Oral history interview with Bill T. Jones
name: label: Interviewee
content: Jones, Bill T.
label: Interviewer
content: Kitto, Svetlana, 1980-
label: Names
content: Visual Arts and the AIDS Epidemic: An Oral History Project
topic: label: Topic
content: Artists -- New York (State) -- New York -- Interviews
label: Topic
content: Dancers -- New York (State) -- New York -- Interviews
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and administrators.
creator: label: Interviewee
content: Jones, Bill T.
label: Interviewer
content: Kitto, Svetlana, 1980-
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Bill T. Jones (1952- ) is an artist and dancer in New York, New York. Svetlana Kitto (1980- ) is a writer and oral historian in Brooklyn, New York.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 5 Items (sound files (3 hr., 34 min.) Audio, digital, wav)
label: Extent
content: 59 Pages (Transcript)
phystech: label: System Details
content: Recorded on Tascam DR-100MKII R000329.
unitdate: label: Date
content: 2018 March 23
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.jones18
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Pages
label: Type
content: Sound recordings
label: Type
content: Interviews
altformavail: label: Existence and Location of Copies
content: Transcript is available on the Archives of American Art's website.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Sound recordings
label: Genre/Form
content: Interviews
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: An interview with Bill T. Jones conducted 2018 March 23, by Svetlana Kitto, for the Archives of American Art's Visual Arts and the AIDS Epidemic: An Oral History Project, at Jones' office, New York Live Arts, in New York, New York.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Jones speaks of his childhood in the Finger Lakes region; his initial encounter with Arnie Zane; formative family traditions of storytelling and religious expression; the roots of his interest in biography; moving to San Francisco with Zane to join American Dance Asylum; returning to New York and auditioning for Clark Center Festival; his body of duet works with Zane; Zane's AIDS-related death in 1988; the role of questions and personal experience in his process of art-making; changes in LGBTQ attitudes and expression since the 1980s; the effect of Zane's death on his life and career; his appreciation of personal style and reaction to being labeled queer or punk in retrospect; working with many different individuals and communities on Last Supper at Uncle Tom's Cabin/The Promised Land; his exploration of mortality and disease in Still/Here; his subsequent body of work and its animating interests; his leadership of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company and New York Live Arts; major honors he has received; his ongoing effort to honor Zane's legacy; and his sense of his future in the dance world. Jones also recalls Richard Bull, Lois Welk, Louise Roberts, Bill Katz, Robert Longo, Harvey Lichtenstein, Seán Curran, Laura Dean, Merce Cunningham, David Vaughan, John Cage, John Cowles, Sage Cowles, Sunny Dupree, Arlene Croce, Demian Acquavella, Liz McComb, Cynthia Mayeda, Garland Wright, Kim Cullen, Steven Hendel, Oprah Winfrey, Barack Obama, Janet Wong, and others.