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Art, Self Organisation

& Public Resource

Creation

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Table of Contents

1. Introduction Page 4

2. Art, Self Organisation & Public Resource Creation:

A Conceptual Framework Page 8

3. Objectives Page 10

4. Methodology Page 11

5. Findings Page 14

6. Case Studies Page 29

7. Ways of Working Page 37

8. Recommendations Page 41

9. Annexes

9.1 Interviews & Sites Page 44

9.2 Resources Page 48

9.3 List of Illustrations Page 49

9.4 Further Reading Page 50

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1 Introduction Over the last decade there has been an interest in self organisation as a theory, a method and as a way of life in contemporary art practice and its related literature and institutions. It has become visibly apparent in the proliferation of independent spaces, projects, artists work, publications, events and symposia led by individuals and groups to institutional engagement with the subject through higher education establishments, government departments and galleries. These activities which come from both established and emergent infrastructure have given rise to a series of interrelated topics and fields of study such as labour issues, autodidacticism, cultural democracy, alternative education, open source programming and permaculture to name a few. While this is happening on an international scale, the geographical focus of this report is on activity in the US with a view to informing practice in the UK. The interest in self organisation in relation to contemporary art in the UK and US is happening for a variety of reasons. It can in part be attributed to public awareness of the spiralling costs of higher education and the uneven distribution of access to art education in schools. In this light it can be viewed both as a focused attempt to address structural inequalities and as a survival tactic in the absence of public or private resources. While undergraduate course fees are covered in Scotland, tuition fees are now in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and postgraduate fees are charged across the UK. This has a direct affect on who’s work is visible and who goes onto become part of constructing the narrative of art for generations. Two key events in 2010 and 2011, the introduction of tuition fees in the UK and the introduction of the Bologna Process across Europe, are the most often cited contributing factors to citizens mobilising and imagining alternatives to existing higher education and lifelong learning options. Equally, improved access to the internet, development of open source content, and higher education’s adoption of this within their programmes have improved communications and capacity for people to exchange information and pool resources. Historically, self organised practices in art have at times paralleled that within education. This has happened for many different reasons – in the spirit of collaboration and a DIY ethos, anarchism, democracy, egalitarianism, to prevent isolation, as institutional critique, bohemianism, and equally in a spirit of entrepreneurialism or careerism. The US has an extensive history of alternative pedagogical movements outside of mainstream education and today has a burgeoning field of self organised activity led by artists. Scottish born A.S.Neil

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famously founded the Summerhill School which gained public interest in the 1930’s. The school aimed at embedding democratic principles for children, including having the children consulted and participating at meetings in all aspects of the school. The free school movement of the 1960’s and late 1970’s led by parents, teachers and students in the US was extensive with 575 schools created between 1967 and 1972. This paralleled artistic activity at the time which saw huge protests against the increasing academicisation of art, the rise of the Art Workers movement, Conceptualism and artists founding alternative spaces. The shift that this report attempts is away from the history of particular groups or a wider critical debate about the political and social implications and causes of self organisation as a method. Instead, the focus of this report is to map the potential of these kinds of models and approaches to open up what is possible for the future of art, for the future of people wanting to work as artists and how its associated institutions might support this. What can happen when the term self organisation is raised alongside the question of public resources in relation to art? Last year in the UK, 258,745 people applied for Creative Arts & Design courses through UCAS and 51,635 were granted a place. Within the Fine Arts 24, 215 applied and 4,590 were successful. Overall, accounting for all available courses within universities, 2,711,870 applied for university and 495, 595 were accepted. That equates on average to 1 in 5 people. These figures are relatively steady each year. What happens to the 4 in 5? Some will reapply, others choose a different course or enter another kind of work. An unidentified number of them will find their own way of starting a creative career without a degree in the UK. These figures only include those who took the step of making an application. However, in the US a recent report by BFAMFAPHD titled ‘Artists Report Back’ shows that 40% of working artists do not have an honours degree. The report highlights that these artists are severely underrepresented by public institutions. What these figures point to is that there is a significant appetite to learn, be with others and to practice. Should this be an endpoint for those individuals or can this be a starting point of a far more interesting future for art practice? The purpose of this report is to identify how it could be. There is a unique moment in the conceptual and technical terrain of producing and experiencing art and issues surrounding the depletion of public resources to further provide the necessary facilities and support for those wanting to pursue life as an artist or practice art alongside other forms of work. The Community Empowerment Bill passed in June this year in Scotland also presents an opportune moment for people to take hold of.1 Crucially, extending self organised approaches to art and its place in the public sphere does not need to go hand in hand with a diminished public sector and precarious self-reliance on already over worked or under equipped people and places. It can instead make the case for an innovative and valued public sector where access to the means to create and be involved in working with public resources lead to a greater case for their continued support on a local, national and international level.

1 On 11th June 2014 the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Bill was introduced to the Scottish Parliament. See

www.scottish.parliament.uk/S4_Bills/Community%20Empowerment%20(Scotland)%20Bill/b52s4-introd.pdf

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This report asks: What tools and infrastructure are available for self organised art practice in the public realm at both local and national levels? How can existing public resources be used to offer long term cross-platform access for people at all stages of their lives to research, practice and add to the critical voice within art practice?

How can we marry up self organised activity, public resources and changes in art practice to work towards productive tensions and mutual advantages?

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Art, Self Organisation & Public Resource Creation: A Conceptual Framework Self Organisation is a term referred to across many fields including science,

business, education and the arts each interpreting the term for their own respective disciplines. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia which is a globally recognised form of a self organised and collective approach to knowledge production,

Self-organization is a process where some form of global order or coordination arises out of the local interactions between the components of an initially disordered system. This process is spontaneous: it is not directed or controlled by any agent or subsystem inside or outside of the system; however, the laws followed by the process and its initial conditions may have been chosen or caused by an agent. It is often triggered by random fluctuations that are amplified by positive feedback. The resulting organization is wholly decentralized or distributed over all the components of the system. As such it is typically very robust and able to survive and self-repair substantial damage or perturbations.

Within education, the most prominent figure leading the conversation on self organisation is Sugata Mitra who has spent the last 5 years working on the hypothesis that education is a self organising system and learning is its emergent phenomena. This stemmed from his famous ‘Hole in the Wall’ experiment which led to the development of SOLE’s (Self Organised Learning Environments) which Mitra has used in classrooms around the world. Mitra also launched the ‘Granny Cloud’ which consists of hundreds of volunteers who use Skype with classrooms across the world to keep in touch and follow the children as they learn because he recognised the key part a senior supportive figure giving encouragement played in a children’s learning. Theoretical preoccupations within contemporary art practice and its institutions continue to navigate the terrain of self organisation as a deliberate choice to organise one’s own labour and to control the means and social terrain of production away from established institutional frameworks and market forces. It has also been argued that self organised practices have become an institution in and of itself.2 Self

2 Szefer, Anne ‘Self Organisation as Institution?’ http://szefer.net/index.php?/projects/self-organisation-as-institution/ 2012

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organisation for the purposes of this report, refer to individuals, groups and projects that create their own infrastructure or ways of living within or without existing systems and institutional infrastructures. Artists are a surplus labour supply, there are not enough curators, galleries, patrons or collectors to support each one, so the vast majority either need to self organise in order to survive. Both the artist as a singular unit and the international artistic community understood as a whole body of people could be understood to be a self organising system. When random fluctuations in individual, local or national activity is picked up by the art world, it strengthens this activity. Often this ‘positive feedback’ only lasts temporarily, but because artists work in an extremely decentralized but networked way they evidence this ability ‘to survive and self-repair substantial damage or perturbations’ for example whether that be funding cuts, lack of resources, socio-economic hardships and adverse working conditions. Within the context of art but also within business and enterprise, this can also mean self-employment and start-ups. With our current technological and communicative capacities, self organising systems and developments beyond established institutional frameworks can lead to greater democratisation of art as a field of work and a so far unforeseen transformation in how we produce, disseminate and experience art.

Public resources can be broadly defined as a supply of something that can

be drawn upon when needed for support and for the benefit of the population - for example, accessing services, people, money, goods, spaces, natural resources – which is made publically available. The term resource can expand to what it means to be resourceful, to use initiative and to be able to cope with difficult situations. Public resource creation is the active production of new forms of public resources. This report in particular focuses on infrastructure.

Art within the context of this report, refers to art as a practice and a mode of

experience. While this is commonly understood in terms of contemporary art practice, fine art and the visual arts, this report is applicable across the arts. The intent of this report is to think through the wider context of how public resources and self organising systems can support a lifetime of practice and use for a variety of needs. There is a tendency, as this report states in its findings, for drives towards greater democracy in the art industry to be attempted through pedagogical projects and spoken about on such terms. The consequences of these approaches can be counterproductive to the goal and risk further extending the imbalance of power by institutions and individuals and infantilise an already practicing or potentially practicing sector. Instead, the report looks to find opportunities that can cater for the diversity in the way artists might conceive, experience, develop and distribute their work and ideas beyond the traditional modes which are currently available.

...what’s basic for one artist is not basic for another artist. And so you can’t

have basics; you can’t build it in the normal curriculum way…a school, certificate or not, cannot authorize someone to be an artist. 3

Michael Craig Martin

3 Michael Craig Martin in conversation with John Baldessari quoted in Madoff, Steven Henry Ed. Art School: Propositions for

the 21st Century (London: MIT 2009) Pp.45

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Objectives

The objectives of this report are:

To identify and generate opportunities for public resource creation in the arts

To contribute to the democratisation of art as a field of work

To contribute to the democratisation of art programming and public resource management

To contribute to the development of existing and new public resources where all members of the public can access free or low cost art education and the means to practice at any stage of their lives in their local area which is accessible, challenging and responsive to their needs

To contribute to and facilitate inter-organisational and community programming to share resources and information that allows for members of the public to shape art production and presentation in their area

To facilitate improved access to public resources in the art sector including research institutions and collections

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Methodology The methodology adopted in this report is primarily qualitative in approach, grounded in primary research through first hand observation of sites and interviews with individuals. 35 formal sites were visited, 25 45-75 minute interviews were conducted and a 3 day conference was attended across the US. The route followed encompassed New York City, Greensboro, New Orleans, Nashville, Portland and San Francisco. Primary resources including leaflets, literature and artworks available within each local context have been used in direct visits to a range of environments. Reference to secondary research and sources are used briefly and a list is provided within the appendixes for further reading. This method was taken in order to approach each local context as a newcomer to see where and how one can access the arts and what is available. The reader will note that there is no data collected from individuals who are not already involved in an informal or formal learning environment or cultural organisation. Individuals working within organisations or running their own projects were approached specifically because they brokered in varying degrees the relationship between the public and the filtering process of national, local and organisational agendas and their own personal views. These individuals presented the opportunities and challenges of achieving the objectives outlined above. They are the employees, artists, and individuals shaping the resources and availability of the arts for our current and future generations who have a particular place in perpetuating or changing the conversation and in maintaining a critical environment for the creative sector. An independent study which is informed by the needs and ideas of a broad sector of public opinion and by an expanded sense of what public resources for art might encompass would be the ideal parallel step with this study or the next step to take. A study in the UK similar to BFAMFAPHD’s 2014 publication Artists Report Back in the US would provide much needed information in this field. BFAMFAPHD used the 2000 US Census to gather statistical data on who goes to art school, who makes a living as an artist and makes recommendations regarding how to address inequity within the art industry. Gathering further information from those who have not passed through higher education establishments could potentially provide the most valuable insights not only into the range of options and modes of survival possible, but could shape a critical dialogue that can revitalise and relativize those discourses which currently dominate. Research and monitoring on the impact of digital open source software, cultural institutions releasing image banks and online courses being offered by higher education institutions, auction houses and galleries is also an area which needs attention as more institutions drive towards this model.

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Across this field of study, a critical awareness and dialogue around the issues of self organisation in relation to public resources and public support of art and art education should be maintained. This must run through projects to anticipate wider social and political consequences. Focused critical studies which marry theory with direct evaluation of the wider issues of public funding of the arts, volunteerism, labour practices, remuneration and the critical autonomy of individuals and publically funded institutions are also essential. There is a wealth of critical literature available and some is referred to within the Annexes. Vitally such literature and projects contribution to advocating for public support of the arts, cultural democracy and fair labour practices cannot be uncoupled from this reports aims.

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Findings What resources are available?

Some of the available resources identified on the study:

Museums

Community Centres

Village Halls

Church Halls

Artist Run Spaces

Free Schools

Digital Platforms including open source and digital common websites, social

media and online courses

Galleries

Conferences

Advocacy, Activist & Organising Groups

Private and Public Sector Commissioning Bodies

Local Government Community, Education and Culture Teams

Universities

Schools

Colleges

Artists

Advisory Bodies

Families and friends

Teachers

Civic Design Organisations

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Research Departments

Professional and Amateur Steering Groups

Support Sroups

Fabrication Workshops

Libraries

Bookstores

Philanthropists

Professionals from a variety of non-art related industries

Local Government Representatives and Politicians

Open public spaces e.g. parks and squares

Café’s and bars

Private use spaces including domestic and business

Adoption of informal economies such as skill sharing, bartering & trading

Private wealth

How might they be used? Proposals are raised according to the specifics of each kind of resource. However, the nature of a self organised model will have both general and specific conditions and variations. While the possibilities are potentially infinite in these variations for a range of interests and activity, the purpose of this report is to identify how the conditions might be met for people to practice art and control the means of production, dissemination and reception of art. Projects, individuals and groups can potentially overlap across these different kind of models to get the advice, space and support they need, intervene in operations in a productive way, become co-producers and critics, deliver programming, use facilities and collaborate with people coming through as some possible examples. These resources can also provide the necessary means to use the place one lives in to effectively build one’s own knowledge and develop their practice by attending artists talks, accessing libraries and going to see exhibitions. People can make at home, in others homes, find spaces to work together, and advisory bodies are there to take care of information around practicalities such as self-employment. An essential element for many is proximity to and socialisation with peers which is why making physical public resources and spaces available is vital. Provision of places, time and equipment to meet up and gain some support may be all that is needed in some cases. Collaborations between organisations equally can provide the conditions necessary for people to thrive and the greater the connection and openness to other organisations and to the public the more likely they will be to create something completely new and of value to their public/s.

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Museums There is a wealth of information available from the National Endowment for the Arts and American Arts Alliance on participation in museums which highlight the need for public institutions to greater represent their current and future audiences. Museums tend to have the greatest amount of visibility and resources available to them to offer to their publics. The content of what the museums offer is decided by senior teams and is often related to their own collection and touring exhibitions. The most common forms of accessing this content is through being open for voluntarily visits, where the visitor will be able to view the content and use interpretation panels and/or accompanying catalogues which are available upon purchase. A portion of these visits will be organised visits from organisations, groups and schools, with schools accounting for 218,000 visits of its 6.8 million in 2012.4 Most museums now have well established learning departments whose offer often consists of workshops, classes, concerts, and talks and may also engage in outreach work in their community in response to identified need through a number of research bodies and/or local government or to underrepresented groups within their own audience demographic. This can take varying forms, from contracted artists devising one off projects to engage with a specific group and theme to regular workshops in the community or at the museum with targeted groups. Generally, they have structured and clearly defined routes for the public to be involved. A key finding in the NEA’S report is that children and young people in particular want to have a much more involved experience when visiting a museum and that there is a distinct desire and already existing practice among young people making on their own terms. There has also been a surge in personal artistic creation, such as digital curation, again with younger Americans in the lead. A recent report from the Center for the Future of Museums dubbed this trend “myCulture.” Henry Jenkins identified a related trend in online communities, which favour communal rather than individual modes of cultural reception, and promote opportunities for shared problem-solving and new modes of processing and evaluating information and knowledge. Again, museums have something to learn from these cultural forms.5 Some of the opportunities that observation of museums presented are as follows:

Museums predominantly offer visits to engage with collections and exhibitions at the visitor’s leisure. Access to museums in the US is not as widely available as the UK due to admission fees. The UK has a clear advantage in this area. With a museums support, groups could use these areas to meet regularly, exhibit, perform, and use collections for group study and working.

All of the museums visited and researched have dedicated learning departments separate to their curatorial or programming department with varying degrees of collaboration and communication between them. Often learning departments respond to what comes out of programming departments. Closing the gap to allow total integration and collaboration could lead to more innovative programmes and provide a more interesting grounding in what the

4 http://www.metmuseum.org/about-the-museum/press-room/news/2012/attendance

5 http://www.aam-us.org/docs/center-for-the-future-of-museums/demotransaam2010.pdf

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relationship between art and education are and what role the curatorial and education departments can play together in shaping public use.

The Ogden Museum of Southern Art has a community gallery placed in the heart of its building. It shows the same attention to work being produced by non-professionals as its collections and rotating exhibitions. The Museo Del Barrio has a similar facility. While there is still a clearly delineated difference between the museums programme and that of the work being produced through its learning department or being proposed by members of the public, it does literally open the door and show work which may otherwise not be seen. Creating dedicated gallery space for public proposals and artists (including children) who do not yet have an audience has great potential. Encouragement of curatorial approaches that consider working outwith these spaces and across the whole building in museums which already have community galleries can blur the boundaries and subtle hierarchies which dividing a space in this way can bring to the fore.

Introducing bookable spaces and time for the public to use the museum during downtime and while exhibitions are on.

Greater access to collections through loan systems out to organisations, households, local business etc. The Reina Sofia National Museum of Art in Spain are currently trying to significantly increase access to their collections by legally recategorising their artworks as documentation so that it is “archive of the commons.”6

One of the museums visited, Museo El Barrio, was founded by a group of activists because mainstream museums largely ignored Latino artists and came out of a wider Civil Rights Movement when local parents, teachers and activists demanded an education for their children which represented their own cultural heritage. (A comprehensive history of El Museum can be found here: http://www.elmuseo.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Timeline.pdf). El Museo had strong ties to an egalitarian and self organised approach, and now faces a period of debate within its local communities because it has become such a large institution which makes it increasingly difficult to manage to be part of the community it was founded to serve. The issue of scale in relation to an organisations growth was raised as a key issue within several places visited, with many seeing perpetual growth in terms of scale and finances as not necessarily a positive way forward.

Elsewhere in Greensboro is a ‘living museum’ which houses what was once a private collection of objects belonging to the founder’s grandmother in her storefront. The space is free to visit and hosts resident artists year round. Young people in particular seem to be able to use it informally to come to play and relax. The focus of the museum appeared to be on its resident artists and the space itself, with people focusing on hospitality and making work for the space. Residents pay to stay and upkeep the space together, meaning the space is predominately used by the artists themselves. This tends to create temporary communities of artists in the space rather than regular use by the local residents of Greensboro or any activity beyond the store. The model of converting old shops and junk however, seemed to have a unique draw and sparked personal associations from passers-by. It had the necessary conditions

6 Bishop, Claire Radical Museology: Or What’s Contemporary in Museums of Contemporary Art? London: Koenig Books, 2013.

Pp.44

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for people to come and begin to make freely, with an abundance of spaces to sit and be comfortable for long periods of time with access to computers, a library, a variety of materials and a kitchen. The model could be expanded to allow greater public ownership and opportunity for people to use the space beyond the roster of visiting artists to fully fulfil its potential as a valuable public resource for Greensboro.

Free Schools

Free schools are a relevantly recent and popular phenomenon that has emerged both in the UK and the US often led by artists or art graduates which are founded for a variety of reasons. This may be that the founders see the cost of postgraduate education as an issue of inequity, are critical of higher education systems in general and in many cases stem from a desire for people to continue their practice in conversation with others and see their learning as a lifelong pursuit.

These initiatives often last as long as those running them can commit to. While the temporary nature of such projects may be intrinsic to their purposes and intentions, others which do want to continue could benefit from having a wider pool of people involved in the running of the project or planning in handovers to new people on how to continue activity if there is a desire to do so.

The models with the greatest available resources such as BHQFU had significant support from established arts organisations, high earning professional artists and professors which raised their international profile and their profile within existing art communities but not necessarily to a broader public. All of their students had been to art school before with the exception of one young person still in high school education who came to some sessions.

The longest running organisations such as EXCO have roots in community facilities and colleges and access to teaching staff.

Online templates for creating local initiatives such as The Public School and Trade School have been adopted internationally and provide one way of combating the sustainability tied to individual initiatives. Their open source programming model online allows for anyone anywhere to propose a class or find an existing programme of classes to attend.

These models have great potential if they were to be run from a range of venues with accessible facilities such as libraries, centres and made a concerted effort to offer their programme to a broad public. Greater attention to the language around being ‘open’ and ‘public’ etc and the reality of what efforts that means one must take can widen the sphere of influence for those taking part and benefiting from these projects. This can be done without abandoning the anarchic, autonomous nature of such projects. A committed effort to bring the opportunity to people who are not already involved in existing networks or who have a degree in art could be of great value to a much wider pool of people who do not have access to such resources.

The greatest resource these models offer is people. Their value lies in bringing people together through skill sharing, debate and discussion and collaboration and friendship beyond the ‘classroom’ for free.

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Digital Platforms Digital platforms originating in the US provide can provide significant content and assistance to people wanting to access a variety of resources from people to vast amounts of free content such as books, videos and talks. These platforms allow users to co-create and share resources across emergent and existing networks.

Voluntarily and collectively created archives and libraries set up by artists, designers and academics provide the greatest access to texts, artworks, videos, sound works etc, for people to use at home or for group and public meetings and events. Some of these platforms break copyright law and thus not able to be shared or used in an official capacity but are widely used.

Online courses have become increasingly popular with MOOC’s (Massive Open Online Course) being an example pioneered by US universities and now versions of online courses are offered by galleries such as MOMA and auction houses such as Sotheby’s. Course can be free or come with a fee. There is a relatively new area of research developing relating to these models with some studies focusing on the learners experience and the role of socialisation in the learning experience. These models did not form part of the study but they have significant potential particularly if they can incorporate a social element to them.

One resource found while traveling was the Centre for Urban Pedagogy which employs designers, artists and architects to respond to a community or local areas needs by strengthening political literacy and access to clear information and providing workshops on local issues. They use digital design to distill both online and hard copy information from the government or around issues of community concern into accessible and concise online and physical formats for a range of communities.

Community Centres Community centres did not form part of the original study but emerged as a resource with one organised visit housed within a community centre facility.

Community centres were the most readily accessible spaces found by walking in local neighbourhoods with hardcopy information provided on local services and activities.

Community centres had rooms to book for free, low cost or at commercial rates but are often under-utilised.

Centres which offer long term lets to a range of organisations including arts organisations have great potential for professionals from different fields who would not otherwise collaborate to form long term partnerships with one another for the organisations benefit and the public benefit.

In the context of the UK, community centres have great potential for local artists to have space to practice, present and potentially earn a living through teaching their artform where community centres have programming budget.

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Galleries, Artists Run Spaces & Art Centres Public galleries in the US and the UK now often have public engagement staff to increase visitor attendance, to enhance experiences of exhibitions and in some cases to devise projects specifically for their local area and target groups.

Artist run spaces in the UK tend to focus on the early years of graduates practice and on building a community for artists in their local area. While this is also the case in the US, there is noticeably more activity from artists run spaces around getting involved in its locale, focusing on critical dialogue around socially engaged practice and opening up the space as a public resource to people who are not artists. Projects observed directly addressed social justice issues and political campaigns beyond artist specific issues (such as wages, racial issues, education etc), and many spaces had specific learning programmes such as delivering classes in schools and the local neighbourhood.

Through informal conversations and recorded interviews, some individuals noted that their drive towards doing more education and outreach work was as a result of funder’s priorities rather than a conscious choice within the organisation.

Galleries, art centres and artist run spaces are generally the most readily accessible spaces to view art and spend time for free. Galleries which seek to encourage this have comfortable spaces to sit among work and areas for reading. Bookshops attached to galleries with seating space offer an invaluable space to access recent material informally and meet with people if staff allow people to spend time with or without purchasing items.

The most vital places for artists are those which openly welcome public proposals and are approachable to the general public to book space and hold events etc.

One space visited, Apex Art, went to great efforts to adopt a democratic voting system for part of their programme and run an international franchise programme so that people do not need to travel but can host programming in their local area and receive funds to do so.

There is significant potential in galleries, art centres and artist run spaces to give over more control, time and space in their facilities to public use and to integrate public programming in a variety of ways into their normal operations.

Conferences Museums, galleries, universities, formal and informal networks of artists, curators and academics often offer symposiums and conferences throughout the year covering topical issues which can be accessed for free or for a fee. As part of this study, I attended Open Engagement 2014 held at the Queen’s Museum and attended various workshops, talks and events.

Conferences are generally targeted towards already engaged groups as an opportunity to share and reflect on practice, to engage with new ideas and to meet others. The Open Engagement conference was particularly different from previous conferences attended dealing with similar subject matter in the UK

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which tend to have a series of presentations by invited speakers. A few keynote speakers were programmed in for OE however, the vast majority of the content was focused sign up workshops which initiated debate, connections and discussion immediately between those in attendance.

The conference used very public spaces which allowed for people to chance upon the events and attend for free. This allowed for encounters that may not otherwise have happened between those in attendance and visitors to the park and museum.

The conference programmes a vast amount of speakers gathered from an open call as opposed to a small team selecting speakers which widened and diversified the pool of influence and voices. The language used and activity on offer at conferences can diversify and create interest to make them relevant to the subjects being talked about.

Advocacy, Activist & Organising Groups This was a new kind of resource encountered on the trip of which there appears to be a greater number of in the US than the UK. In particular Arts & Democracy, Naturally Occuring Cultrual Districts New York (NOCDNY) and The Land Trust were recommended by several people in New York.

These bodies are currently one of the greatest forces in providing support and connecting people to otherwise almost inaccessible decision makers and funders. They also facilitate people to create and advocate for the arts as defined and practiced by their own communities which are currently underrepresented within large institutions and advocate for better infrastructure to support day to day living conditions such as affordable housing.

Funding restrictions around these kinds of projects in arts categories if eased could greatly benefit the work that they do and in turn the wider portfolio of funding bodies.

In the case of NOCDNY, these groups advocate for and adopt participatory budgeting with any funds received or administered on behalf of local government. Participatory budgeting allows for local community groups to distribute local funding according to a vote system, with individuals and projects bidding in and presenting their proposals to the groups.

The founding principle of NOCDNY is that they are naturally occurring and not put in place strategically for the purposes of regeneration. In places where such groups do not exist, supporting such groups to form and creating the right conditions for active members of the community could be one of the single most effective ways of creating a more culturally democratic landscape.

These kinds of initiatives can struggle to find funding as their work sits across many different fields and does not easily fit into standard funding categories in the arts. Allowing for open styles of project funding proposals would allow for arts funding to be led according to what is organically developing in the community across art forms and socially and economically innovative practices instead of funding agendas shaping cultural output.

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Those working for them are more susceptible to working very long hours in positions which demand a high level of skill and commitment with little or no remuneration alongside both precarious and full time paid roles and other organising work. Two such ways for rectifying this situation would be to allow and actively encourage remuneration and a wage for those running such initiatives in funding streams or for local government to release funding support for individuals to undertake such work.

Universities The models observed within universities allowed autonomous structures to be supported off campus, involved students going off campus as part of a course to provide services to their locale, or students, teachers and graduates setting up their own projects with indirect or direct support from their university.

Of all the universities observed, most had a continuing education department which offered a fee paying class and had a traditional offer of medium specific courses. This contrasted with the undergraduate and graduate programmes which while still departmentalised according to disciplines such as sculpture and painting, have an interdisciplinary and critical approach. The reasons for this were not explored. However, this is an area which has potential for closing the gap between the methods and approaches used in both continuing education and the degree programmes offered within a university and developing critical engagement with both departments. These two offers of study are often separate and could benefit from having more input across degree programmes and continuing education departments. They have potential to offer artists themselves and participants themselves access to host their own classes and events.

601 Tully, explored in greater detail below, is a unique model where a professor used university funds in order to support an arts organisation elsewhere in town which served a variety of people and uses.

Templeton Contemporary is a gallery run by Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia which adopts a democratic curatorial approach to its programming. Their curator has set up a panel of approximately ten members of the local community of different ages and with different interests to select their programme.

Academics and senior management staff within universities can use their positions such as that seen at 601 Tully to effect life in a city beyond the campus. One such example is a young lecturer of Fine Art at Carnegie Mellon who set up a Parasite School. Parasite School mimicked the exact same lessons given to those in the art school for people at nightime who could not otherwise afford to go to university or who did not want to.

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Schools Arts provision in schools is uneven from local districts to a national scale both in the US and UK. Schools are a fundamental part of the public sector which can have very little capacity in terms of staff time, funding and space to work to any other priorities other than teaching the core curriculum. While they did not form part of this study it was identified that provision of art in schools and issues of unequal access to teaching and resources was a key concern for most interviewees. Many spaces had developed programmes to work with schools to address this. Self organisation has been explored in recent years in the context of schools. Prior to this study I visited Sugata Mitra at Newcastle University who pioneered the SOLE (Self Organised Learning Environment) model to discuss self organisation in education. SOLE’s can in theory work anywhere there is a computer and a group of people. Mitra has tested these ‘environments’ in schools and in slums in India by placing computers in the streets for anyone to use. Mitra’s method pays careful attention to the framing of the learning experience and setting the right conditions, setting a question for the children to investigate and then most importantly, leaving the children to research and problem solve on their own. From his research, he was able to confirm his hypothesis that education is a self organising system and learning was its emergent phenomena. Room 13 in the UK is another well known example of children who run their own artroom in Scotland which was developed by an artist in residence at the time. Careful attention in this field must be paid to the possibilities and pitfalls within a school context and particularly to partnerships with other bodies. One question raised within this study is whether an increase in external provision of art in schools could be counterproductive and make it largely reliant on volunteerism from surrounding arts infrastructure available to the school. However, there was no evidence to suggest a direct correlation between greater involvement of outside bodies in schools to provide art education and withdrawal of public provision in schools. It may even strengthen the work of advocacy groups, schools and further education establishments in having a robust and diverse provision of arts organisations and artists in schools. Further involvement from individual artists and organisations can be a useful tool in advocating for arts subjects within the curriculum by both bringing professionals into schools and giving children potentially life changing experiences outside of the classroom. The UK can learn from the US in this respect - by anticipating and preventing further withdrawal of resources and support for Expressive Arts in schools based on case studies within the US.

Colleges Colleges did not form part of the initial research for this report and are an identified gap in knowledge which has significant potential. One model in particular which gives hundreds of artists access to facilities every year is a scheme called Artists Access to Colleges (AA2A) in England. A challenge which many artists face is access to equipment and facilities to continue to make their work. Equally, colleges

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can struggle to find people who fully make use of their facilities. Through a membership scheme such as AA2A sustainable access to facilities can be maintained and students and professionals can come into greater contact with one another.

Advisory Bodies Third party advisory bodies can help organisations with anything from writing business plans to marketing. Such bodies can share knowledge and practice on a local, national and international scale through their websites and can be used by anyone, from individuals who are self-employed to established organisations and public sector bodies. The only third party advisory body encountered on this study was Fractured Atlas. This was referred to by a number of people at Open Engagement’s keynote speech by Edgar Arcenaux titled ‘New Financial Architectures for Creative Communities’ because it allows organisation to set up without having to become a 501c3 which can be a problematic process. It has over 400 organisations joining them every month. Fractured Atlas is non-curatorial so it does not discriminate in who it helps, thus allowing potentially anyone to come to them for help to further their ideas and set up as artists or arts organisations. Their services are available nationally through membership and come at a fee which allows them to generate revenue from various sources and have paid staff.

Cafes & bars Cafes and bars although visited informally, have a long history of being used for political and educational gatherings and as informal social spaces for artists and writers groups to meet. One independent school in California, Mountain School of Arts, uses a bar as their main meeting space for classes. Coffee houses were well known in the Industrial era for self-educating groups to come together to learn, organise and teach. Formalising this process would not necessarily be desirable as their strength in part lies in their informality.

Families

Families, guardians and carers did not form part of the scope of the initial research for this report however, they became an integral part of the study as interviews were conducted. Each interviewee was asked how they first encountered art. A number stated that it had been a natural part of family life to visit museums and view art. Within the majority of ethnic minorities interviewed and one white male interviewee who self-identified as coming from a working class background, visiting art galleries and museums was not part of family life. One interviewee in Brooklyn commented

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that museums and galleries were not made for her ethnicity and another who oversees educational programming in New Orleans said they are still very much trying to make relationships with ethnic minorities in the city due to the fact that many were banned until relatively recently. The ban on ethnic minorities visiting museums only a few generations ago is deeply embedded within some communities who would rather find and found their own spaces. El Museo, a museum dedicated to Latin American art and culture is an example of this, where Latin Americans made a conscious effort to represent their culture. El Museo in particular noted that engaging parents is a strong part of their programme. Programmes are often not made for parents to make themselves and their education curator noted that parents who took up opportunities through the museum often remained committed and showed initiative in setting up committees and projects for themselves and their children in their own school districts and communities. This is an area of great potential to develop in the UK - where activity goes beyond pedestrian style workshops, and instead is developed as involved and supported community-led long term projects for parents, families, guardians and carers to make their own work and to work with their children.

Libraries & Bookstores Libraries and bookstores were not within the original scope of the report but became one of the most important resources encountered throughout the study. While library use has declined in the UK and US overall, they continue to provide a vital service to the public and are used on a daily basis for people to study, use computers or read at their leisure. If applied to art, there is the potential to hold public classes and readings in partnership with universities and artists. Bookstore’s such as City Lights in San Francisco and Powell’s in Portland are a centre of activity for a variety of people in their area. They provide space to attend and host talks, events and readings and to socialise and in the case of City Lights it was instrumental in providing the conditions and support for a generation of Beat writers to emerge in the 50’s and 60’s in San Francisco. Commercial bookstores can allow visitors to stay for long periods of time to read and learn and in the case of Powell’s, cafe services to sit with items and read if unable to buy them. While it was not observed whether one could spend regular time within the commercial bookshops on a weekly or monthly basis, local libraries do and thus provide a space of security and stability for people to access at their leisure.

Support Groups This was a model found through a member of staff at Elsewhere who mentioned she attended a support group for women in organisational roles. The group appeared to give much needed respite, advice and peer discussion to prevent burn out, stress and isolation that can often accompany people in organising roles. An equivalent in

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the UK has not been found as part of this study but could play an important role in the long term sustainability of an individual’s ability to continue working in the arts.

Development Staff The high majority of interviewees when asked, ‘If you could get any support you wanted what would it be?’ stated that they needed a development worker or more people to focus on funding. A number of interviewees said they could benefit from project co-ordinators & administrative staff. One option which is becoming more available are third party bodies that write funding applications for a small fee on behalf organisations or give advice sessions and mentoring for a period of time.

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6

Case Studies

601 Tully

601 Tully: Center for Engaged Art and Research, an affiliate of Syracuse University, is a student-driven project that houses an international art gallery, an artist residency program, college classes, after-school and Saturday art classes for youth, a monthly poetry series, and community events and workshops. All 601 Tully art, education, and ecology programs are offered free to the public and grow out of a partnership between university, city and neighbourhood entities. The building is a living sculpture where artists, community members and scholars engage in the co-production of new culture.7

601 Tully is a unique initiative directed by Professor Marion Wilson of Syracuse University who took over an old house for $1 and turned it into in an arts organisation. During an interview with Professor Wilson, she described that the situation which allowed such a space to form was unique and that many people had looked to them to try to replicate this model within their own universities. The governor of the university at the time believed firmly that universities have a commitment to their locale and was instrumental to the project, providing the financial support to get it off the ground and the advocacy within and without the university to sustain support for it once it was up and running. Professor Wilson teaches some of her classes from the space, students can become involved in running the space and its programme, it provides 4 paid positions and the 601 Tully team invite artists from across the US and abroad to exhibit and host talks and events at the space. During my visit, I was fortunate enough to see it being used informally throughout the day by a range of people. Local residents used it to drop in to get help with homework, to check the garden, to use the computers and meet other people. The space ran regular art classes and events including poetry slams. Of all the spaces and people visited the manner and depth at which I was invited to see the space was the most engaged and generous, with this atmosphere pervading through the organisation itself. The weekend I arrived a new governor had been put in place and

7601 Tully Introductory Statement http://601tully.blogspot.co.uk/

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was withdrawing university funds from the project leaving Professor Wilson to look elsewhere for funds. What was unique about the project up until this point was the autonomy and value the university had given the project in thinking through the university’s wider contribution to the town. This arms distance approach allowed it to grow, develop and respond to the needs of the student community as well as local residents. While Professor Wilson was confident she could find funding for the project elsewhere, this fundamentally changed an internal structure that was innovative, dynamic and unique. It made a clear statement about what universities can be, working beyond the confines of their own fee paying students. Professor Wilson particularly emphasised bringing privileged university students into an area of town they would not otherwise travel to. The cuts also resulted in two job losses. Professor Wilson held her last meeting with the team while I was there and allowed me to sit in and film the meeting. I interviewed the next door neighbour who worked as a cleaner for the building and her two children who used the building on a weekly basis. The message was clear from those involved that it was extremely valued and provided much needed educational support to children with one girl stating that she would not have progressed onto 9th Grade if it hadn’t been for working with the artists on her homework at the space. While the circumstances surrounding the founding of 601 Tully were unique, such a model provides a host of challenging and worthwhile questions for further education institutions to ask themselves. As a case study it provides a wealth of information for any partnerships between independent organisations and further education institutions to look to and learn from. The strength in such a model is firstly, its sustainability if mechanisms are put in place to protect its funding with the university beyond the authority of one individual and secondly, its ability to break the echo chamber effect of art production within the university context. It provides space where the expertise and experience of academics can be accessed by residents of the area, where they in turn can work beyond the university both as a physical space and as an idea. Equally, it provides a space for students and non-students in the town to regularly be together to practice art in a relaxed and informal environment.

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Arts & Democracy Arts & Democracy are an intermediary body that advocates for greater cultural democracy across New York City. Their mission statement is worth quoting in full for their unique role in the city in helping people to create public resources and to advocate for greater access to those which already exist. They stand as an excellent case study for what one might do to encourage a democratic approach to production and representation in the arts. Their statement in itself describes the elements that they use to successfully build an entirely different conversation to the dominant wealthy art world of New York. From their website,

Arts & Democracy cross pollinates culture, participatory democracy, and social justice. We support cultural organizing and cross-sector collaborations; raise the visibility of transformative work; connect cultural practitioners with activists, organizers, and policymakers; and create spaces for reflection. Arts & Democracy puts arts and culture on agendas where it hasn't been before, connects artists, cultural organizers, and activists who wouldn't otherwise know each other, and creates the connective tissue and generative environment needed for cross sector collaboration to succeed. We share resources through our website, newsletters, social media, and presentations highlighting creative work that furthers immigration reform, environmental justice, equitable development, participatory democracy, and human rights.

Bridge Conversations bring to life the remarkable people who make change at the intersection of generations, cultures, sectors and geographies.

Cultural organizing workshops draw on our framework for building a robust practice where culture is fully integrated into organizing.

Our urban planning course links arts, culture, and participatory planning through experiential learning.

Networking events, roundtables, and conference calls raise the visibility of art and social justice and connect artists, cultural organizers, activists and policymakers.

Strategic partnerships connect community-based creative practice with policymaking and systemic change. With Service Employees International Union (SEIU) we are creating an artist in residency program to tell the stories of workers and their communities and provide a liberating experience of creation.

With Participatory Budgeting NYC, we are integrating arts and culture into a neighbourhood-based process of participatory democracy across the city.

We co-direct NOCD-NY, a citywide alliance seeking to revitalize New York City from the neighbourhood up.8

8 Arts & Democracy Mission Statement http://artsanddemocracy.org/

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An equivalent organisation has not been found in the UK. Particularly within Scotland, whose population of 5.2 million in comparison with New York City’s population of 8.4 million, it is conceivable that such a body could be founded to ensure greater democracy, diversity and public access to the means of producing and disseminating art across the country. As stated in Chapter 5, the representative I met with was overworked and under remunerated for such work. It is strongly recommended that any similar endeavours have external financial support for those involved in coordinating such projects to ensure fair working conditions for those providing this kind of service.

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Press Street Press Street is an organisation based in New Orleans founded in 2005 to promote art and literature. Their activities include - an exhibitions programme, publishing, residencies for cultural workers and creative practitioners, monthly film screenings through a partnership with the Charitable Film Network, an online blog for local information which also hosts workshops and classes, and an affiliate programme ‘Big Class’ runs programmes for 6-18 year olds in creative writing. It formed shortly after Hurricane Katrina in small businesses and shops that had yet to open, using street intersections for art projects.9 Following this, they opened a gallery space called Antenna in 2008 and then moved into their current space in 2012. During my stay at Press Street, I interviewed the executive director Bob Snead and development officer Gracie Goodrich. We covered issues from the everyday functioning of the organisation to the wider context of an arts organisation’s place in re-building public resources after Hurricane Katrina. Press Street published How to Rebuild A City10 following the disaster, looking at recovery in the city and how to rebuild communities. Press Street was a part of the recovery process and those involved actively engaged in creating a vibrant community again in NOLA. The situation seemed to have forced artists in the area to actively self organise to rebuild public spaces and to question their own meaning and importance. The lack of government support in this effort and the trauma of people being forced to self organise as a survival tactic however, is well documented and raises difficult questions as to this way of working, particularly in times of crisis. My visit to Press Street also raised a more common issue to organisations which are being built from the ground up as raised with Arts & Democracy above. Often the founders of such spaces are overworked and unpaid while operating at a high level - driving projects forward sometimes alongside full time employment, self employment and raising families. This can be due to governance structures which do not allow them to seek remuneration or if they can, often core costs won’t be covered by funders. Snead was working at his wife’s bakery in the morning, had a teaching position at an art school, was on several boards and committees around NOLA, had his own practice to sustain and had a child to look after aside from running the space. Press Street were able to eventually cover core funding to cover their development workers wage and their education coordinator for Big Class which ran alongside Press Street’s programme as a separate entity. Finding a sustainable and supportive way for people who manage through these conditions to continue to enable do the work that they do healthily should be an important consideration in funders and policy makers criteria and in local government planning to provide infrastructure and wages within local areas to support people who take on such work.

9 see http://press-street.org/intersection-new-orleans/

10 see http://press-street.org/how-to-rebuild-a-city/

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Jukebox Graduates While travelling between New York and Greensboro I met a Middle School teacher called Mike Telesca who related his experience of being a teacher in North Carolina. At the time of meeting, Telesca had just reluctantly handed his notice in and was taking a job in sales and construction. He explained how his students approached him to start up a club inspired by Bruce Springsteen.He took 55 of his students to a Bruce Springsteen concert largely on his own paycheck because they would not otherwise have had the chance to experience a rock concert. Following this, with his help advocating for them within the school, the students set up Jukebox Graduates which a local paper article states, ‘...meets weekly after school to participate in Socratic discussion, trivia games, arts and crafts, research-assignments and even karaoke.’11 The group present a weekly radio show on Bruce Springsteen alongside these activities. A founding member of the club Jodie Buff was quoted in the local newspaper saying,

This is all some of us have that makes us feel that we are different, and that it is okay; and it makes us feel part of something bigger than ourselves. I do know that I couldn’t have made it through middle school without the club12.

Telesca stated that his ability to work with his students and to take unconventional approaches to teaching either fail or flourish depending on the head teachers of schools. Personal power dynamics between staff have a profound effect on teacher’s long term motivation and ability to support people to lead their own learning and their own engagement with cultural activity. In Telesca’s case it led him to resign from a profession he enjoyed and succeeded in. Policy at the national government level and within local school improvements plans should explicitly protect and support such initiatives. If they are protected in this way and sit outside of managing staffs control, this would help to combat the disparate and unequal access to art education for school age pupils both in the US and the UK.

11 Rickman, Janie ‘Next Gen Learns Who’s Boss’ The On Side Winter 2011/2012 Pp.27 12

Rickman, Janie ‘Next Gen Learns Who’s Boss’ The On Side Winter 2011/2012 Pp.27

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7

Ways of Working Ways of working which emerged throughout the study for individuals, managing staff, board members, funders and policy makers to contribute to strengthening public resources for art.

Survey what resources you have as an individual or as an organisation –

space, staff, data, funding, expertise etc – and what could be made available however small.

Database Gather information through surveys and mailing lists of people leaving school/applying for college or university and provide other resources and alternative ways to pursue art at the point of exit/application.

Communication Create a line of communication to your public to raise

awareness of what is available. Conversations Set aside time to meet people in your local area. Strategy Commit to embedding a democratic approach clearly and explicitly

within your strategic development and priorities. Research Use existing data and research in the field. If you do not already

have a relationship with research departments in your local universities or NGO’s, make use of them through reading material or a series of discussion and sharing meetings to benefit from the research they have produced in this field.

Public Sharing & Information Meetings Set up public meetings to gather

public opinion and make such opportunities highly visible, readable and concise. Share the outcome of this on a public platform and across organisations and individuals working in the arts.

Curatorial Approach Encourage public debate wherever possible in curatorial approaches to programming in cultural institutions. Who is making decisions? How accessible and accountable is the curator? What informs their decisions?

Governance Encourage awareness of governance structures within

organisations and address process for decision making.

Recruitment Build questions into recruitment processes that ask for potential

candidate’s views and approach to institutional and emergent structures.

Failure Anticipate and encourage failure. This can help to reduce blow out.

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Definitions of cultural participation are in constant flux and should reflect how

such definitions are changing. The art industry can benefit from expanded and changing definitions of cultural activity, counter cultures and increased profile raising of what locally led and internationally connected individuals and initiatives are doing.

Funding Can you give funds to individuals and/or groups who approach you

with ideas? Set aside funds for this purpose and actively encourage it, making it known that this is available. Allowing for open styles of project funding proposals allows for arts funding to be led according to what is organically developing in the community across art forms instead of allowing funding agendas to shape cultural output. Introduce participatory budgeting and an open source approach to your organisation. Actively allow for people to adapt, change and re-allocate funds.

Staff Do members of staff within the organisation have time for helping other

spaces or initiatives that are lacking resources that can form part of existing programme? Do teaching staff or curatorial staff have time to provide free classes or support in your area or online? Could they make a regular contribution and invite friends to do so with self organised groups of artists working in their area?

Technology Provide computers and equipment for people to research and produce together. Setting up a scheduled time for this can encourage people to come together at the same time to encourage socialisation and collaboration.

Information Give people information on what is available, what could be

possible and hosting public idea generating sessions around how places can be used for people to come together and practice.

Give individuals and groups space, time, and access to artists and other

professionals to create discussion and build upon what they do. Particularly in the early stages, new groups can be formed from strangers with the initial conditions set by someone else, for example in the case of young people’s groups in galleries. Those conditions can then be opened up to be changed by those involved and negotiated with spaces as to how they might work together beyond the initial stages. If people want a reason to come together to make and talk about art, can you provide them with the means to do so?

Community boards Assess interest in a community board to parallel the organisations board and directorate. Assess capacity for a steering group/curatorial board made up of community members with a fair/randomised selection process.

Set up support networks for individuals who take on organising roles within

communities. These can provide vital support from information sharing to mental health and well being support for work life balance. This provides relief and sometimes much needed confidential support for people to aid the sustainability of being involved in running projects and/or maintaining an artistic practice.

Create the conditions for new groups to form of their own accord.

Utilise local government information within Community Learning, Lifelong

Learning, Family, Adult Learning, Asset Management and Schools which give a good picture of the area one is working in.

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Offer advice sessions with development experts and produce and share

toolkits. Create a network of skilled development workers for people to talk to and learn from in order to write funding applications.

Expect, allow and encourage individuals and organisations to account for their

wages when applying for funding for a project particularly if they have never been funded before.

Invest in schemes that allow a diverse range of partners to grow and pool

resources together and initiatives that ease public access to them.

Advocacy Ensure at a local level and nationwide, people and organisations are

connected to advocacy groups and campaigns which advocate for committed provision of art in schools, access to and protection of further education institutions and government funding for the arts.

Geography Look at provision across the country and distribute funding to

underserved populations. Embed this in policy and protect the right for people to request and to distribute public money for art to their areas.

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8 Recommendations Creation of one central online location where all available resources for

studying and practicing art which is international in scope and allows for

detailed local information.

Capture data from school leavers and unsuccessful applicants to art courses

in the UK to provide them with a diversity of alternative routes to FE and HE

with both digital tools and social opportunities to come together and pursue

their practice.

Active planning for change to existing infrastructure and creation of new

cross-sector support systems for those self organising in the arts informed by

further research into art, self organisation and public resource creation.

Awareness and encouragement of public dialogue around equality of

opportunity for people to purse art.

Connected collaborative thinking and sustained commitment to change and

diversification of existing structures across schools, local government, FE,

HE, museums, independent and commercial art organisations.

Support for organisations to expand their available resources and

communication with artists and the public.

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Creation of an independent body dedicated to developing intellectual culture

and art for all members of the public utilising our most advanced technological

and communicative capacities.

Broaden the public sector as opposed to diminishing it and encourage greater

democratic public debate and choice in how artists are represented and how

art is distributed and funded.

Advocacy for art education from early years through formal school years from

all bodies across the art industry and from a diverse range of industry

professionals outwith the art and creative industries is essential to reverse the

current trend of children’s limited and unequal access of opportunity to

pursue the arts.

Further research into those who do not pursue HE would be of great benefit to

those wishing to research and support self organised practices with a view to

broadening the sphere of influence and visibility of artists who do not have a

degree.

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Annexes 9.1 Interviews & Visits Weeksville www.weeksvillehc.tumblr.com Rylee Eterginoso Public Programmes Curator

Interview & Visit. Apex Art

www.apexart.org Steven Rand Director

Interview & Visit. School of Making Thinking

www.theschoolofmakingthinking.com Aaron Finbloom Participant & Organiser

Interview. Creative Time

www.creativetime.org Katie Hollander Deputy Director Laura Raicovich Director of Global Initiatives Interview & Visit to Kara Walker ‘A Subtlety’ at Domino’s Sugar Factory. Bronx Museum

www.bronxmuseum.org Hatuey Ramos Fermín Curator of Education Interview & Visit. Marina Abramovic Institute

www.marinaabramovicinstitute.org Serge Le Borgne Director

Interview.

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Open Engagement Conference Queens Museum www.openengagement.info/ Visit & participation in various working groups. Museo Del Barrio

www.elmuseo.org/ Valentina Vélez-Rocha Education Programmes Co-ordinator

Interview. Arts & Democracy / NOCD-NY Caron Atlas Director

Interview. Cooper Union www.cooper.edu Saskia Bos Dean of Art Visit. (Recorded interview not conducted.) Whitney Museum of American Art

www.whitney.org Visit only to Whitney Biennale & Julie Ault, James Benning & William Least Heat Moon ‘Histories of Place’ Seminar MOMA

www.moma.org Visit. Frieze Art Fair www.frieze.com Visit. BHQFU

www.bhqfu.org Joe Kay Organiser & teacher Interview & Visit. Laundromat Project

www.laundromatproject.org Kemi Ilesanmi Executive Director Interview. Artists Space www.artistsspace.org Visit.

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Franklin Furnace

www.franklinfurnace.org Martha Wilson Founding Director

Interview. 601 Tully

http://601tully.blogspot.co.uk/ Marion Wilson Professor, Artist, Director John Cardone Programme Coordinator

Interviews & Visit. Elsewhere

www.goelsewhere.org Christopher Kennedy Education Erica Curry Operations

Interviews & Visit. International Civil Rights Center & Museum

http://www.sitinmovement.org/ Visit. Mike Telesca Middle School Teacher

Informal interview. We are constance

www.weareconstance.org/ Erik Kiesewetter Founder & Designer Interview. Contemporary Arts Centre New Orleans

www.cacno.org Visit. Press Street

www.press-street.com Gracie Goodrich Development Bob Snead Director

Interview & Visit. Ogden Museum of Southern Art www.ogdenmuseum.org Ellen Balkin Education Coordinator

Interview & Visit.

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New Orleans Centre for Creative Arts

www.nocca.com Kyle Wedberg, President/CEO Interview & Visit. Frist Centre

www.fristcenter.org Anne Henderson Director of Education Interview & Visit. Seed Space

www.seedspace.org/ Adrienne Outlaw Director

Visit (Recorded interview not conducted.) Country Hall Music Hall of Fame and Museum www.countrymusichalloffame.org Ali Tonn Public Programme Coordinator

Informal meeting. The Parthenon

www.nashville.gov/parks-and-recreation/parthenon DeeGee Lester Director of Education

Interview & Visit. Bodie State Historic Park

www.bodie.com Visit. Anthony A. Russell Artist

(also involved with The Lab www.thelab.org) Interview. City Lights Bookstore

www.citylights.com Visit.

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9.2 Resources found during research While podcasts and youtube host the greatest available content for free use, some others that are useful and recommendations made during research are listed below. Bay Area Society for Art & Activism www.artandactivism.org Anya Kamentz www.edupunks.org Caroline Woolard www.carolinewoolard.com The Point www.thepoint.org New York Chinatown History Project www.mocanyc.org Fractured Atlas www.fracturedatlas.org The Public School www.thepublicschool.org Centre for Land Use Interpretation www.clui.org The Women’s Building www.womensbuilding.org Radius Community Arts Studio www.radiusstudio.org Multnohama Arts Centre www.multnomahartscenter.org Walker Arts Centre www.walkerart.org EXCO Project www.excotc.org Phonebook www.three-walls.org/project/phonebook/phonebook/ New York City Community Land Initiative http://nyccli.org/ The Social Life of Artistic Property http://www.thesociallifeofartisticproperty.com/ New York City To Be Determined www.nyctbd.com Grassroots Economic Organizing www.geo.coop/node/35 The Solidarity Economy NYC www.solidaritynyc.org Temple Contemporary www.tyler.temple.edu/temple-contemporary The Peoples Library Richmond www.nomovement.com/People-s-LIbrary Centre for Urban Pedagogy www.welcometocup.org Digital Commons www.digitalcommons.bepress.com Ubu Web www.ubuweb.tv Trade School www.tradeschool.coop SOLE Toolkit www.ted.com/pages/sole_toolkit

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9.3 List of Illustrations

1. School of Making & Thinking home visit Page 7

2. Weeksville Heritage Center Page 13

3. BHQFU Page 19

4. Cooper Union Page 24

5. 601 Tully Page 31

6. Press Street Page 35

7. How to Rebuild A City at Press Street Author Anne Gisleson, Tristan Thompson, Catherine Burke Page 40

8. 127 West 127th Street (location of Laundromat Project offices) Page 43

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9.4 Further Reading Addison, Nicholas & Burgess, Lesley Eds. Learning to Teach Art & Design in the Secondary School (London: Routledge Falmer 2000) Adorno, Theodor & Becker, Hellmut ‘Education for Maturity & Responsibility’ in History of the Human Sciences Vol. 12 No.3 (London: SAGE Publications 1999) pp.21-34 Allen, Felicity Education (London: Whitechapel Gallery & MIT Press 2011) Ames-Lewis, Francis & Paszkiewicz, Piotr (eds.) Art and Politics (Warsaw: Institute of Art 1999) Atkinson, Dennis Art, Equality, Learning: Pedagogies Against the State (Rotterdam : Sense Publishers 2011) Atkinson, Paul and Rees, Teresa L, Youth Unemployment and State Intervention (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd 1982) Avanessian, Armen & Skrebowski, Luke Aesthetics & Contemporary Art (Berlin: Sternberg Press 2011) Aviram, Aharon & Richardson, Janice Eds. Upon What Does the Turtle Stand?:Rethinking Education for the Digital Age (Springer Netherlands 2005) Bagatt, Dipti and O’Neill, Peter Inclusive Practices, Inclusive Pedagogies (London: CPI 2011) Baldessari, John More than you wanted to know about John Baldessari (Zurich: JRP 2013) Bamford, Anne The Wow Factor: Global research compendium on the impact of the arts in education (Munster: Waxmann 2009) Bellamy, Kate and Oppenheim, Kate Learning to Live: Museums, young people and education (London: Institute for Public Policy Research and National Museum Directors' Conference 2009) Berman, Marshall All That Is Solid Melts into Air: The Experience of Modernity (New York: Simon & Schuster 1983) Bingham, Charles and Gert Biesta, Jacques Rancière : education, truth, emancipation (London: Bloomsbury Academic 2010) Bishop, Claire Participation (London: Whitechapel Gallery & MIT Press 2006) Bishop, Claire Artificial Hells (London: Verso 2012) Blanchot, Maurice The Infinite Conversation (Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press 1992) Blanchot, Maurice The Gaze of Orpheus (New York: Station Hill Press 1989) Bloomfield, Anne Ed. Creative & Aesthetic Education (Hull: University of Hull 1985) Boal, Augusto Games for Actors & Non-Actors (Oxon: Routledge 2002) Burdick, Jake, Sandlin, Jennifer, & Schultz, Brian D. Eds. Handbook of Public Pedagogy: Education and Learning Beyond Schooling (Abingdon: Routledge 2010) Burdick, Jake, O’Malley, Michael P. & Sandlin, Jennifer Problematizing Public Pedagogy (Abingdon: Routledge 2014) De Bruyne, Paul & Gielen, Pascal (eds.) Community Art: The Politics of Trespassing (Amsterdam: Valiz 2011) Charman, Helen, Rose, Katherine & Wilson, Gillian Eds. The Art Gallery Handbook: A Resource for Teachers (London: Tate Publishing 2006) Ciric, Biljana and Lai,Sally (Ed.s) Institution for the Future (Manchester: Chinese Art Centre 2012) Eca, Teresea & Mason, Rachel Eds. International Dialogues about Visual Culture, Education and Art (Bristol: Intellect 2008) Efland, Arthur Art & Cognition: Integrating the Visual Arts in the Curriculum (New York: Teachers College Press 2002) Farrell, Betty Demographic Transformation & The Future of Museums (Washington: AAM Press 2010) Full PDF available here: http://www.aam-us.org/docs/center-for-the-future-of-museums/demotransaam2010.pdf Eds. Fejes, Andreas & Nicoll, Katherine Foucault and Lifelong Learning: Governing the subject (Abingdon: Routledge 2008) Field, Belenky, Mattuck Tarule, Jill, McVicker Clinchy, Blythe, & Rule Goldberger, Nancy Women’s Way of Knowing: The Development of Self, Voice & Mind (New York: Basic Books 1996) Freire, Paolo Cultural Action for Freedom (Middlesex: Penguin Books 1970) Gaztambide-Fernández, Rubén A. ‘Inner, Outer & In-Between: Why Popular Culture & The Arts Matter for Urban Youth’ in orbit, Vol 36, No 3, 2007 (Toronto: Orbit 2007) Gielen, Pascal Institutional Attitudes: Instituting Art in a Flat World (Amsterdam: Valiz 2013) De Gennaro, Ivo & Gunther, Hans-Christian (eds.) Artists & Intellectuals & the Requests of Power (Leiden: Brill 2009)

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Grampaign Regional Council A Policy for Art & Design 5-14 (Aberdeen: Grampaign Regional Council 1995) Hardy, Tom Art Education in a Postmodern World: Collected Essays (Bristol: Intellect 2008) Haworth, Robert H. Anarchist Pedagogies: Collective Actions, Theories and Critical Reflections on Education (Oakland, CA: PM Press 2012) Hayek, F.A The Road to Serfdom (Chicago: University of Chicago Press 1994) Hebert, Stein & Szelfler Karsen, Anne Self-Organised (Bergen: Open Editions 2013) Hern, Matt Ed. Everywhere All The Time: A New Deschooling Reader (Edinburgh: AK Press 2008) Hickman, Richard Ed. Critical Studies in Art & Design Education (Bristol: Intellect 2005) Hickman, Richard Ed. Research in Art & Design Education: Issues & Exemplars (Bristol: Intellect Books 2008) Hickman, Richard Ed. Secondary School 11-18 (Bristol: Intellect Books 2008) Hind, Dan The Return of the Public (London: Verso 2010) Hochtritt, Lisa, Ploof, John & Quinn, Therese Eds. Art & Social Justice Education: Culture as Commons (London: Routledge 2012) Holden, John Cultural Value and the Crisis of Legitimacy: Why culture needs a democratic mandate (London: Demos 2006) Hupert, Wojciech Child’s play: The links between childhood encouragement and adult engagement in arts and culture (Scottish Government Social Research 2010) Kahn, Richard & Lewis, Tyson E. Education Out of Bounds: Reimagining Cultural Studies for a Posthuman Age (New York: PALGRAVE MacMillan 2010) Kamentz, Anya Learning, Freedom & the Web (Mozilla 2010) Kamentz, Anya DIYU (Vermont: Chelsea Green Publishing 2010) Kant, Immanuel Critique of Aesthetic Judgement (Dover: Dover Publications Inc. 2005) Kaprow, Allan (Kelly, Jeff (Ed)) Essays on the Blurring of Art & Life (Berkley: University of California Press 2003) Kennelly, Jacqueline Culture, Activism and Agency in a Neoliberal Era (New York: Palgrave MacMillan 2011) Laclau, Ernesto Emancipation (London: Verso 1996) La Feuvre, Lisa Failure (London: Whitechapel Gallery & MIT Press 2010) Lewis, Tyson E. Aesthetics of education: theatre, curiosity, and politics in the work of Jacques Rancière and Paulo Freire (London: Continuum 2012) Lovink, Geert Networks Without A Cause: A Critique of Social Media (Cambridge: Polity Press 2011) Madoff, Steven Henry Ed. Art School: Propositions for the 21

st Century (London: MIT 2009)

Marcuse, Herbert The Aesthetic Dimension: Towards a Critique of Marxist Aesthetics (London: MacMillan Education Ltd 1979) Masschelein,Jan and Simons. Maarten (Eds.) Rancière, public education and the taming of democracy (London: Wiley-Blackwell 2010) May, Todd The political thought of Jacques Rancière: Passive Equality (Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press 2008) Mehta, Jal, Schwartz, Robert B. and Hess, Frederick M. (eds.) The Futures of School Reform McGill, Erin, Stringer, Scott& Eckstein, Adam State of the Arts: A plan to boost arts education in New York City’s schools (New York City: Office of the New York City Comptroller 2014) McLaren, Peter Schooling as a Ritual Performance: Towards a political economy of educational symbols and gestures (London: Routeledge & Kegan Paul 1986) Morris, Rosalind Ed. Can The Subaltern Speak?: Reflections on the History of an Idea (New York: Columbia University Press 2010) Grenke, Michael Friedrich Nietzsche On the Future of Our Educational Institutions: Six Public Lectures (Indiana: St Augustine’s Press 2004) O’Neill, Paul & Doherty, Claire (eds.) Locating the Producers: Durational Approaches to Public Art (Amsterdam: Valiz 2012) Osbourne, Peter Anywhere or Not At All: Philosophy of Contemporary Art (London: Verson 2013) Rancière, Jacques The Philosopher and His Poor (London: Duke University Press 2003) Rancière, Jacques Dissensus: On Politics and Aesthetics (London: Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd. 2010) Ed. & Trans. Steven Concoran Rancière, Jacques The Politics of Aesthetics, (London: Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd. 2006) Trans. Gabriel Rockhill Rancière, Jacques The Ignorant Schoolmaster: Five Lessons in Intellectual Emancipation (Stanford: Stanford University Press 1991) Trans. Kristin Ross Rancière, Jacques Aesthetics & Its Discontents (London: Verso 2009) Trans. Gregory Elliott

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Raunig, Gerald Art and Revolution (Los Angeles: Semiotext(e) 2007) Reardon, John ch-ch-ch-changes: Artists Talk About Teaching (London: Ridinghouse 2009) Rorty, Richard Philosophy & Social Hope (London: Penguin 1999) Rose, Shirley K. & Weiser, Irwin Going Public: What writing programs learn from going public (Logan: Utah University Press 2010) Rowles, Sarah 20 Questions for Art & Design Course Leaders (London: Q-Art 2010) Roy, Kastuv Teaching in Nomadic Places: Deleuze & Curriculum (New York: Peter Lang Publishing 2003) Schiller, Friedrich Letters on the Aesthetic Education of Man (Montana: Kessinger Publishing 2010) Serres, Michael The Troubadour of Knowledge (Michigan: University of Michigan 1997) trans. Sheila Faria Glaser and William Paulson Shiner, Larry The invention of art: a cultural history (London: University of Chicago Press 2001) Sidford, Holly & Thomas, Rebecca, Critical steps toward capital health in the cultural sector http://nonprofitfinancefund.org/files/captips_052114.pdf?utm_source=Arts%2FLFF+Final+Pub&utm_campaign=6-5-14Arts-LFF-Final+Pub&utm_medium=email 2014 Simmons, Ron and Thompson, Robin NEET Young People and Training For Work (London: Trentham Books Limited 2011) Smith, Jason E. and Weisser, Annette Everything is in Everything: Jacques Ranciere Between Intellectual Emancipation and Aesthetic Education (Manchester: Art Graduate Press and Cornerhouse Publications 2011) Steedman,Marijke Gallery As Community: Art, Education, Politics (London: Whitechapel Gallery 2012) Stiegler, Bernard Taking Care of Youth & the Generations (Stanford: Stanford University Press 2010) (Stephen Barker Trans.) Strhan,Anna Levinas, subjectivity, education : towards an ethics of radical responsibility (London: Wiley-Blackwell 2010) Taylor, Barbara Ed. Enquire: Inspiring Learning in Galleries (London: Engage 2006) Thelwall, Sarah Size Matters: Notes towards a Better Understanding of the Value, Operation and Potential of Small Visual Arts Organisations (London: Common Practice 2011) Full PDF available here: http://turningpointnetwork.squarespace.com/storage/project-files/summit-2012/debate-1/Common-Practice-London_Size-Matters.pdf Thomson, Nato Living As Form (New York: Creative Time 2011) Thoreau, Henry David Walden (New York: Phoenix Press 1995) Various, Radical Education Workbook in radicaleducationforum.tumblr.com 2012 Various, Notes for An Art School http://manifesta.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/NotesForAnArtSchool.pdf 2006 Various, Bridge Conversations: People who live and work in multiple worlds (New York City: Arts & Democracy 2011) Wallis, Brian (ed.) Democracy: A Project by Group Material (Washington: Dia Art Foundation 1990) White, John Education and The End of Work (London: Cassell 1997)

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Art, Self Organisation & Public Resource Creation December 2014 Researched & Written by Beth Dynowski Funded by The Winston Memorial Trust.

About the Author

Beth Dynowski is an artist who lives and works in Scotland. She studied Sculpture at the Glasgow School of Art and her work is concerned with the relationship between art, aesthetics and equality. Beth also writes about and runs public projects which address current structures, provision and access to art and education.

Contact

E info@bethdynowski.com W www.bethdynowski.com Copyright: Commercial You may not use this text or parts of it for commercial purposes unless authorized by the author. Educational This text may be used for educational purposes.

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