Events
Special Events

Valuing Labor in the Arts: A Practicum

Special Events
19 Apr, 2014

Valuing Labor in the Arts: A Practicum

In April, ARC will present Valuing Labor in the Arts: A Practicum. This event will include a series of artist-led workshops that develop exercises, prompts, or actions that engage questions of art, labor, and economics; it will also include a series of commissioned writings by critics and researchers whose work focuses on artistic labor and cultural economies. Workshops will consider questions such as: What kinds of tactics allow artists to create a sense of agency regarding the economics of creative production? What are the key questions artists should ask themselves in defining standards for valuing their labor? How might artists and cultural producers disseminate or appropriate successful models to accomplish their own projects? How do different artistic forms (visual, public, relational, choreographic, theatrical) engage and revise different types of art economies? ARC will host artists, curators, and writers from the Bay Area, Los Angeles, New York and Chicago, to stage an intimate yet wide-ranging exploration about art and labor, about alternative economies in the arts, and about strategies for working in ever changing "art world" landscapes.

An important component to this daylong event is a two-part thematic issue curated by the Arts Research Center for Art Practical, a leading arts publication located in the Bay Area. This special issue will serve as a primer for workshop participants and as an inspiration and handbook for artistic communities who want to imagine alternative artistic economies in their own domains. Part one will be published on April 3, 2013 in advance of the workshop; part two will be published in May and feature workshop exercises as well as a series of commissioned reflections from writers and researchers.

To register, please review the full workshop descriptions in the linked brochure and visit our eventbrite site to register for your preferred workshop and join us for the entire day. Registration will take place on a first-come, first-serve basis. Note: We are asking all participants to contribute a $10 registration fee which includes a boxed lunch, the full day of workshops, and a reception at the David Brower Center.

Artists and writers include Julia Bryan-Wilson (UC Berkeley), Alison Geber (Yale), Eleanor Hanson-Wise (The Present Group) with Catherine Powell (SFSU), Shannon Jackson (UC Berkeley), Helena Keeffe (Standard Deviation, UC Berkeley), Claudia La Rocco (Performance Critic), Patricia Maloney (Art Practical), Christian Nagler (SFAI), Michael O'Hare (UC Berkeley), Lane Relyea (Northwestern), Jeffrey Skoller (UC Berkeley), Lise Soskolne for W.A.G.E., Abigail Satinsky (inCUBATE), Stephanie Syjuco (UC Berkeley), Cassie Thornton (Strike Debt Bay Area), Caroline Woolard (Ourgoods), Sara Wookey (Wookey Works), Lauren Van Haaften-Schick (Non-Participation), and others.

The themes of Valuing Labor in the Arts resonate wonderfully with the goals and forms on offer in BAM/PFA's The Possible and the David Brower Center's 2014 Juried Show Reimagining Progress: Consumption, Consumerism, and Alternative Economies, and we strongly encourage ARC's community to attend and participate.

Valuing Labor in the Arts is sponsored by a graduate arts grant from the University of California Institute for Research in the Arts, the Doreen B. Townsend Center for the Humanities, the UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, The Brower Center, the Berkeley Center for the Study of Value, the Division of Arts and Humanities, the Institute for International Studies, the English Department, the History of Art Department, the Art Practice Department, the Berkeley Center for New Media, the Richard And Rhoda Goldman Chair in the Arts and Humanities, and funds from Reid Hoffman & Michelle Yee and Michael Korcuska & Shannon Jackson.

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