FABnyc launches The Sustainable Artist Toolkit

The Sustainable Artist Toolkit

 (#ArtistToolkit)

Artists, Cultural Workers, Revelers & Explorers of creative expression: DON’T PANIC.

FAB is excited to bring to you The Sustainable Artist Toolkit – a series of workshops led by A. Nia Edwards-Austin, Eva Yaa Asantewaa, Kendra Ross, and Sydnie Mosley, for artists, cultural workers, creativity seekers… and everyone in between. Learn to tell your stories, share resources, activate the community, cultivate thoughtful responsiveness — all while working towards a generative and caring ecosystem.

And I'm excited to be part of the team bringing this new initiative to our arts community. You'll hear more about my part of it in coming months but, first up:

Sydnie L. Mosley
(photo: Ferima Faye/F.F. Visual)

BodyBusiness Resource Sharing: getting what you NEED with what you HAVE

led by Sydnie L. Mosley and SLMDances

Wednesday, Sept 21, 7-9pm

Through a series of artist-guided activities, SLMDances will share practices that work towards a cooperative economy based on trust, value transparency and accountability, all while honoring individual voices. In school, in our jobs, in society, we are taught “resources are scarce” — but what if the skills, goods, services, and/or opportunities we already possess becomes the central resource of worth instead of money?

Artists, cultural workers, makers: let’s fully embody a vision of a community that has mastered the art of sharing in order to negotiate obstacles and achieve common goals! In this session, reflect on what you have & what you need, equitably distribute resources, experience how a cooperative economy operates, and together, find ways to shift the culture in our day-to-day.

This model was co-conceived with Our Goods and elevates a vision that values artists’ creative labor and production while decentralizing money as the only source of real worth.

For more #ArtistToolkit programming details and to register for this and other events in the series, click here.

And connect with FABnyc on social media:

Facebook: @FABNYC 
Twitter: @fourthartsblock
Instagram: @fourthartsblock

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Our bodies, our business: SLMDances at University Settlement

Candace Thompson of SLMDances
at University Settlement for BodyBusiness
photo ©2015, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

BodyBusiness--the exuberant, inspired new venture from Sydnie L. Mosley's SLMDances--asks "How can dancers be paid a living wage for meaningful work? How can we transform places of lack in our lives into places of abundance?"

While the first question will require something like revolution, the second gets answered and put into practice this very week by BodyBusiness itself, a dance concert hosted by The Performance Project at University Settlement where Mosley has been in residence. But not just a dance concert. BodyBusiness is a dance physically--and spiritually--nested inside a social, marketing and community networking event ("Marketplace").*  The simple fact that I might have something you need and vice versa is its operating principle and a model for how to survive, thrive and get your work done as an artist in New York or really anywhere.

Katherine Bergstrom of SLMDances
at play with audience members
at University Settlement for BodyBusiness
photo ©2015, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

Opening night found US's Speyer Hall performance space encircled by reps from from several community service organizations--The Field, Pentacle, OurGoods, PURPOSE Productions, among others--the sound system pumping soul and R&B as an audience gathered. Eventually, dancers from Mosley's troupe appeared, casually engaging a few audience members in movement play in the central space as tabling continued on the sidelines. These interactions provided a transition into the formal performance. With tables cleared away, Damel Dieng's video introduced and, with the help of Mosley's entertaining dancers, cleverly illustrated the complex economic issues faced by freelance dance artists.

Unpaid or underpaid. Up to their eyeballs in debt. Working several jobs to support themselves while pursuing an art they love. Statistics stacked against any hope for healthy balance in life, let alone success in their chosen career.

In the following live performance, we learned more about Mosley and her dancers as individuals, their backstories, struggles and dreams. "My folks wanted me off the couch," said Kayla Hamilton. "My mother, she worked too damned hard for me to be just dancing around," said Kimberly Mhoon. "My mother likens my dance career to an abusive relationship," said Candace Thompson.

Most of the dancers are Black women, and Mosley's choreography for this initial segment shows a wry relationship with classical ballet (as skill, as playacting) that is full of charm and mischief.

There is joy and determination and something I can only call being-one's-selfness in every move, and I love how Mosley keeps things continuously on the move. There are bodies in a range of sizes, and so we bid fond adieu to that "mold" that one dancer, Rachel Russell, said she did not fit. Fuck that mold.

The audience participation that follows--which I will not divulge here--gets to the heart of Mosley's whole project. She has a need to see dancers stand in their power (probably more than just dancers, too...but let's start there), and she offers some tools and bids us all use them well and carry on.

*Tonight's Marketplace--open at 6pm and followed, roughly at 7 or 7:30 by the performance--will feature tabling by health and social services organizations, and tomorrow's will be devoted to small businesses.

For BodyBusiness information and tickets, click here. Note: No one will be turned away for lack of funds. Also, with advance notice, childcare is available--which is very cool.

University Settlement
184 Eldridge Street (near Rivington Street), Manhattan
(map/directions)

USDAC: Imagine and activate the arts for justice

The U.S. Department of Arts and Culture (USDAC)* is the nation's newest people-powered department, founded on the truth that art and culture are our most powerful and under-tapped resources for social change. Radically inclusive, useful and sustainable, and vibrantly playful, the USDAC aims to spark a grassroots, creative change movement, engaging millions in performing and creating a world rooted in empathy, equity, and social imagination.

CALL TO ACTION: The USDAC calls on all artists and creative activists to use our gifts for peace and justice, sharing images, performances, experiences, writings, and other works of art that raise awareness, build connection, cultivate empathy, and inspire action.

The murder of Michael Brown (and Eric Garner, Renisha McBride, Jonathan Ferrell, Jordan Davis, Sean Bell, Trayvon Martin, Oscar Grant, and so many others) and the suppression of basic rights in Ferguson, MO (and so many other places) compel us to ask these questions:

Who are we as a people?

What do we stand for?

How do we want to be remembered?

As a culture of punishment? Or a culture that values every human life, promoting true public safety grounded in justice and love?

You are invited to answer USDAC's call for action on equity and justice as a Citizen Artist. Click here for more information on this initiative and how you can participate.

(*Not an actual US federal department...and more's the pity.)

Camille A. Brown's The Gathering, a rousing success

The visionary Camille A. Brown
who created and convened The Gathering
(c)2014, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

With Baraka Sele (left), discussion moderator
for Brown's historic event
(photo by Cynthia Oliver)

Just do what you do.

-- Katherine Dunham

The Gathering--a special event conceived and convened by Camille A. Brown to offer safe space to discuss issues of concern to Black women choreographers--drew a huge, delighted response and support from all sectors of the field, including men, last evening. Brown--most recently hailed for her powerful evening-length work, Mr. TOL E. RAncE--realized her goal, not only drawing from her own peer group but an inter-generational, intercultural community including arts administrators, educators, journalists, presenters and supporters. Looking around the room, one could spot dance notables such as Dianne McIntyre, Sylvia Waters, Brenda Dixon Gottschild, Ronald K. Brown, Nathan Trice, Elka Samuels Smith, Cynthia Oliver, Edisa Weeks, Paloma McGregor, Matthew Rushing, Renee Robinson, Theresa Howard and many more from New York and beyond. Frankly, the vibes in that City Center studio were mind-blowing!

Moderator Baraka Sele set a respectful, positive and productive tone, creating an atmosphere for deep listening and the discovery of resources we can share. She urged us to focus not on problems but on facts, solutions and our individual and collective responsibilities.

We spoke of numerous issues--from the prevalence of racism throughout the arts system and the need to "de-center" whiteness to a call for adequate resources for physical and emotional wellness for the dancer. Participants cited interests in securing more time and affordable space to develop work, meaningful collaboration, community building and, of course, more funding for our projects. We called for better feedback on creative work, both artist-to-artist and via published critiques. Of course, I mentioned the need for more writers of color in dance journalism and sustainability for all writers on dance.

Time was short but, while we could not address in depth every item on our list, we felt confident that The Gathering will generate future activity and exciting collaborations.

Congratulations and deepest thanks to Camille A. Brown and Baraka Sele!

Write to company_manager@camilleabrown.org to get on the mailing list for The Gathering.

Join Shay Wafer and Camille A. Brown on Facebook today, 3-4pm EST

Shay Wafer, 651 Arts ED

You know what? We really should talk about how Black arts organization and business can survive and thrive in today's economic climate.

651 ARTS Executive Director Shay Wafer will discuss the arts and sustainability with choreographer Camille A. Brown in an open Facebook chat today, 3-4pm. You're invited to join in with your questions, observations and ideas.

As 651 ARTS enters its 25th year of dedication to the performing arts of the African Diaspora, we are thinking about sustainability over the next 25 years. There have been conversations about the future of Black organizations and how we can create new business and economic models. Inevitably, a conversation on sustainability always includes the question of individual contributions and earned income: How de we create and/or grow these revenue steams?

We would love to hear from folks why they contribute to an arts organization, or if they don’t, why not. What would inspire or encourage them to do so?

For more information and to participate in today's chat, click here. 

Dance as a sustainable art: a panel at 92Y

92nd Street Y

presents

MovementTalks: 

Sustainable Arts - Policy, Practice and Programing

Lise Brenner, Paul Nagle and Judy Hussie-Taylor

moderated by Edward Henkel

Friday, April 5 (8pm)

Let’s talk about artistic communities as tangible social assets, both for the artists themselves, and the role that protecting art-making plays in the daily life of our neighborhoods. What does maintaining the possibility for arts production (i.e. studio space, affordable housing, etc) give to the city? What do small business incentives, producing and curating contemporary dance, zoning laws, ConEd electrical rates for non-profits, and planting street trees have in common? This will be a discussion about choices and the creative ecology that results.

Program and ticket information

92nd Street Y (Buttenwieser Hall)
Lexington Avenue at 92nd Street, Manhattan
(map/directions)

Also: See Dance and the American Sacred Cows: Meat and Money, May 31, with Carrie Ahern and Zefrey Throwell

(How) Do we value dance and dancers?

How does the current climate affect our lives and artistic work, and vice versa? What creative insights and understandings, structures and alternatives, have manifest during this time of financial challenge. 

Movement Research held its third annual town hall last evening at Joyce SoHo, hosted by Diana Crum (MR's Development Manager) and MR's Artist Advisory Council and moderated by Dana Whitco (Director, Center for Creative Research). The roughly three-hour discussion forum encouraged artists to share perspectives on the impact of the US recession on their personal and professional lives. Offering an overview of the evening's theme, choreographer Kathy Westwater spoke of "living in the worst economic environment of our lifetimes" but also noted that the arts have often flourished in times of economic crisis. "Does that create an opening for us?" she wondered.

In a structured forum--five minutes per speaker--Jen Abrams, Ilona Bito, Daria Fain, Jill Sigman and Enrico Wey shared varied experiences and ideas. These ranged from remarks on how both trust and fear are lodged in our kidneys and the necessity of changing our paradigms (Fain) to Occupy Wall Street as "performance score" (Bito) to a cautionary tale of how landing an apparently stable Broadway gig--thereby becoming "one of the 1%"--doesn't necessarily promote well-being (Wey).

Sigman--decrying the prevailing scarcity-mindedness of artists--redirected our attention to "what we do have" and described how a sudden awareness of the ongoing potential in trash led to her notable series of site-specific works, The Hut Project built around all kinds of recycled, re-purposed garbage. She spoke of how this new approach shifted her attention from conventional dance audiences and their expectations to people who share her values, who care about the same things. She found herself to be "not interested in meeting budget projections" but connecting to existing subcultures such as dumpster-diving meetup groups. She pondered how to "choreograph your values." Abrams--a co-creator of the bartering organization for artists, OurGoods--also chose to turn away from conventional channels of exchange and validation where, she says, artists experience a paucity of respect and acknowledgement. "How I know that my work is valuable is through the relationships I have forged with colleagues."

Underlying all of these sharings, and the subsequent contributions by others in attendance, was an often internalized conflict of values. In a money-driven society, artists feel pressured to fit their work--how they define it, package it, promote it--into a narrow, consumerist framework in which their only value, and the purpose of their creative labor, lies in growing into a strong economic engine for their communities. Fain noted our society's fixation on "stars." She said of more process-oriented artists, such as the ones drawn to Movement Research, "We're not perceived to be affecting culture."

The conversation circled back to issues of getting paid vs. not getting paid-- there are bills to pay, after all, and they can't be bartered away--and the fear of asking for what you need and deserve. How many artists feel empowered to ask about pay before they commit to a project?

Side discussions with Dance New Amsterdam's Catherine Peila during the break and, afterwards, with Peila and Fain led me to the conclusion that none of the opportunities hidden in crisis will be seized until dance artists reclaim a power ceded to others--presenters, funders, media--the power to name their own work and uphold their own values. I wish there had been time to begin this process last night. Perhaps Movement Research or some other community organization can hold a forum to create new language and tools to make this transformation possible.

UK: arts and environmental sustainability

Speaking at the Tipping Point conference in Newcastle, Alan Davey, Chief Executive, Arts Council England has today announced that the Arts Council is the first arts funding body in the world to embed environmental sustainability into the funding agreements of its major programmes.

Read more:

Arts Council England to embed environmental sustainability into funding

The urgent A.O. herself!

The resourceful Sarah A.O. Rosner gets profiled by New York Live Arts blog here.

Town hall meet for dance artists tonight

The Dance/NYC Junior Committee invites all dance artists to
Navigating the Terrain: Obstacles and Solutions for Today’s Dance Artists in New York.

Wednesday, April 13
6:30-8:30pm

Con Edison
Edison Room, 19th Floor
4 Irving Place, Manhattan
(near Union Square: directions)

In an effort to address concerns and offer solutions for today's dance artists living and creating in New York City, Sarah Maxfield facilitates a Town Hall coordinated by the Dance/NYC Junior Committee. Specifically geared towards choreographers and dancers, this Town Hall will function as a series of discussions to address issues surrounding the
development of a sustainable lifestyle as a dance artist in our current climate.

Topics to plan for, among many others are: making work and developing it beyond a single performance; cultivating a long-term practice of research; addressing the changes in funding models and priorities; maturing as an artist; how existing and emerging spaces can effectively support communities and artists; and shifting between opportunities to create, develop, show and tour work.

This is a forum to gather and voice shared concerns, using the group knowledge and experience as a resource to identify obstacles and discuss solutions that address collective issues. This discussion will focus on the choreographic and performance aspects of navigating the terrain, but all self-identified dance community participants are strongly encouraged to attend.

This event will continue at Forum (127 4th Ave, between 12th and 13th Street) for more conversation and networking.

For more info and to register, please click here.

The Dance/NYC Junior Committee (known formerly as the Youth Advisory Committee) is a New York-based community of contemporaries working as dance artists, educators and administrators. We serve as a liaison for our demographic (ages 19-30) in the wider dance community, provide a forum for dialogue among a diversity of perspectives in our field, foster professional development in our constituency, and generate ideas that will serve our common goals and those of Dance/NYC.

OurGoods: a community bartering initiative

OurGoods.org, a barter network for the creative community, is celebrating its launch with a series of live barter matchmaking events co-sponsored by several major NYC arts service institutions in November. OurGoods helps performing and visual artists, designers and craftspeople get their creative projects done in a community that runs on mutual respect. The site matches barter partners, provides accountability tools, and offers technical assistance resources. It is an instigator for generosity, a locus of empowerment, and an innovative model for supporting the work of artists.

The site lists resources members are willing to share ranging from sound design to carpentry, from embossing equipment to language coaching, from babysitting to a ’98 Corolla. Members are looking for marketing help, performance venue research, web design, a sailboat, yoga lessons, and a quiet writing space, among other things.

The November live barter events are an opportunity to meet potential barter partners in person. Each event starts with an optional workshop to help participants get their Needs and Haves organized. The workshop is followed by a networking session in which OurGoods founders will map the Needs and Haves in the room and connect potential barter matches.

OurGoods event schedule

Saturday, November 6 at Dance Theater Workshop, 219 West 19th Street, Manhattan. 3pm Barter, a Budget Supplement (workshop), 4pm Live Barter Matchmaking. This event is part of The Field’s ERPA Open Source series. Co-sponsored by The Field, DTW, Movement Research, and Dance/NYC.

Sunday, November 7 at WOW Café Theater, 59 East 4th Street. 12pm Self Producing 101 (workshop), 1pm Live Barter Matchmaking. Co-sponsored by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, HERE Arts Center, Fourth Arts Block and Dixon Place.

Saturday, November 13 at the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, 323 West 39th Street, 2nd Floor. 3pm Idea Party (workshop), 4pm Live Barter Matchmaking. Co-sponsored by Exit Art, The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, Smack Mellon Studios, LES Printshop, and F.E.A.S.T.

Sunday November 14 at Brooklyn Arts Exchange, 421 5th Avenue, Brooklyn. 12pm Self Producing 101 (workshop), 1pm Live Barter Matchmaking. Co-sponsored by Brooklyn Arts Exchange and Brooklyn Arts Council.

For more information about OurGoods.org and to get involved, click here.

A creative head for business

In New York, a Business Course Geared to Artists

by Kate Taylor, The New York Times, June 18, 2010

Layard Thompson: What sustains you?

What Sustains You Layard Thompson?

Critical Correspondence, June 15, 2010