2013-2014
Brooklyn Commune.
CO-ORGANIZERS: Andy Horwitz & Risa Shoup
COORDINATING COMMITTEE AND REPORT AUTHORS: Jess Applebaum, Dorit Avganim, Kimberly Bartosik, Nic Benacerraf, Max Dana, Seth Hamlin, Andy Horwitz, JJ Lind, Liz Maxwell, Kyoung H. Park, Tara Sheena, Risa Shoup, Monica Snellings
...and the participation of thousands of other arts workers.
Jess and Nic first met as collaborators on The Brooklyn Commune Project, a yearlong public research & visioning process led by Culturebot and The Invisible Dog, to investigate the economics of cultural production in the performing arts.
The project’s goal was to create an artist-driven vision of a healthy arts ecosystem in America and to bring artists, institutions, administrators and funders together for mutually respectful, open, non-hierarchical discourse around difficult topics such as resource allocation, capital, value, labor, aesthetics, diversity, equity, inclusion and quality of life.
The events and research were documented and disseminated iteratively here and culminated with the publication of our report “The View From Here” which was launched in January 2014 at The Association of Performing Arts Presenters Conference in NYC.
Although this project was not organized by [ [ edge effect ] ], we consider it foundational to our political interests in the arts economy, and our ways of working together.