news
COMING SOON
by frank
April 5, 2021
April 2021 | Philanthropy
April 2021 | Philanthropy
A note from the editors,
On March 29, Amazon employees in Bessemer, Alabama will vote on forming a union with RWDSU. Alabama, like many Southern states, is a right-to-work state. Employees may work in a unionized workplace without having to pay dues, making it harder for unions to survive.
With a large media presence and growing political support [President Biden directly addressed the vote in a video on February 28] the vote in Bessemer has the potential to break from the tumultuous labor history in The South and to shape a new narrative of working in the US.
In collaboration with Payday Report, March looks at the changing South through direct interviews with organizers, union workers, union busters, and a historical conversation about American workers.
-frank
news
The Inherent Politics of Art
by frank news
December 14, 2018
Andrea Fraser, a performance artist and professor at UCLA, and John Miller, an artist, critic and professor at Barnard, on bureaucracy, politics, money, identity and art.
1) Andrea Fraser on Art, Money, Politics, and Power | October 28, 2018
Do you have a proposed solution? Ways in which you think that these institutions should be financed? Is the answer to collect small donations?
That’s one solution. I have done quite a bit of research on the history, not only of arts organizations in the U.S., but also of philanthropy, the nonprofit sector, and trusteeship. When you take in the whole picture, it gets harder, unfortunately, to envision change. But when you extend that picture beyond cultural organizations and the nonprofit sector to include civic, professional, and other kinds of community organizations, one does find other models. In the visual arts and in the big cultural and educational institutions, the model is self-selecting and self-perpetuating boards who are usually required to make personal financial contributions, which collapse patronage and governance.
I know of almost no cultural institutions in America that have that structure. I do know of cultural institutions in Europe that have that structure, such as Kunstvereins, or art associations, in Germany, which have histories that go back to the early part of the 19th century. They are supported by their members, who also elect the board and participate in governance.
There are a lot of organizations that have that structure. Museums have not, for the most part, had that structure, although there are museums in the book that started out as art associations.
2) In The Studio With John Miller | October 10, 2018
I think we are in a period where many are laying claims to identity based on a set, and it's not even ill-intended, but it just seems natural that some sense that identity is trans-historical or something. That's one of the problems of that.
One thing I often think about is the definition of black that we ordinarily ascribe to skin color. But, if you go far enough back in U.S. history, Irish and Italians are categorized as black. It shows how it has to do with social hierarchy and shifts in that.
One funny thing that happened to me over the summer was that we have friends who teach in Koln and Dusseldorf, we did visiting artist spots with them and when we were in Chris William's class, we spoke to several of his students, and they did presentations. Interestingly, none of the work was about identity. Not even the work of a trans-woman in the class.