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Join local artists, educators, unions, activists and workers to celebrate the recent excitement and organizing success of Adjuncts at SFAI, CCA, St. Mary’s College, Mills, Dominican University!

Performances! Installations! Speak-outs! Readings! Food! Art! Books! Socializing! Community-building! Help cultivate a cultural front for ongoing activism in arts, education, work and life. We’ll be there begging people to fill out surveys for Compensation Foundation and trying to show some stats through live action visualizations. We’ll see how that goes. 🙂

Participating artists, adjuncts, workers, groups, organizers, cooks, beer-makers and people include: MC: Irina Contreras Cara Emily Levine Danielle Wright Carrie Hott Congratulations Pine Tree Podcast (Kate Rhoades, Maysoun Wazwaz) Jessica Tully Jessica Lawless Christian Schoff-Nagler Jennie Smith-Camejo David Buuck Stephanie Young Ann Schnake Compensation Foundation  SEIU Local 1021 Give Me Cred! Peak Agency La Pocha Nostra Kristi Holohan Lauren C Elder Amanda Jane Eicher Chelsea Wills Catherine Powell & The Labor Archive Bay Area Strike Debt Debt Collective Fight For Fifteen Chris Higgenbotham Adjunct activist’s agit-prop from around the country Keith Hennessy Mess Editions Words of Resistance Critical Resistance Modern Times Bookstore Collective Joe Berry Helena Harlow Worthen Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo Grace Chen Zach Ozma Adjunct Action Bay Area Amy Rathbone Francisco Grajales Leslie Dreyer SFAI Poster Syndicate Shaping SF

It’s not always true that if you build it, they will come. We get it. Surveys aren’t always so fun to fill out. But maybe if we come together in small groups, share food and drinks, and commiserate it will be a little more fun. That’s why we are asking you, individually or in groups, to host a potluck for your visual artist friends ideally in the first weekend of February and fill out Compensation Foundation’s “Bay Area Artists Report!” and anonymously contribute your experiences towards a better infrastructure for self-advocacy for artists.

The “Bay Area Artists Report!” is an effort to gather and make apparent how visual artists working in the Bay Area are compensated, what they value most, and what hurdles they face.  It’s the time of year for digging through old receipts and bank statements to appease the IRS, so what better time to put that effort to use for a common cause?

Artists and organizations across the globe (W.A.G.E., Visual Artists Ireland, CARFAC, Brooklyn Commune) are advocating for transparency and the establishment of standards when it comes to compensating artists for their labor. Our hope is that by contributing to a clearer picture of what’s happening here and now, we can help pave the way for a shift in cultural values and expectations.

We are working on securing beer and/or wine donations for fun. If you would prefer not to host something in your house, we can pair you up with one of several Bay Area organizations that have offered up their space. Please let us know if you plan something so we can track our progress and make sure to get you what you need!

 

Thank you!

Eleanor, Helena, Oliver

P.S. In an ideal world, these potlucks will occur in the first weekend in February, but anytime in the next couple of months would also be great.

On October 15th (a Tuesday) we’re gonna be breaking down what we’ve learned over the past seven years in regards to different funding models for artists and what the advantages and disadvantages are for each.  Come join us!  Artists and cultural producers are increasingly turning to funding sources outside of the traditional methods.  This workshop and seminar will explore traditional and new models for funding creative practice and discuss their benefits and disadvantages.  We’ll also touch on the importance of developing social capital, along with practical strategies for building your brand and network. Participants should be ready to investigate their own support needs and be willing to contribute their own insight and experiences. This workshop will take place over one 3-hour session with topics to include: *Pros and cons of traditional funding sources *Opt-Out Strategies: fee-for-service, barter, trade, co-ops, and secondary income *Making Byproducts: production goods, economies of scale, and working with “middle-men” *Selling your skills or surplus *Community Supported Practice: Indirect funding, Subscriptions, MicroPayments, Crowdfunding *Fiscal Sponsorship *Leveraging social capital Date: Tuesday, October 15, 2013 Time: 6:00 – 9:00pm Location:  ProArts, 150 Frank H Ogawa Plaza, Oakland, CA 94612 Cost: $40.00 early registration (ends October 1); $50 regular registration (begins October 2). Cancellation Policy: Full refund on registration fees up to 48 hours prior to workshop date. Fees nonrefundable after that date. You can register for the class HERE.

At the beginning of this year, I spent a good amount of time trying to figure out how I could fund some of the projects I was working on and wanted to continue with. These were largely research based projects that I considered part of my practice. But since these works were harder to situate strictly as artworks or as social science, they were very hard to fund.  Fortunately, I’m in a position to help give that opportunity to someone else! Our practice as artists is dependent on what we produce. But there are times when we need only to explore, where the result is so far from the horizon, that we cannot see it. While often these times can be extremely productive, it is hard for most artists to justify a step away from the exhibition schedule, from deadlines, and from the scene in general in order to dedicate the time needed to fully know a subject.

“To really see something differently, it takes a tremendous amount of work, to understand what is in fact what you are looking at. I make a new project every five years and I think a lot of artists don’t work that way. So many of us are on deadline. I did that as well but in these long term projects I try to understand as much as possible and that takes time. If you really want to understand something and really get into the idea, it takes a long time to investigate any idea or methodology.”-Trevor Paglan

It’s time to reward someone for taking the leap to pursue something complex, for doing the research, and taking the time to learn. Let’s acknowledge the time and commitment an individual is putting forth in order to gain and ultimately share knowledge for the betterment of all of us.

“… art practice, in its most elemental form, is an educational act, for the intent is to provoke dialogue and to initiate change…to vision anew what is possible, but in a way that allows others to share the view.” – Graeme Sullivan

All of our web hostees are invited to nominate two artists that are doing exceptional research as their studio practice. If you would like to participate in this prize as a non-hostee, you can buy in.  For $25 you can nominate two artists, vote in both the public and final private phases, and contribute your entire amount (minus transaction fees) towards giving an artist a little extra time to research. Learn more here>>

Photo: Luminary Center for the Arts

Right now we’re part of a little show in St.Louis, at The Luminary Center for the Arts, that focuses on the recent boom of art subscriptions and art CSA’s and takes a look at the work that is being produced through this model.  It is curated by Abigail Satinsky from threewalls.  The exhibition is part of The Luminary Center for the Arts’ How to Build a World That Won’t Fall Apart  Exhibition Series, a year-long exploration of the ways that artists and alternative spaces sustain their practice in times of social and economic uncertainty. The series, a product of an institution examining itself in a time of transition, resonates pretty strongly with us right now as they are exploring of the role of alternative spaces within a broader ecosystem and the collective identity that arises through collaboration. The show features works from Alula Editions (Bay Area, CA) Art Practical Mail Art Subscription (San Francisco, CA), Community Supported Art Chicago, Community Supported Art Philadelphia,Community Supported Art Minneapolis, The Drop/NOLA (New Orleans), The Present Group (Oakland, CA), Regional Relationships (Chicago), and The Thing Quarterly (San Francisco, CA), along with a special reading room in the window space by Silver Galleon Press (Chicago).

Photo: Luminary Center for the Arts

If you aren’t in St. Louis between March 15 – April 12, 2013, you can still catch the show in other locations as it travels around the country: June 28 – August 3:  Threewalls, Chicago, IL September 14 – October 26:  Transformer Gallery in Washington, DC possibly then to New Orleans hosted by The Drop Abby also worked with projects included in the show along with designer Working Knowledge to create a publication featuring essays and profiles from participating art subscription services.  A physical copy of this publication can be ordered for $3 from Luminary Arts or you can download a pdf version by clicking on the image below.

Photo: Luminary Center for the Arts

 

This August, the Conference of Creative Entrepreneurs comes to San Francisco, bringing three days of specific, hands-on programming aimed at helping creative professionals become better business owners. The conference covers both universal issues like small business taxes and intellectual property, as well as grander topics like Creative Collaborations, The Art of Publicity, and Getting More Done. Oliver and I are on a panel talking about Alternatives to the Gallery for the fine artist.  Gone are the days when art was only available in galleries, museums, and the homes of wealthy collectors.  These days anyone can be a patron, collector or exhibiting artist through the myriad alternative art venues springing up around the world.  In this panel, we’ll talk about inventive ways artists can show their work and get funding for it, from art subscriptions to microfinance organizations to online exhibitions. With multiple panels every hour, the hardest part will be deciding which session to attend.  If you’re interested in joining us to hone some skills, we’re happy to offer a discount to all of you.  Enter the code TPG15 in the discount code box to receive 15% off any ticket. Details: Conference of Creative Entrepreneurs August 5-7 The Women’s Building 3543 18th St #8 San Francisco, CA 94110 http://www.creativeconferencewest.com/ CCE on Facebook

Wapke Feenstra.  Former Farmland, Sagarossa, Spain, 2008; pamphlet/poster, 5.88 x 4.16 in. closed, 11.66 x 16.75 in. open. Welcome Landfill!  A new project by Ted Purves and Elyse Mallouk, Landfill is interested in the funny little pieces of information or material byproducts that are produced by social practice artists.  They are cataloging these pieces of history on their website and have also started an art subscription to allow more people to collect and learn about these projects (at a really reasonable price: $60/year for 4 issues).   The subscription will consist of a Journal along with selected pieces of actual ephemera.   Perhaps a good preview of what the Journal will be like is these two articles on Art Practical highlighting this project.  Here’s a tidbit describing themselves:

Landfill is a project that archives, studies, and redistributes the material byproducts produced by ephemeral artworks. It creates a second venue for projects that largely existed in non-material form, and aims to build a non-linear history of socially engaged art practice.  Landfill exists in three parts: an online Archive, a material Quarterly, and a written Journal.  The Quarterly is distributed to subscribers four times a year.  It contains the Journal and selected pieces of material ephemera. As part of the Landfill Archive, supplemental materials become conduits for ideas that continue to circulate.  The Archive is an aggregate capable of accounting for the broad range of projects that self-consciously consider their publics, without laying claim to a singular narrative.  It is accessible all the time, for free.

They are looking for submissions. With this new addition, we now have 5 solid art subscriptions in the Bay Area!  Check out the links on the sidebar to learn about them all.   It’s pretty exciting to see how this model can adapt to suit all sorts of work and interests.  It’s not clear if Landfill will use subscription dues solely to create the journal or if they will also be using some of the funds to compensate contributing artists who often rely on grants to accomplish this sort of work.  My guess is for that price they will need most of the money just to accomplish the creation of the physical journal, shipping, and writing.  However, as they grow, perhaps they will consider sponsoring projects to give back to the community of artists they will rely for donations.

As some of you know, we are launching a new project this year called Art Micro-Patronage, an online exhibition space dedicated to both showing wonderfully curated shows of work that is suitable for online viewing and explores the idea of trying to get people to associate the amount that they appreciate a work with an actual dollar amount.    We’re hoping to debut by mid-year. But we’re not the only ones who’ve had this great idea. We just learned about United States Artists project which will be like a kickstarter for artists.  I’m glad to see this idea is being approached from multiple angles.  From the NY Times:

Part social network, part glossy brochure, part fund-raising mechanism, the site seeks to democratize arts patronage as government support for the arts continues to decline and private sources of financing also shrink. “What we’ve tried to do is take the good ideas about microphilanthropy and the good ideas about social networking and put them together in a way that people can learn about artists and learn about their projects and how they work,” said Katharine DeShaw, the organization’s executive director. In testing, the Web site attracted roughly 36,000 unique visitors and raised a total of $210,000, with an average of $120 from each of 1,500 small donors, Ms. DeShaw said. Read more>>

Not the TV show!  Kelly Lynn Jones from Little Paper Planes is interviewed on her project, gives us a cheat sheet to local affordable art resources.

Good to know

Lauren Venell shares some simple steps to stay productive and keep positive for any sort of creative worker.

Matthew Cella shares his favorite ways to display works on metal or glass: Place it on a small shelf This is my favorite way to show metal pieces. Take a thin, 4” x 12” piece of wood and wrap it in white felt. Attach 2 small brackets to the bottom of the shelf and install it on the wall. Then lean the art on the shelf against the wall. Although the piece is not heavily protected, this display method enforces the physicality of the piece, and offers it for further investigation by the viewer. All of these materials can be found at your local hardware and fabric stores. Mount it on a wall with Stand-Off hardware This is the most modern way to display the art, and is found mainly in the commercial sign business. Stand-Offs are hardware that space the piece off the wall and hold it into position. There are many different kinds of Stand-Offs available, but the preferred type is one that just grips the edge of the metal, without having to drill holes. Sources (We in no way endorse these companies or receive compensation for these referrals): Frame Pegs: http://www.unitedmfrs.com/cart/detail.cfm?item=4833 http://www.framepegs.com/Pricing/pricing.html Edge-Grip Stand-Offs: https://www.novadisplaysystems.com/basket.aspx?product=277 http://www.dkhardware.com/product-5653-eg38bs-brushed-stainless-edge-grip-for-3-8-material.html If anyone has additional sources, please leave them in the comments!

Thinking about money and how it can work in the art world is on a lot of people’s minds these days.  Elysa Lozano, an artist working as “Autonomous Organization”, has created a compendium of project spaces around the world, all talking about how and why they started and how their funding works. From her statement:

The motivations behind these initiatives are inextricably linked to the manner of funding them. What constitutes an acceptable way to get funding is as much a question of the integrity of the intention as it is a question of survival… It is also my hope that by publishing the anecdotes and experiences of the people who run these spaces that the creative ideas and strategies will become a resource to anyone currently running an independent project or thinking of starting one up.

Project Space Survival Strategies was produced in collaboration with Invisible Venue.  The project is ongoing, and accepts contributions from anyone running project spaces.  You can find the survey here.

For two years, Southern Exposure, enabled by the Graue Family Foundation, is going to offer a 15K award for Public Art Projects in the Bay Area.  Artists nationally and internationally are encouraged to apply.  It is really wonderful to see some significant awards coming out of the Bay Area. The Graue Award is an initiative of SoEx Off-Site, a program of Southern Exposure’s founded in 2006 that seeks to commission and present new public work by emerging artists that intervenes and interacts in the social and political spheres beyond the space of gallery. SoEx supports and encourages these practices as few venues support emerging artists working in the public. The artists selected through the program will make a proposal and develop their work in relation the San Francisco Bay Area. It is an Open Call!  Applications for the 2011 project are due May 26th, 2010. Details Here.

A decent compilation of sites to look at for inspiration.  Especially interesting is designer Christopher Simmons’ resource for his Graphic Design 2 class at the California College of the Arts (CCA).

We are on a mission to find more ways to get money into artists hands.  Following the funding models that seem to work, models that seem to use what people are paying for anyway, we have decided to start hosing websites.  A website has almost become a business card these days.  So we wanted to create a platform that would not only help people create their own websites in an affordable way, but give them the opportunity to do something good with the money they would be spending anyway to host their sites. So host with us! At $84/year, it is comparable to most quality hosting sites out there.  Over a quarter of that payment goes directly into The Present Group granting fund.  Each granting period, we will choose a theme, accept nominations from within that theme, and allow all the hostees to vote on the winner. For the first grant, we are teaming up with the Collective Foundation to fund a travel grant for a Bay Area artist.  As Renny Pritikin has noted on the SFMOMA blog, the Bay Area sometimes has a hard time holding on to its notable artists.  Inspired by the way many other governments work, Joseph del Pesco‘s idea is that part of keeping artists here is to help them with the funds to travel away for opportunities and come back.

Congratulations to all the awardees!  I hope all the projects conceived or energized by applying to this grant continue to follow through.  It always irks me that Southern Exposure doesn’t link to the projects right away so I did a bit of googling.  If anyone has any insight on unlinked projects, let me know! The 2009 Alternative Exposure grant recipients are: Adobe Books Backroom Gallery Alula Editions (a project by TPG#11 artist Helena Keeffe and Amber Cady) Art Practical ArtXX Magazine Average Chris Fitzpatrick & Post Brothers Critter Destructibles.org Happenstand iiiahh Pueblo Nuevo Gallery Ribbons SMITHS Stop & Go Rides Again THE THING Quarterly The Upper Left Ethnography Project VOLUMESou

Sometimes the newest and the most experimental art gets created or exposed through the newest and most experimental organizations, galleries, or alternative arts programs.    Yet, lots of times these really experimental projects and spaces only last a short time because people are doing it out of love, they are pouring their own money and time into it, and are taking a chance to try something new.  Southern Exposure recognizes this.  That’s why they have developed a new funding program for these spaces, organizations, and projects that foster great work.  Their Alternative Exposure Grant has funded and helped out some of the Bay Area’s most prominent alternative spaces and projects (including yours truly).  Though certainly not enough money to create a strong foothold financially, it is enough to allow these spaces to breath a little easier for a short time.  And that, sometimes, is enough to keep them going.  It’s also a vote of confidence that we all sometimes need when we’re feeling down. So as our year as Southern Exposure Grantees comes to a close, I would like to encourage all those with spaces, projects and programs that are new and exciting (or old and exciting) – that show, foster, and encourage the creation of art in the Bay Area – to apply, and to apply again if you don’t (or didn’t) get it the first go round. Here are the details. There is also an information session that is useful at Receiver Gallery: Wednesday, September 30, 2009 6:00 PM – 7:30 PM Receiver Gallery 1415 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 www.receivergallery.com

Posted via web from thepresentgroup’s posterous

C’mon, work it, work it!  This round we choose the top 5 or so proposals and then have the subscribers vote. http://www.thepresentgroup.com/?tpg=artists