Panel: Art and Labor

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Barrie Cline, SPQ MFA student, organized this panel discussion on a topic that has recently captured the attention of the artists and art institutions: Art and Labor.

When: 7-8:30pm Thursday, January 31

Where: No Longer Empty /  Long Island City Clocktower

29-27 41st Avenue, Queens

Subway:  Queens Plaza M, E, and R.  Queensboro Plaza N, Q, and 7

Website / Facebook  

The question “How Much Do I Owe You?” implies an equal exchange of money for services or labor.  In an unsteady job market and an economy that arguably favors a small percentage of workers, this common question takes on new weight and needs re-evaluation.

Panelists Mike Merrill, Valeria Treves and Barrie Cline discuss how art, public action, and other community initiatives can play a role in advocating for workers rights, and in shaping more fair systems of compensation and exchange. Former community organizer at the Queens Museum, Alexandra García, will moderate.

Panelists:

Mike Merrill, the Dean from The Harry Van Arsdale Jr. Center for Labor Studies will speak about the effects of the neoliberal economy on workers and what he feels is necessary in rebuilding a strong labor movement, including the role art might play.

Valeria Treves from New Immigrant Community Empowerment in Queens will present the struggles of the immigrant workers she represents and her organizations efforts to achieve fair labor practices for them. Among their initiatives, NICE is using the medium of  the graphic novel, full scale theater production and shorter educational theater pieces produced out in the community to aid in organizing and to encourage dialogue.

Barrie Cline shall give an overview of the social justice themed public arts class she teaches to union electricians and plumbers and present student work that seeks to recreate the images of their labor and themselves and further build on the mutualism among workers—both within and outside their respective unions. Cline will introduce the multifaceted work of the OWS Arts and Labor group in their critical attention and action concerning artistic production and labor-and the structures and institutions that frame it.

Alexandra García will moderate the panel. García is an organizer and cultural programmer with experience in community development and coalition building focusing on social justice and cultural empowerment. She’s currently the programs coordinator at Corona Plaza with the Queens Museum of Art. She also worked as a community organizer at the Queens Museum of Art with the public programs department and the Heart of Corona coalition that creates programs for the betterment of the neighborhood.

 

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Panel: Does It Need to Be Called Art?

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Maureen Connor, SPQ faculty member, is part of a panel that looks to answer, maybe, a very interesting question:

Does It Need to Be Called Art?

Tuesday, January 29, 2013 @ 7pm
SVA Theatre
333 West 23rd Street

Free and open to the public.

When art is made or used as a tool of social or political activism, is it still best described as “art”? Critic and curator Saul Ostrow moderates a discussion on the topic with artist Maureen Connor, academic and activist Stephen Duncombe, curator and Percent for Art Director Sara Reisman and artist and urban designer Damon Rich. Presented by the BFA Visual & Critical Studies Department.

Moderator:

Saul Ostrow is an independent critic and curator and art editor at large for Bomb magazine. Since 1987, he has curated over 70 exhibitions in the United States and abroad. From 2002–12, he was chair of Visual Arts and Technologies at the Cleveland Institute of Art. He currently serves on the board of directors of the  College Art Association. http://www.collegeart.org/

Panelists: 

Maureen Connor combines installation, video, interior design, ethnography, human resources, feminism and social justice. Her exhibition venues include the Akbank Sanat, Austrian Cultural Forum New York, International Artists Studio Program (IASPIS), Momenta Art, Antoni Tàpies Foundation, Queens Museum of Art and Wyspa Art Institute. http://www.maureenconnor.net, http://theiwt.com

Stephen Duncombe is an associate professor at the Gallatin School and the Department of Media, Culture and Communications of New York University, where he teaches the history and politics of media. A lifelong political activist, he co-founded a community-based advocacy group in the Lower East Side and works as an organizer for the New York City chapter of Reclaim the Streets, an international direct action group. http://www.stephenduncombe.com

Sara Reisman is the director of New York City’s Percent for Art program, which commissions permanent public artworks for newly constructed and renovated city-owned
spaces. She has curated more than 40 exhibitions and projects for institutions, nonprofits and art spaces including The Cooper Union, Kunsthalle Exnergasse, Museum of Contemporary Art Republic of Srpska and Smack Mellon. She was the 2011 critic-in-residence at Art Omi, an international visual artist residency in upstate New York. http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcla/html/panyc/panyc.shtml

Damon Rich is a designer, artist and the urban designer and waterfront planner for Newark, New Jersey. His work represented the United States at the 2008 Venice Architecture Biennale and has been exhibited at the Canadian Centre for Architecture, MoMA PS1, the Netherlands Architecture Institute and the Storefront for Art and Architecture. He founded the Center for Urban Pedagogy, a nonprofit that uses design and art to improve civic engagement, in 1997. http://damonrich.net, http://welcometocup.org

It’s the Political Economy, Stupid!

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SPQ faculty member Greg Sholette has shared with us excerpts of his just-published compilation of essays, co-edited with Oliver Ressler, It’s the Political Economy, Stupid: The Global Financial Crisis in Art and Theory. 

The publication is accompanied by an exhibition at the Pori Art Museum in Finland, opening February 1.

The title of the book and the exhibition is a rephrasing by Slavoj Žižek of the phrase “It’s the economy, stupid”, a widely circulated phrase used during Bill Clinton’s successful 1992 presidential campaign against incumbent President George Bush Senior.

As Pluto Press, publishers of this and other books by Greg, put it:

“It’s the Political Economy, Stupid brings together internationally acclaimed artists and thinkers, including Slavoj Žižek, David Graeber, Judith Butler and Brian Holmes, to focus on the current economic crisis in a sustained and critical manner. Following a unique format, images and text are integrated in a visually stunning bespoke production by activist designer Noel Douglas. What emerges is a powerful critique of the current capitalist crisis through an analytical and theoretical response and an aesthetic-cultural rejoinder. By combining artistic responses with the analysis of leading radical theorists, the book expands the boundaries of critique beyond the usual discourse.”

Greg has generously shared excerpts from Its The Political Economy Stupid.  You can also buy it with money, or as one of the writers in this book calls it, the queen of all commodities.   Go to www.plutobooks.com

Corona Plaza: Diagram and Research Action

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Over the weekend of January 12 and 13, DSGN AGNC (led by Quillian Riano) took to Corona Plaza to carry out their ‘Diagram and Research Action’, which looks to identify issues and hidden urban conflicts affecting the community of Corona, and by extension, Corona Plaza.

Here are some lovely photos by Quillian of the action at Corona Plaza:

As the DSGN AGNC site puts it:

“Each of the signs has:

  • A specific issue that acts as a boundary, keeping Corona Plaza from being used fully by the community;
  • A diagram that looks at how permeable that boundary is;
  • A description of the boundary, the agents that may help change the boundary, and a key question for each boundary;
  • Finally, each sign has a translucent architectural diagram that looks at the boundary’s affect in the spatial experience of the plaza.

All the boundaries and questions arise from research conducted in Corona. The questions are meant to give us a deeper understanding of the community. Some of the questions, like number 3, are polemical in nature and meant only to challenge assumptions some make about the neighborhood of Corona — i.e. this New York Times article: Roosevelt Avenue, a Corridor of Vice. Our goal is to advocate for and design an open plaza that caters to the entire community.”

 Here is the link to the rest of the post.