During the early-to-mid-1960s this group of young artists that formed the Park Place Gallery revolutionized what was possible for young artists. By pioneering SoHo, the Park Place Gallery showed many important young artists often for the first time, who went on to become famous and successful. The original members: Mark di Suvero, Frosty Myers, Robert Grosvenor, Ed Ruda, Dean Fleming, Leo Valledor, Peter Forakis, Tamara Melcher, Tony Magar and later David Novros, John Baldwin and Gay Glading were all cutting edge young artists. Attracting funding from the Lannan Foundation and private collectors and with John Gibson and later Paula Cooper as directors, Park Place became a lightning rod of attention for the downtown art scene. With experimental ideas and invitational exhibitions, Park Place Gallery served as a forum for both hot and cool art. It became a center for the downtown avant-garde as well, with weekly poetry readings, concerts by new electronic composers, and openings that always drew large crowds of young artists.