Writing

The materials below are organized thematically and include short form texts circulated as (administrative) direct action, open letters, published writing, and transcripts of talks and speeches.

CALLS TO ACTION

Recommended Best Practice Protocols for Institutions and Funders 

Building on Guidelines for the Postponement or Cancellation of Work, this announcement introduced a set of suggested best practice protocols for institutions for the compensation for online content, layoff and furlough transparency, and the distribution of emergency funding. Circulated April 13, 2020. 


Guidelines for the Postponement or Cancellation of Work 

This announcement introduced some basic guidelines to be used by artists and nonprofit institutions as we began to navigate the future of work in our field during the pandemic. Circulated March 27, 2020.


Invitation to Artists Participating in Future Biennials at the Whitney Museum 

A follow-up to W.A.G.E.'s Invitation to Artists Participating in the 2019 Whitney Biennial, this call invited all artists to join in pressuring the Whitney Museum, recognizing that those of us not chosen for the 2019 Whitney Biennial could just as easily be selected in 2021, 2023, 2025, 2027 and every two years henceforth. Circulated February 18, 2019.


Invitation to Artists Participating in the 2019 Whitney Biennial 

W.A.G.E.'s contribution to Decolonize This Place's campaign challenging the Whitney Museum to remove its Vice Chairman, Warren Kanders. Read more about the context for this action here . Circulated January 23, 2019.


Electronic Direct Action organized by W.A.G.E. as part of Decolonize This Place's 3rd Anti-Columbus Day Tour 

Using WAGENCY, W.A.G.E. drafted and sent a Fee Request on behalf of Decolonize This Place for $383 million to Ellen V. Futter, President of the American Museum of Natural History, as well as to other museum staff. This symbolic action was intended to call attention to the AMNH's prioritizing of capital investment over the urgent need to decolonize its holdings. Sent October 8, 2018.


Why Labor Now 

The announcement of seven newly certified organizations and some post-inauguration thoughts on why art institutions must confront both racial and economic justice. Circulated on February 13, 2017.

CHARITY AND PHILANTHROPY

On Merit 

A text written for and read at The Artist As Debtor: Art in the Age of Speculative Capitalism in New York in January, 2015, and at Public Assets: Small-Scale Arts Organisations and the Production of Value in London, February, 2015.


On Charity 

A speech about charity delivered at a dinner at the Museum fur Moderne Kunst in Frankfurt as part of artist Andrea Büttner's exhibition. March 1, 2013. 

EXCEPTIONALITY

On Value: Wages for Housework & W.A.G.E. 

Written for and presented at We (Not I)  at Artists Space as part of a roundtable with Silvia Federici, Shawn(ta) Smith-Cruz, and Melanie Gilligan, facilitated by Marina Vishmidt. October 2015.


Hand-in-Glove Position Statement 

A position statement written in response to the question When and how should artists be paid for their art? for a panel discussion with Lisa Dent, Wing Young Huie, and W.A.G.E., hosted by Alison Gerber, at the Hand-in-Glove Convening (Common Field) . September 2015.

ONLINE DIGITAL ARTWORK

Online Digital Artwork and the Status of the "Based-In" Artist 

A text commissioned for SUPERCOMMUNITY, e-flux journal's contribution to the 56th Venice Biennale. 2015.

OPEN LETTERS

Dear Artist 

An open letter to 'artist' and an introduction to WAGENCY. Circulated November 21, 2016.


Dear New Museum 

An open letter to the New Museum, written and circulated in response to the museum's announcement of expansion plans in May 2016. Circulated May 16, 2016.


W.A.G.E.N.C.Y. 

Now an open letter: a 2015 email exchange with the New Museum, and then W.A.G.E.'s contribution to Public Servants: Art and the Crisis of the Common Good , published in 2016.


Dear Board of Directors 

How to announce to your board that your organization is going to pay artist fees. 2012.


Dear Dad 

An intervention at the New Museum (all ethics have left the building and mother is turning in her grave). 2010.


Dear Arts Administrator 

An open letter to the institution from W.A.G.E. 2010.


No Soul For Sale 2 

As requested by X Initiative for publication in Charley Magazine, W.A.G.E. 'reviews' our participation in No Soul For Sale, 2009. No response, never published.


No Soul For Sale 1 

As requested by X Initiative for publication in Charley Magazine, W.A.G.E. 'reviews' our participation in No Soul For Sale, 2009. No response, never published. 

ORGANIZING

Working Artists and the Greater Economy: Lise Soskolne Interviewed by Cathrin Mayer 

A long-form written interview with Catherine Mayer for Girls Like Us. Issue #11, November 2018.


Two Paradoxes, One Reversal and an Impasse: On Organizing the Labor of Artists 

A text published in Blackout 0: Art Labour, at the invitation of Art Work(ers), a research project by ECAV/Ecole Cantonale d'Art du Valais. November 2017.


Wages of Whiteness in the Art Economy 

Written for and presented at Wages of Whiteness in the Art Economy , a roundtable at Artists Space, NY on December 10, 2016. This event was co-organized by W.A.G.E. and MTL+, and included speakers Mabel Wilson, David Joselit, Amin Husain, Eva Mayhabal Davis, Nia Nottage, Sneha Ganguly, and Lise Soskolne (for W.A.G.E.). Moderated by Andrew Ross.

Residency Programs

On Residency Programs 

A text written for and presented at The Alliance of Artists Communities Annual Conference in October 2015, representing W.A.G.E.'s initial thoughts on guidelines for compensation within residency programs. Published in 2018 by Kunstlicht in Unpacking Residencies: Situating the Production of Cultural Relations  (Vol. 39, No 2), and in 2019 by CRYPTA747 in I have no idea what we are doing .

W.A.G.E. FAQs

W.A.G.E. FAQs 

An illustrated PDF, #17 in Printed Matter's Artists & Activists series, published by Printed Matter, Inc. 2012.