The Art Mob has been entertaining its loyal fans as well as itself since 1979 with outdated and unfashionable songs that we find by pawing through musty hymnals, tattered choral books and boxes of disintegrating sheet music. Our performances hark back to a time when singing in groups was a popular form of entertainment for farmers, preachers and robber barons alike, a time long before smartphones–or any phones, for that matter– when people friended each other by meeting face-to-face in real time. (But please, please, please “like” The Art Mob’s page on Facebook!)

Although several Art Mob members have virtuosic voices, extensive musical training, and professional performance experience, we strive for a blended sound rather than star turns. Our new director as of the fall, 2021 season, Cynthia Shaw, helps us with that blend and a great deal more.

The late Marcia Tucker founded The Art Mob in 1979 because she wanted to sing with a group that couldn’t throw her out. Even today, some of us (we know which ones, but we hope our audience can’t tell) have reason to be grateful for Marcia’s legacy of inclusion, tolerance, and the knowledge that The Art Mob is bigger than even the best of its individual voices.

The Art Mob took its name from a song by Terry Allen called “The Collector (And the Art Mob).” Art galleries are our favored performance spaces, although we’ve also enjoyed singing in churches and other venues. The group’s founder and many of its early members were denizens of the New York art scene. Today, its members work in a variety of fields, including theater, publishing, health care, and even art.