Collect Call is the presentation of the life cycles of Philadelphia’s artist run initiatives. Ephemera from the region’s now-defunct spaces along with articles concerning collectivity, institutionalizing the alternative, and critical historical accounts will be on view. Assembled essays feature her own gossip, aphorisms, highlighted paragraphs, and borrowed epiphanies in the margins. In addition to diaristic memorabilia, Collect Call will allow visitors to connect with inspiring figures of Philadelphia’s art scene. These cast of characters will be on-call during the first Friday reception and serve as hotline operators, for better or worse, for anyone who wishes to chat. The hotline roster includes Brandon Joyce (of Philadelphia Institute for Advanced Study), Sid Sachs (professor and critic), Jennie Shanker (artist and co-founder of Vox Populi), John Freeborn (of Space 1026 and 1Pixel), and Gerard Brown (professor and founder of EyeLevel), among others. All calls will be recorded and replayed throughout the remainder of the exhibition.

Nike’s interest in researching artist run initiatives began as she entered her third year co-directing FLUXspace, a non-profit art space in West Kensington. In an effort to understand the struggles and define the successes of co-founding and running an art space, she decided to inquire into the field to gain some objective distance from her own work. Along the way she was fortunate enough to be involved in creating a comprehensive index of Philadelphia based artist-run initiatives from 1969-2009, a project which was conceived and led by Richard Torchia and initiated by Vox Populi for their publication We’re Working On It.