collection has transferred rights to the intellectual property they created to the Center, except that any scripted or written material authored by Ann Magnuson can be used for research only. For more information regarding permission to publish or reproduce, please contact the West Virginia and Regional History Center.

Conditions Governing Access

No special access restriction applies.

Researchers may access born digital materials by requesting to view the materials in person by appointment or remotely by contacting the West Virginia & Regional History Center reference department at https://westvirginia.libanswers.com/wvrhc.

Preferred Citation

[Description and date of item], [Box/folder number], Ann Magnuson, Performance Artist, Papers, A&M 4387, West Virginia and Regional History Center, West Virginia University Libraries, Morgantown, West Virginia.

Biographical / Historical

Ann Magnuson, born and raised in Charleston, West Virginia, is known for her surreal dreamscapes presented in both song and spoken word, with an eclectic resume that traverses the entertainment landscape like few others. She is a multi-media interdisciplinary performer, writer, and artist who has acted in film, theater, and television, written for various publications, and made visual art.

She fronted the indie cult band Bongwater and has released many solo albums. A notable single, "Ghost Cat," about monsters from her native West Virginia, was released in 2023 and features harmonica by Nashville legend Charlie McCoy.

She has presented her original performance art pieces at institutions worldwide including the Whitney Museum, The Museum of Modern Art, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, BAM, LACMA, MOCA, The Hammer Museum, REDCAT, The Walker Art Center, The Andy Warhol Museum, The Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, and in places as far flung as Tokyo's Sogetsu Hall and The Ice Hotel inside Sweden's Arctic Circle.

After studying theatre and cinema in London, she worked in New York City with the Ensemble Studio Theater, managed the infamous Club 57, and rubbed elbows with Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Andy Warhol.

Ann appeared with David Bowie in "The Hunger," starred in "Making Mr. Right" opposite John Malkovich and was a series regular in the ABC sitcom "Anything but Love" with Jamie Lee Curtis. She held a recurring role in the Amazon series "The Man in the High Castle." She famously dropped the F-Bomb on Sir Patrick Stewart in "Picard."

She received a BFA, Theater and Cinema from Denison University, an Honorary Doctorate from West Virginia University, is a 2018 Inductee of the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame, was Guest Curator of MOMA's exhibit "Club 57: Film, Performance, and Art in the East Village, 1978–1983", and established The Club 57 Society while curating and performing in two wildly successful events at Zebulon co-hosted by The Broad Museum in connection with their Keith Haring retrospective.

More detailed information and current projects can be found on Ann's official website, https://annmagnuson.com.

(Adapted from "Bio." Ann Magnuson Official Website. Accessed January, 2024. https://annmagnuson.com/bio/.)

Scope and Contents

Publications, sound recordings, and other material documenting the career of Ann Magnuson, an actress, performance artist, and nightclub performer who grew up in Charleston, West Virginia. She worked at Club 57 in New York, a gathering place for artists such as Keith Haring and Kenny Scharf.

Includes:

Series 1. Publications and Excerpts, boxes 1-5, 1983-2018
Series 2. Performance and Other Posters, box 6, 1991-2018
Series 3. Performance Programs and Related Material, box 7, 1981-2017
Series 4. Audiovisual Material, box 7, 1995-2016
Series 5. Ephemera and Other Material, box 7, ca. 1973-1987, 2018-2019
Series 6. Addenda of 2020-2021, box 8 and oversize, 1984-2020

Subjects and Indexing Terms

• Art and artists
• Magnuson, Ann
• Performance art
• Women performance artists