Dona Ann McAdams: Performative Acts

In the mid-1970s, McAdams was inspired by her friendship with civil rights icon Harvey Milk to use her camera to encourage social change. She photographed the “NEA Four,” performance artists whose work became the focus of conservative outrage in the early 1990s. Images from this series are included in the exhibition, as are McAdams’ photographs of anti-nuclear protests, AIDS activism, people living with mental illness, nuns from St. Mary’s Convent, backstretch workers at a Saratoga Springs race track, and working farm animals.

A longtime New York City resident, McAdams now lives on a goat farm in Sandgate, Vermont, with her husband, the writer Brad Kessler.