Posts filed under ‘Advocacy’
Weekend Update: NYFA in Berlin, Day 1
Guten Tag from Berlin! My first two days investigating the Berlin arts scene have been very informative. In the 48 hours I have been here, I can already see the city’s innovative artistic communities and initiatives.
Saturday, June 18th
After arriving early morning Saturday, I visited the city’s project Based in Berlin. The exhibition, spread over five different locations, shows the work of 80 emerging artists who live and work in Berlin. The exhibition covers the full range of contemporary art practices from paintings and drawings to sculpture, photography, film and video, as well as installations and text-based works.
Jakob Schillinger, a Based in Berlin curator
I had the opportunity to meet with one of the five curators, Jakob Schillinger, at Based in Berlin’s main gallery at Atlelierhaus at Monbijou Park. Jakob first explained the choice of the exhibition site. The Atelierhaus was an old German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Berlin) art school. The current government decided on the demolition of the building, which Jakob explains is the fate of most GDR buildings.
Based in Berlin is a city-funded project, and the curators convinced the city to postpone the demolition of Atelierhaus. The venue became not only a container for contemporary art, but also a comment on process and reappropriation, two themes that run throughout the exhibit. For more information on the artwork and themes of the exhibition, visit the Based in Berlin website.
Michael Royce and Jakob Schillinger walking into the converted WWII bunker
The curators even used an old World War II bunker on site as an improvised art theatre for film viewings (Jakob mentions that the acoustics in the bunker were ideal).
The show only exhibited emerging artists who have become visible in the past five years and have received limited funding. Each artist received production funding and a 500 Euro honorarium for participation. Artist run centers were also invited to exhibit and continue their regular programming cycle over the six-week show (which may include more well-known artists).
Is this an exhibition model that would work in the United States? Should we use more unused open spaces, and could we create such a poignant show with a different type of national history? Or do we already have such spaces, like MoMA PS1 and the New Museum?
After walking through the exhibit with Jakob, we sat down in the exhibition café for some frozen coke-colas and got straight to our major questions about Berlin.
Why is Berlin so appealing to artists? The easy, real reason that artists go to Berlin is that it is cheap, according to Jakob. However, that is rapidly changing and the cost of living in Berlin is beginning to rise, bringing to mind the age-old question: Is the population of active artists and creatives making the city more desirable?
Jakob adds that in Berlin, the “institutional model” prevails over the “gallery model.” In Berlin, an artist can more easily survive on stipends, grants, and teaching than in New York, where one must either be successfully selling in galleries or taking 1-3 side jobs to support himself.
Jakob then introduced us to Kajsha Dahlberg, one of the artists exhibiting in Based in Berlin. Below is a short clip of Kajsha explaining her work, A Room of One’s Own/A Thousand Libraries, to me.
A Room of Ones's Own/A Thousand Libraries, Detail; Kajsa Dahlberg
Kajsha is Swedish and now in Berlin on a Swedish grant. However, she said that if she had the same option for stipend and residency in New York that she now has in Berlin, she would take it. And when asked how she supports herself, she said that it was always a bit of a mystery.
After speaking with both Jakob and Kajsha, I learned what seems to be the one of the major difference’s between New York and Berlin for artists from their perspective.
Berlin is about PROCESS, while New York City is about PRODUCT. In Berlin, artists have the time and space to create work, because of the low cost of living and many large, unused spaces. In New York, artists are continually pushed to create and sell work in order to support the high cost of living there, leading to a competitive gallery and sales scene.
Inversely, in Berlin competition among artists is low, because most artists do not sell their work at home. Berlin is a relatively poor Germany city with a very high unemployment rate. The city is rather a home base to have the time and space to create work with a supportive network of artists, but when an artist needs to make sales, he or she must go elsewhere—which is not too bad, considering the central European location of Berlin.
Keep an eye out for my next post on the second half of the weekend where I meet with NYFA artist Rebecca Loyche, attend a USArtsBerlin welcome and networking party for United States expat artists, and see a dance performance at Dock11 with one of its proprietors, Kristen Seeligmüller….
NYFA Blog Is Going International!
Tomorrow I fly to Berlin to investigate the city’s arts scene and to further understand why it is such an appealing place for artists to live and work. As a reminder, this trip is in response to a NYFA Blog poll asking what city you, our readers, would like to learn more about. Berlin was the overwhelming victor, so I planned a trip to explore Berlin and to share what I learn with NYFA Blog readers.
Over the course of my stay, I will be meeting with government officials, visiting exhibits like Based in Berlin and Sox, attending performances at venues like Dock11, speaking with curators and arts administrators, exploring institutions like Künstlerhaus Bethanien and Radial System V, and getting to know artists all over the city. I will be blogging daily in my time in Berlin and sharing my experiences on the NYFA Blog.
I’ll also be surveying artists on the benefits of living in Berlin, from the amount of community and government support for artists to the logistics of living as an artist abroad (for the many international artists in Berlin). Perhaps I will even bring some new strategies to support artists back with me.
I am looking forward to exploring what the Berlin arts scene has to offer, and I hope you will follow along with my travels. Any thoughts?
Bis bald!
The Sustainable Artist: A Virtual Panel Discussion
In September 2010, I attended the Louise Blouin Creative Leadership Summit and blogged about my experience. Diana Goldberg, blog reader, commented on the blog that perhaps we should create a panel composed of artists who are currently working with issues of sustainability. I offered NYFA to host the sustainable artist panel that she proposed.
Each of the panelists we chose convey a unique sense of artistic purpose and desire to create work that betters our surroundings. With the devastating effects of the earthquake in Japan and tornadoes in Alabama, we are reminded that we need to continue to design better and stronger and to think about the earth as we create.
Please enjoy NYFA Blog’s production of The Sustainable Artist. Comment below, and maybe your idea will be the next virtual panel discussion!
Lobbying at Arts Day, from an Arts Administrator
This post is guest blogged by Norma Munn, Chairperson of New York City Arts Coalition, on her experience at 2011 Arts Day in Albany. The article is written as a companion piece to artist Eric Corriel’s last post on the topic, to show an Artist and an Arts Administrator’s perspective. New York City Arts Coalition is a NYFA Fiscally Sponsored Project.
Arts Day in Albany is the kick off to several weeks of intense advocacy to support adequate funding for the State Council on the Arts, or more often these past three years to push for restoration of proposed cuts from the previous Gov. Paterson and now the current Gov. Cuomo.
This year several dozen artists and arts administrators left NYC at the early hour of 7 AM to spend several hours meeting with Assembly and Senate members from all over the City. The arts were first on the scene with our numbers from the budget, and first to make the case for restoration of the Governor’s proposed cuts, which he had recommended one week earlier. Many offices were still trying to figure out what was really in the budget, so our showing up with information was helpful to them.
We met with 74 of the 94 City legislators. While many offices were cautious, there were a lot of very positive responses, with many legislators saying they would support the modest restoration of $2.8 million we requested. The remaining 20 legislators were left material about our request (and a few of those were encountered in hallways, corridors, and stairwells by the arts advocates, who made their appeal on the spot – no hiding from determined arts folks!).
This year is tough, but the voices of artists, in conjunction with the arts administrators, was a significant part of this early success. The framework of economic data, jobs created, taxes paid, etc. is important, but it is merely the framework for advocacy. The personal voice of those who make and present art is critical.
Much remains to be done and the time is very short. Leadership in the Assembly (Speaker Sheldon Silver) and the Senate (Senator Dean Skelos) has agreed that the two houses will start their conference committees on March 15. Over the next three weeks, arts advocates will have to press their case, follow-up with supporters, and reach out to those who remain uncommitted to this restoration.
Local visits and personal letters are always the most effective, but you can contact the Governor and/or your state legislator through email via the statewide website www.artsNYS.org, which also has details about the budget, charts showing what has happened to NYSCA over several years, an advocacy handbook, and some arguments to bolster our case.
Lobbying at Arts Day, from an Artist
This post is guest blogged by Eric Corriel, 2009 Digital/Electronic Arts NYFA Fellow, recipient of a 2010 Fiscally Sponsored Artist Project, and a 2010 Mentor for the Immigrant Artist Mentoring Program. Stay tuned to see a partner post written from an Arts Administrator’s point of view…
“I’m a lobbyist!” I remember thinking as I navigated the corridors of the Capitol building in Albany, feeling like I was one of the office-minions scurrying around in Terry Gilliam’s film, Brazil. “This is gonna be awesome!”
As part of NYFA’s Arts Day coalition, we had a case to make to New York State legislators and it was simple enough: Governor Cuomo plans on implementing a 10% cut, state-wide, in operating expenses for state-funded organizations. Okay. Fine. We can share the sacrifice just like everyone else. What we can’t stomach is the additional 10% cut to NYSCA’s (New York State Council for the Arts) Aid to Localities budget, which is pretty much tantamount to a 10% cut in its grant funding abilities. All other state-funded agencies received a 2% cut to their Localities budget. So, on behalf of NYSCA, we’re just asking for the same cut as everyone else, instead of 8% more than everyone else.
My lobbying team consisted of four people: two arts administrators, one from BRIC Arts Media Brooklyn and the other from Dance NYC, as well as a ballet dancer from the New York City Ballet, and myself, a 2009 NYFA Fellow. We met mostly with chiefs of staff and aides, though in one case, for about 6 minutes, a state senator. Each meeting would follow roughly the same formula: we’d say that on behalf of NYSCA, we’re okay with sharing the pain – the 10% cut – we’re cool with that. The person we’re meeting with would nod as if to say “Good, ’cause you better be…” Then we’d say, “now about this other 10% cut to the Aid to Localities budget…” and our interlocutor would say “what other 10% cut?” So we explained what needed to be explained and then he/she would say, “oh”.
At the end of the day we were lobbying for $2.8 million dollars to be restored to NYSCA’s budget, which in Albany-ese is like asking for a grain of sand to be put back on a beach. As to be expected, the economic atmosphere is grim and nobody wanted to be in the business of promising anything when it comes to money. We asked for a frank assessment of our proposal and we got candid answers about how “it’s not gonna be easy”. But to say the campaign was ineffective would be as wrong as it would be premature. The fact is that many of those we met with were previously unaware of the additional 8% taken from NYSCA’s budget. And this awareness, coupled with the knowledge of the arts as a proven and indisputable economic driver for New York State, puts them in a position to act with resolve, if they so choose. I left with the feeling that we certainly made inroads and that with the proper followup with the right people, this money could be won back. As an ordinary citizen in a peaceful democratic society, that’s probably the most one can hope to accomplish in one day in Albany.
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