This project is inspired by the need to revisit artists' organizing initiatives, both out of a concern that this history is being forgotten, but also to consider what we can do now. |
further information
The Art Workers Coalition existed from 1969 to 1971. Aside from the Open Hearing they organized several demonstations. They also held regular meetings at Museum: A Project of Living Artists. AWC also published Documents 1, which documented their activities. While AWC only existed for a short period of time and eventually split due to internal conflicts, many other groups and organizations came out of AWC, some to focus on specific issues, some due to these internal conflicts (particularly around gender and race).Some of these groups included Artists Poster Committee (who designed this famous antiwar poster), Art Strike, Atlanta Art Workers Coalition (who started the publication which became Art Papers), El Museo del Barrio (which was founded by some of the members of the Puerto Rican Art Workers committee of the AWC and still exists today), El Taller Boricua (which also stills exists today at the Julia de Burgos Latino Cultural Center), Guerilla Art Action Group, Women Artists in Revolution (whose activities are documented in this book and also on the website of former WAR member Vernita Nemec) and Women Artists and Students for a Black Art Liberation (documented here by founding member Michelle Wallace) , among others. |
links on AWC and related organizations
other resources on AWC
Documents 1 on AWC is available at the MOMA library as part of the Political Art Documentation and Distribution archive (PAD/D). For a Q and A on PAD/D, follow this link. To search the MOMA archive, follow this link. |
The entire text of Open Hearing is available at the Whitney Museum Library. To search the catalogue follow this link. |
'The National Art Workers' Community: Still Struggling'. Jacqueline Skiles
Art Journal, Vol. 34, No. 4 (Summer, 1975), pp. 320-322 |
Alternative Art New York, 1965-1985 (ed. Julie Ault) documents the history of independent spaces, collectives and artists' organizing initiatives in New York. Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press/The Drawing Centre, 2002. |
artists' unions and other organizing initatives
Freelancers' Union in the USA |
UKK ( Unge Kunstnere og Kunstformidlere or Young Art Workers, in Denmark |
IKK ( Institutet för konstnärer och konstförmedlare) in Sweden |
CARFAC in Canada |
School of the Arts and Culture, part of University of the Poor, discusses the role of artists in anti-poverty organizing in the US. |
Please contact me if you notice any inaccuracies or would like to suggest a link.
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