Valuing Labor in the Arts: Renee Rhodes

On April 19, 2014, the Arts Research Center hosted Valuing Labor in the Arts: A Practicum. This daylong event included a series of artist-led workshops that developed exercises, prompts, or actions that engage questions of art, labor, and economics. We have asked participants to send us their reflections on keywords, puzzles, or recurring themes that came up throughout the day. This post is by artist Renee Rhodes. 

Ok, so I have been working on a project with a friend and I am thinking about ways to get heavier on purpose, un-interface my need for collectivity, and to settle endless desiring and the pursuing precariousness.

I wrote a little shortie poem, related-ish...

part of desire and want and longing are done for survival

right, like if we didn't hungrily want our mothers milk no calcium would get to our young baby bones and we would die

somewhere a long time ago i read that "our desires desire desiring"

what if we practiced loving the feeling of longing and gave up on the endless acquisition 

what if we practiced loving our collective indebtedness and stopped worrying about attaining freedom from it

is debt like an aura or a skin or a trauma or a memory or a true story about you

knowing so many of us are wearing these heavy auras makes me feel less lonely at least

I want to lead us on a group nap

a nap might be more productive and less harmful than keeping all these lights on

Valuing Labor in the Arts: Beth Grossman

On April 19, 2014, the Arts Research Center hosted Valuing Labor in the Arts: A Practicum. This daylong event included a series of artist-led workshops that developed exercises, prompts, or actions that engage questions of art, labor, and economics. We have asked participants to send us their reflections on keywords, puzzles, or recurring themes that came up throughout the day. This post is by Beth Grossman, a participatory performance artist based in San Francisco. She has recently been appointed to a new people-powered project called the US Department of Arts and Culture. 

I appreciated that this conference had plenty of artists leading the workshops....and I trust that they were all paid, well. I know how much work it is to prepare for these workshops. I appreciated and enjoyed that Cassie Thornton used her persona for parts of our workshop, Big Soft (BS) Contract, and I think it gave people some space to get in touch with their feelings about debt. 

I know that I am unusual in that I have never accrued debt that I couldn't handle easily. Many of my artist friends are drowning in debt. I have the advantage of growing up in a time when education expenses were not oppressively inflated as they are now. I also never took on any monthly charges, like gyms, car payments, etc. While I can afford it now, I still don't have cable tv, a cell phone, subscriptions, or other monthlies beyond the bare necessities..basic internet, basic phone, electric, water and garbage. It all adds up, and I always weigh the expense with time for my art. My son will be going to college next year, and we have saved up carefully for this time so he doesn't have to start his creative life out in debt.

Since debt is not a personal financial concern for me, it freed me up to exploring debt in other forms. In the meditation led by Cassie, I focused on my/our debt to the planet, my debt to my parents and ancestors, my debt to future generations. It is all related to the debt culture we live in. I would like to make some art about this. I am a participatory performance artist and have been recently exploring rights and privilege. Adding debt to the mix would be interesting. 

Valuing Labor in the Arts: Katherine Mezur

On April 19, 2014, the Arts Research Center hosted Valuing Labor in the Arts: A Practicum. This daylong event included a series of artist-led workshops that developed exercises, prompts, or actions that engage questions of art, labor, and economics. We have asked participants to send us their reflections on keywords, puzzles, or recurring themes that came up throughout the day. This post is by Katherine Mezur, a freelance dance theatre scholar and Research Associate at the San Francisco Museum of Performance and Design. She was recently based at the International Research Center of the Freie University Berlin, "Interweaving Performance Cultures." She is investigating the work of Japanese women butoh and contemporary performance artists who create work in Europe, Asia, and the Americas, focusing on issues of gender, migration, and new media. She also works as a performance dramaturg.

"Making" as labor and revolution

            

I participated in two workshops. The first: Collective Actions, Moving Thought lead by Sara Wookey and the second: The Exchange Archive led by Caroline Woolard. When I first walked into the registration area I was excited to see a real mix of people, and I later found out that they artists from different disciplines, established artists, new artists, curators, and scholars, but mostly a diverse array of visual artists. I was impressed by the interest and drive of these artists to take on the deep problems of artwork value and compensation. Because I research and practice in the cross-disciplinary performing arts, particularly dance, theatre, and performance/media art, I wished there had been more theatre and dance artists represented. Why weren't they there? Perhaps because dance and theatre are collaborative arts and they produce a product that is experiential…. The Wookey workshop raised many issues that we did not have time to deal with: setting up a system of monetary self-evaluation and making a strict budget for earning a living wage (after taxes) so that one can evaluate what one is offered as compensation. Dancers are notorious for saying "Yes!": an inner automatic response because one so badly to dance.  The "movement" sections seemed tangential to these deeply felt discussions on labor value and living wage issues. Wookey brought up the hot topic of the "historic" dance "commodity" such as Yvonne Rainer's Trio A, which she performs and teaches all over the world. Should we all try to learn a dance of historical value and pitch it to make a living? Within the dance communities there are also the differences between the traditional dances such as the South Indian Kathak, where there is a guru teacher to whom one gives money but the dancer would never ask for compensation. Dance seems caught up in this endless cycle of little monetary compensation and immense self-sacrificing devotion and drive.

Juxtaposed to this The Exchange Archive led by Caroline Woolard, was lively and forward looking and even daring in its pursuit of (almost but not quite) utopian exchange. Woolard had very direct questions and problems for our small sub-groups to debate and come up with suggestions. She had us deal with the idea of "Archive" (in all its complexities of canons and compensation) by making an archive of performance art/time artists. By playing a kind of card game and placing our "bets" on a gridded outline on a table top, we all could see and feel the complexity of the task of creating an ensemble exchange archive project. I really enjoyed the depth of the visual artists' knowledge and passion for "naming" the influential performance artists for this archive project. Several artists brought up how race is still so marginalized in these canonizations of valued art makers. Diversity is a constant ongoing ensemble project.

In small groups again (with reporting back to the whole group that was very important) we chose topics that had arisen in our smaller groups. And luckily we diverged from that too: we ended up by talking about how to engage the engineers in the tech (wealthy) classes in art making and supporting: how does one create true interaction, not just The Possible but the ACTUAL that could deal with housing, sharing real estate differentially: Woolard and Jackson created a kind of synergy of ideas that defy the usual "us and them" strategies, instead we wanted to move on to engagement that uses creativity in these new relationships. How do we deploy the methods we use in making things to these other challenges? Collaboration and ensemble "making" spun around our groups and table. Woolard also reminded us to work with the others' terms: be the staying and committed to the neighborhood artist, the one whose work is "making," and whose "making" can work.

I think we need to have these conversations on a weekly basis, perhaps in online webinars with visual, performance, conceptual artists, curators, scholars and yes those interested  and needed supporters.  Thank you so much ARC!

Valuing Labor in the Arts: Aurora Crispin

On April 19, 2014, the Arts Research Center hosted Valuing Labor in the Arts: A Practicum. This daylong event included a series of artist-led workshops that developed exercises, prompts, or actions that engage questions of art, labor, and economics. We have asked participants to send us their reflections on keywords, puzzles, or recurring themes that came up throughout the day. This post is by Aurora Crispin, chef and museum preparator.

I wanted to send along some information about a group, an allied project, I am a part of that is in line with conversations, content, initiatives, movements, and questions related to the weekends events. 

www.bayareaartworkersalliance.org

We are also participating as an organization in this summers Bay Area Now 7 at YBCA, in July. 

http://www.bayareaartworkersalliance.org/participate/

Valuing Labor in the Arts: Eleanor Hanson-Wise

On April 19, 2014, the Arts Research Center hosted Valuing Labor in the Arts: A Practicum. This daylong event included a series of artist-led workshops that developed exercises, prompts, or actions that engage questions of art, labor, and economics. We have asked participants to send us their reflections on keywords, puzzles, or recurring themes that came up throughout the day. This post is by Eleanor Hanson, co-founder of The Present Group, a creative studio working at the intersection of art and technology.  Much of her creative practice has been focused on developing proposals-in-practice for new funding models in the arts. Projects of The Present Group include an art subscription service, a web hosting service that funds an intermittent arts prize, Art Micro Patronage - an experimental exhibition platform showcasing and funding artwork online, The People’s E-book - a free online tool to build e-books, and Compensation Foundation - an online database for gathering and displaying how cultural producers are compensated.  

From the Independent Artists' Union in Canada

From the San Francisco Building Trades Union

From Chet LaMore, on why we need(ed) permanent WPA. 

Remember, Report, Evaluate, Advocate, and Organize, Now.

Valuing Labor in the Arts: Gibson Cuyler

On April 19, 2014, the Arts Research Center hosted Valuing Labor in the Arts: A Practicum. This daylong event included a series of artist-led workshops that developed exercises, prompts, or actions that engage questions of art, labor, and economics. We have asked participants to send us their reflections on keywords, puzzles, or recurring themes that came up throughout the day. This post is by Gibson Cuyler, a fine artist who has supported his art making process working commercially in the culture industry for 19 years. He starting doing windows at Barneys New York at 23 and subsequently ran his own commercial display studio in NYC mainly for the fashion and music industries. Currently Gibson works through the Allied Crafts International Union for Entertainment (I.A.T.S.E. local 16)  and for the SFO Museum.  He is, and always will be, a Painter and a Musician.

Well, it is a sunny May Day today and I sit here at my computer and I am filled with thoughts and excitement for the possibilities for the future of labor and the arts. It is especially appropriate to think of these issues today, as May 1st...is the international day for Labor Awareness.  I have always considered the delicate dance between Art and Commerce to be a fine art in itself. I have worked for free for my portfolio when I was young and also readily donated art for auction to galleries and organizations I appreciate and have been good to me ..Such as Momenta NY, White Columns NY, and the Bay Area Girls Rock Camp.  How an artist is compensated and remunerated has a wide array of answers and varies greatly from individual to individual and I found it stimulating to hear others view points on this subject at the Practicum for labor in the arts recently in Berkeley.  

What I most came away with was not from an artist at the Practicum, but from Catherine Powell, director of the Labor Archives and research at San Francisco State.  Her brief overview of the history of Labor and Unions in the 20th Century made me realize that I had a responsibility to share my knowledge and to help other artists who are marginalized in the marketplace by perceptions of labor, its difficulties, and intrinsic values, both monetarily and culturally.  I was lucky to meet up with Aurora Crispin who has been diligently formimg the Bay Area Art Workers Alliance for over a year now and subsequently met her for a meal in Oakland and I realized that her Alliance and my work experience and Union affiliation with the International Allied Crafts can be useful to this end.  She shared with me her pictures of her specific aesthetic brought to her from working behind the scenes as an art worker putting on shows.  It did illuminate and codify something for me that has been a source of great interest to me for years. As both artists and workers it is necessary in this day and age for us to come together in strength and commonality in order to eventually highlight our individual artistic contributions. By realizing common needs in health and welfare both socially and financially, a stonger and more independant artistic voice can be born for artists working for themselves and within institutions such as Museums and Galleries.  

Catherine Powell's advice to use the young workers toolkit -AFL-CIO is proving useful and made me realize a grey area does in reality... really exist in fair labor practices for fabricators, art installers, and artists themselves as we are patronized without a roadmap for adequate pay or benefits. Instead of becoming disenfranchised and frustrated, as I have seen so much before happen to talented people trying to "make it" as artists in the western capitalist paradigm; I have become empowered by this open discussion and I see the importance of a continued, open, unafraid, and honest  dialogue about these most important issues facing all working fine artists today.  It is my belief that a true and quantifiable position can be undersood and benefit both working artists and the institutions who showcase them.  I must give thanks to artist  David Wilson and his magical rug as I believe it has actually made community where it did not exist before and to artists Helena Keefe, and Caroline Woolard... who have addressed such necessary subjects without hesitation and with succinct language.  I also must thank Catherine Powell for her insights into real labor and the artists who worked within it. The time is always now....but now the future is here and we will come together and we will not fall or falter as we make art and commerce for the next century. 

Valuing Labor in the Arts: Maria Billings

On April 19, 2014, the Arts Research Center hosted Valuing Labor in the Arts: A Practicum. This daylong event included a series of artist-led workshops that developed exercises, prompts, or actions that engage questions of art, labor, and economics. We have asked participants to send us their reflections on keywords, puzzles, or recurring themes that came up throughout the day. This post is by Maria Billings, an artist who completed her studies of textile art at the University of Cologne. Her new, bilingual book Roman Horses, Cavalli Romani is an art book of water colors and drawings which accompany you on a historic stroll through Rome - finding horses in unexpected places.

I attended Lise Soskolne's session on "Defining Value, Labor and the Arts". W.A.G.E. was founded 2008 in New York to research artists fees, or lack thereof, and to create a minimum fee schedule for artistic services provided to non-profit organizations. The whole area is so complex that I found the restricted scope very useful.

What is a fee in this context and what is it not a fee?

• The fee is a price or the remuneration for services to a non-profit organization.
• It is NOT the basic programming expenses which are the responsibility of the institution who wants to include artistic services.
• It is NOT intended to cover production expenses (which are more speculative in nature). The coverage of production expenses does not constitute compensation even if the work produced may result in future sales.

Lise divided the fee schedule into three levels.  She has complex spreadsheets for a number of services. The WAGE team is still in process of refining them and will publish them on their website.

 What can change?

• Funding: Foundations could continue to give money to non-profit organizations, BUT request proof that they are paying artist feed.
• Issue of transparency: Artist fees should be a visible line item in budget plans of organizations.
• Raising awareness of practical realities.

Personal reflections

The entire event, especially the conversations with various participants was helpful is defining my "borders":

• As before attending the workshop, I will support some non-profits for free.
• For others, in the past, I used California minimum wage plus actual expenses (materials directly related to the service, such as printing handouts, travel, and so on). I used to think of this as "exposure". - This I'll probably replace with a minimum fixed fee, because it's simpler than counting my hours. Although the shock value of knowing precisely how long I labored on an artistic project has convinced some organizations that there is value in it.
• What I will decline are donating my services or works to small museums who want to sell them (without dividing the profit) to buy other artists works and add to their employees bonuses.
• What I will also decline are donating my services or works to organizations who go out-of-their-way to make me feel guilty for not supporting them. I hate emotional blackmail, and this entire event helped me to understand that I don't need to go there.