If you’re in the Houston area, please join me next weekend for the workshops Gauging the Grey Area: A Human Spectrum and Gauging the Grey Area: Quiz Me, with Helena Keeffe, for the Charge Practicum at the Arts League Houston
charge is a two day practicum to 1. platform and convene artist led alternative models 2. open up conversations around equitable compensation of artists and 3. consider artists’ work in the larger economy.
The event will feature a selection of local and national presenters (artists, curators, organizers, and researchers) who have been commissioned to conceive and host discussions, direct actions, lectures, and workshops that explore conceptual, organizational, and economic models of sustaining one’s art practice, engaging critically and generatively within the arts ecosystem as well as with broader communities, and advocating for equitable compensation along the way.
charge will focus on supporting, celebrating, convening and hearing real talk from those who’ve been:
- Piloting alternative models
- Experimenting creatively with how to sustain an art practice
- Intersecting arts and activist communities
- Actively intervening in current standards and practices of compensation
- Engaging both critically and generatively in the arts ecosystem
- Compiling research on how artists’ work ties into the larger economy
Advocacy for equitable compensation of artists and more effective and sustainable models in the arts is nothing new. As Houston’s arts funding policies are currently being rewritten and the city is undergoing a major cultural initiative, an event like this, centered on and starting with the artists is vital in establishing equitable policies for the future.
SATURDAY NOV 8
11:00 – 11:45 AM >>> Laugh Yoga with Tony Day
11:45 – 12:00 AM >>> Welcome, Intro & Coffee
12:00 – 1:00 PM >>> Party Panel Slide Show & Tell Brunch with Michelle Barnes {The Community Artists’ Collective}, Nestor Topchy {TemplO/Zocalo} and Beth Secor {The Effemera Museum}
1:00 – 2:30 PM >>> Early Afternoon Sessions
Session A – How to Frame Pauses, Holism, and Magical Thinking in New Arts Infrastructures: Build Your Own Utopian Artist-Run Project ((lecture/workshop)) with Ayanna Jolivet McCloud {labotanica – Houston}
Session B – Gauging the Grey Area: A Human Spectrum ((workshop)) with Lauren van Haaften-Schick {Non-Participation – New York} and Helena Keeffe {Standard Deviation – San Francisco}
Session C – American Royalty ((discussion/direct action)) with Gabriel Martinez {Alabama Song – Houston}
Session D – Co-dependency Anonymous ((workshop)) with Dawn Weleski {Conflict Kitchen/City Council Wrestling/Bus Stop Opera – Pittsburgh}
2:30 – 3:00 PM >>> Snack Break
3:00 – 4:30 PM >>> Late Afternoon Sessions
Session E – Fishing for Answers ((presentation/
Session F – Gauging the Grey Area: Quiz Me ((workshop)) with Helena Keeffe {Standard Deviation – San Francisco} and Lauren van Haaften-Schick {Non-Participation – New York}
Session G – Party Out of Bounds ((presentation)) with Aay Preston-Myint {Chances Dances – Chicago}
Session H – Just Give’em the Loot ((workshop)) with Robert Pruitt and M’kina Tapscott {H.O.S.T – Houston}
5:30 – MIDNIGHT >>> Dinner + Dance Party
VHS Vinylandia by Stephanie Saint Sanchez AKA DJ ESTEFF {Houston}
DJ Flash Gordon Parks {Houston}
SUNDAY NOV 9
11:00 AM >>> Welcome & Introduction
11:15 – 12:45 PM >>> Working Artists and the Greater Economy (W.A.G.E.) ((lecture)) with Lise Soskolne {New York}
12:45 – 1:00 PM >>> Snack Break
1:00 – 1:45 PM >>> At Any Cost: Economics, Politics, and Value ((lecture)) with Alison Gerber {Yale}
2:00 – 3:00 PM >>> Lunch and Session Shares ((Pecha Kucha lite))
3:00 – 3:45 PM >>> Do What You Love And You’ll Never Work Another Day In Your Life: Economic calculations and political battles ((panel discussion)) with Alison Gerber, Helena Keeffe, Ayanna McCloud, and Zach Moser
3:45 – 4:00 PM >>> Open Floor Q&A Session
ONLINE
- Houston Area Artists Report Survey Launch! >>>The Present Group – Compensation Foundation ((Supported by Fresh Arts))
GRANT
The $10 registration fee for charge goes to charge grant. All charge participants will be invited to submit written proposals online byJanuary 4, 2015. The grantee will be selected via online voting by charge participants. The grant will be announced and awarded at a celebration dinner soon after.
charge is co-organized by Jennie Ash and Carrie Schneider and presented by Art League Houston. This event is inspired by Valuing Labor in the Arts: A Practicum presented by The Arts Research Center (ARC) at UC Berkeley.