W.A.G.E. Certification is finally here!

I’d been wishing for a US version of CARFAC for years, and now we finally have one.

WAGE certification screenshot

W.A.G.E. has recently released a recommended fee schedule for paying artists!

I’m also fascinated by W.A.G.E.’s list of example galleries and museums. The annual budgets and director salaries are especially intriguing. The pay scale for directors ranges wildly (just as it does for artists).

W.A.G.E. makes this a super exciting time to be talking and thinking about artists, ethics, and art world transparency. Please contribute to W.A.G.E.’s fundraising campaign!

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Christian L. Frock has rounds up initiatives exploring artists and payment for KQED. She kindly includes a mention my blog post of an artist’s decision tree.

Community

Bay Area GOOD-BAD-GOOD

Ripple effects of negative affects and positive actions from the San Francisco Bay Area.

[GOOD] Finally, a critical mass of media attention on San Francisco’s tech-boom/gentrification crisis…

[BAD] …which means constantly hearing news that is sad (or bitter, angry, antagonistic, mournful, etc.)… and sometimes relating to that news:

“People ask me, ‘Aren’t you going to miss the Bay Area?’ And I say that I already do. It’s not the same Bay Area it once was before.”

—Walter Robinson, as quoted by Christian L. Frock, “Priced Out: San Francisco’s Changing Values and Artist Exodus,” KQED Arts, April 3, 2014.

Edward Ruscha, OOF, 1962, Oil on canvasDimensions, 71 1/2 x 67″ // Source: Moma.org.

[GOOD / GET EXCITED] There seems to be a funneling of energy into thinking about art as it relates to economics. Get excited for this:

Michele Bock // Source: arts.berkeley.edu.

Valuing Labor in the Arts: A Practicum
April 19, 2014

…ARC will present Valuing Labor in the Arts: A Practicum. This event will include a series of artist-led workshops that develop exercises, prompts, or actions that engage questions of art, labor, and economics; it will also include a series of commissioned writings by critics and researchers whose work focuses on artistic labor and cultural economies. …ARC will host artists, curators, and writers from the Bay Area, Los Angeles, New York and Chicago, to stage an intimate yet wide-ranging exploration about art and labor, about alternative economies in the arts, and about strategies for working in ever changing “art world” landscapes….

I’d totally go to this if I were in the Bay Area… In fact I’m sort of kicking myself that I’m not there for this. But alas, I’ll make do with reviewing the materials online at the special issue of Art Practical, and on the forthcoming Compensation Foundation,

“a public, online, open-source platform for collecting, sharing, and analyzing how contingent workers are compensated.”

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And…. I’m thrilled to help promote the Bay Area Art Worker’s Alliance‘s call for participation, for preparators, art installers, and art handlers to contribute to an exhibition in YBCA’s Bay Area Now triennial. These invisible roles in the making of art exhibitions, which are on-call, part-time, financially and sometimes physically precarious, are finally getting some much-needed recognition from this institution. Deadline: May 15. Spread the word!

Sights

support artists! two coasts, two ways

Check out Christian L. Frock’s “Occupy the Holidays: Think Globally, Shop Locally and Support Artists” on KQED Arts.

And, if you’re in NYC and want to support an innovative artists’ residency program, come out to:

Flux’s Not-So-Silent Auction & Gala
Tuesday, December 20th, 7 – 10 pm
Center 548: 548 West 22nd Street, NYC

Help support Flux Factory’s work as a grassroots artist-centered organization by attending our Not-So-Silent Auction & Gala this year.

Your tax-deductible ticket purchase entitles you to entry to the event and the chance to place live bids on artworks by Lori Field, Manfred Mohr, Mark Dion, Pablo Helguera, Mary Mattingly, Holly Coulis, Marius Watz, and over 100 other artists – making for excellent holiday presents this time of year.

During the event we will present our guests of honor, Paddy Johnson and Nato Thompson, with Flux Factory’s Scrappy Awards. There will also be light fare, an open bar, music, and live customizable artworks by our “knock-off” artists, Angela Washko, Daupo, Douglas Paulson, Emily Bunker, Eric Doeringer, Jon Burgerman, and Youjung Byun.

Tickets and online bids here.

Art & Development

Press Junket #2: 5/28 Adobe Books, 6/5 Camron-Stanford House

5/28: Lending Library opens at Adobe Books, SF

Tomorrow night, you’re invited to shimmy your way into Adobe Books’ Backroom Gallery, where I, along with 6 other artists, are exhibiting our research materials and studio relics at the behest of curator Dena Beard.

This is part two Dena’s Lending Library project, and it features

tools, materials, and resources from artists Amy Franceschini, Colter Jacobsen, Kevin Killian, Tom Marioni, Emily Prince, Stephanie Syjuco, and Christine Wong Yap.

It’s a fantastic honor to be included with such a dynamic group of artists. Congrats to Amy Franceshini, who was recently awarded a Guggenhein Fellowship, and Colter Jacobsen, who was just short-listed for the SECA Award!

Lending Library
May 28–July 2, 2010
Opening Reception: Friday, May 28, 2010, 7-9 pm
Adobe Books Backroom Gallery
3166 – 16th Street (b/Valencia and Guerrero), San Francisco, CA 94103

•••

June 5: The Great Balloon Giveaway, at Camon-Stanford House, Lake Merritt (Oakland)

Next Saturday afternoon, you’re invited to The Great Balloon Giveaway, a social sculpture and public project presented by Invisible Venue and the Mills College Art Museum.

This work is inspired by imagery from the recent Oscar-winning animated film “Up” and re-contextualizes the political histories of the house through the free distribution of 1,000 helium balloons to passersby, with volunteer youth assistance from Chinatown community organization City of Oakland’s Lincoln Square Recreation Center. The Great Balloon Giveaway is made possible with the support of FLINC.org and Trader Joe’s.

Saturday, June 5, 12-3 pm
The Great Balloon Giveaway
Camron-Stanford House, Lake Merritt, 1418 Lakeside Drive, Oakland, CA

The Great Balloon Giveaway is one of three projects that comprise Here and Now, a series of installations in three historic buildings dating from the early inception of the State of California that also includes site-specific projects by Elaine Buckholtz and Floor Vahn.

Get the details on Here and Now, curated by Christian L. Frock in various locations around Oakland, CA. And join us at the closing reception: Saturday, June 26, 8-10 pm at Mills Hall!

Community

Press Junket: 5/6 at Wattis, 5/8 SoEx Auction, 5/14 at Sight School

If you can’t get enough art at the MFA shows, I’ve also got a mini program of art events happening nearly every week this month. Join me on a short tour of ICAs, alternative non-profits and artist-run spaces.

…

Opening Thursday, May 6: We have as much time as it takes
Graduate Program in Curatorial Practice Thesis Exhibition

I’m looking forward to exhibiting the light and text installation Unlimited Promise at the Wattis. Participating artists: Nina Beier and Marie Lund (Berlin/London), David Horvitz (USA), Jason Mena (Puerto Rico), Sandra Nakamura (Lima), Roman Ondák (Slovakia), Red76 (Portland, Ore., USA), Zachary Royer Scholz (San Francisco, Calif., USA), Tercerunquinto (Mexico), Lawrence Weiner (New York/Amsterdam), and Christine Wong Yap (Oakland, Calif.,
USA).

May 6–July 31, 2010; Hours: Tues. & Thurs., 11 am–7 pm; Wed., Fri., & Sat., 11 am–6 pm
Reception: Thursday, May 6, 2010, 6–9 pm

Wattis Institute, 1111 Eighth Street, San Francisco, CA

…

Design by Dan McKinley

Cloud No. 3, 2006, collagraphic monoprint, 22 x 30 inches / 56 x 76 cm

.
Saturday, May 8: Space Odyssey: Southern Exposure’s Annual Fundraiser + Art Auction

I’ve donated a large framed print to support this art organization committed to contemporary art by emerging artists.

Saturday, May 8; 6–10:30 pm [see the schedule]
Preview Exhibition: May 3–6, 2010, noon–6 pm

Southern Exposure, 3030 20th Street, San Francisco

…

Opening Friday, May 14: Irrational Exuberance (Asst. Colors): Solo Show

New installation, sculpture and work on paper inspired by discount culture and popular psychology.

Exhibition: May 14 – June 12; Gallery hours: Wed.-Sat., noon – 5 pm
Opening Reception: Friday, May 14, 7–10 pm

“As Is: Pop Art & Stuffhood” Closing Reception and Dialogue with special guests including critic and curator Glen Helfand and artist, writer and theorist Ginger Wolfe-Suarez: Saturday, June 12, 2–4 pm

Sight School, 5651 San Pablo (at Stanford), Oakland, CA

…

Opening May 28: Lending Library at Adobe Books

Lending Library is a group exhibition curated by Dena Beard featuring tools, materials, and resources from artists Amy Franceschini, Colter Jacobsen,
Kevin Killian, Tom Marioni, Emily Prince, Stephanie Syjuco, and Christine Wong Yap. [Can I just say what an honor it is to be included with this group, which includes a newly-minted Guggenheim Fellow?]

May 28–July 2, 2010
Opening Reception: Friday, May 28, 2010, 7-10 pm

Adobe Books Backroom Gallery, 3166 16th Street, San Francisco, CA 94103

…

Then, during the first weekend in June, come to Lake Merritt, where 20 third graders from the City of Oakland’s Lincoln Square Recreation Center will be giving away 1,000 balloons in my largest public project/social sculpture to date.

…
June 5: The Great Balloon Giveaway: Here and Now

One-day event: Saturday, June 5, 12-4 pm
A site-specific installation and social sculpture at Camron-Stanford House (c.1876), Lake Merritt, 1418 Lakeside Drive, Oakland, CA 94612. T-shirts sponsored by Oakland-based retailer FLINC.org.

Invisible Venue and Mills College Art Museum present
Here and Now
Curated by Christian L. Frock

Also: Elaine Buckholtz, “Out of the Blue (Mills Hall Reconsidered),” 2010. A site-specific light installation at Mills Hall (c.1871), Mills College.
Floor Vahn, “Sonic Pardee Home (Reconstituting Memories of Pardee Past),” 2010. A site-specific sound installation at Pardee Home Museum (c.1868), 672 11th Street, Oakland, CA 94607

June 10
Various locations, Oakland, CA
Closing Reception: Saturday, June 26, 8-10 pm, Mills Hall

R+D

On Be(com)ing an Artist, Citizen and Arts Community member, by Christine Wong Yap

Tag Archives: Christian L. Frock