Work

Over the years, W.A.G.E. has collected data, written texts and open letters, made speeches, videos and graphics, taught, conducted research, and learned through discussion. The materials catalogued below include short form texts circulated as (administrative) direct action, published writing, transcripts of talks and speeches, a 2019 report on the first five years of W.A.G.E. Certification, the 2010 W.A.G.E. Survey, videos, a selected history of artist organizing, a reading list, and press coverage of W.A.G.E.'s work.

Writing

 

Recommended Best Practice Protocols for Institutions and Funders (2020)

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. April 13, 2020. 

 

Guidelines for the Postponement or Cancellation of Work (2020)

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. March 27, 2020.

 

Invitation to Artists Participating in Future Biennials at the Whitney Museum (2019)

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 (2019)

W.A.G.E.'s contribution to Decolonize This Place's campaign challenging the Whitney Museum to remove its Vice Chairman, Warren Kanders. Find the original invitation here, and read more about the context for this action in W.A.G.E.'s history 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 (2018)

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. October 2018.

  

Two Paradoxes, One Reversal and an Impasse: On Organizing the Labor of Artists (2017) 

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.

 

Why Labor Now (2017)

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.

 

What W.A.G.E. is Working On (2017)

An update on the development of WAGENCY, posted on wageforwork.com on January 19, 2017.

 

Wages of Whiteness in the Art Economy (2016)

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.

 

Dear Artist (2016)

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

 

What is Wrong with the Art World (2016)

A text commissioned (for free) by ARTnews in August 2016 in answer to the question: What is wrong with the art world and how would you fix it?

 

Dear New Museum (2016)

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

 

W.A.G.E.N.C.Y. (2015)

An email exchange with the New Museum, W.A.G.E.'s contribution to Public Servants: Art and the Crisis of the Common Good, 2015. Published in 2016. 

 

On Value: Wages for Housework & W.A.G.E. (2015)

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

 

On Residency Programs (2015)

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. 

 

Online Digital Artwork and the Status of the "Based-In" Artist (2015)

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

 

On Merit (2015)

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 (2013)

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

 

W.A.G.E. FAQs (2012)

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

 

Dear Board of Directors (2012)

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

 

Dear Dad (2010)

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

 

Dear Arts Administrator (2010)

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

 

No Soul For Sale 2 (2009)

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

 

No Soul For Sale 1 (2009)

 

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. 

 

 

Five Years of W.A.G.E. Certification

During W.A.G.E. Certification's first 5 years of operation, over $5.5 million was paid out in artist fees through nearly 7,000 transactions. Using data gathered through the program's administration, this three-level report is based on analysis by the Cornell University Survey Research Institute as commissioned by W.A.G.E. in September 2019 to mark the program's fifth birthday. Click here to read the report.  

 

 

 

 

 

2010 W.A.G.E. Survey

A downloadable two-sided poster of the survey results in graphic form is available here. 

Introduction

The purpose of the W.A.G.E. Survey was to gather information about the economic experiences of visual and performing artists exhibiting in non-profit exhibition spaces and museums in New York City between 2005 and 2010. The survey was distributed in two parts: one that gathered information about small to medium sized non-profit arts organizations and another that gathered information about large non-profit arts organizations and museums; the questions and structure of each were identical and only differed by their lists of institutions. 

 

The survey was launched on September 22, 2010 and remained open until May 1, 2011. It collected responses anonymously, and was distributed via Web and Email outreach using W.A.G.E.'s mailing list, Facebook, various LISTSERVS, and an e-flux announcement. The combined reach of these mailings was to approximately 50,000 people. A total of 731 respondents provided data about Small to Medium Non-profit Institutions, while 246 respondents provided data about Large Non-profit Institutions and Museums.

 

This report was commissioned by W.A.G.E. and compiled by Sherry X. Xian of the Survey Research Institute at Cornell University. Her analysis combines the data of both surveys unless otherwise indicated and provides analysis only where significant differentiation within the data was noted. 

Demographics

Demographic information is representative of the 977 respondents who began the survey but not necessarily of those who provided specific information about their payment experiences, since only 577 of those who answered demographic questions also exhibited in a non-profit arts institution between 2005-2010.

 

• 43% were between 31 to 40 years old. 
• 60% were male and about 2% were transgender. 
• 46% did not rent a studio outside of their residence. 
• 26% spent less than $5,000 in annual studio rent. 

Number of Artists who received Any Form of Payment

• On average, the majority (58.4%) of respondents did not receive any form of payment, compensation or reimbursement for their participation, including the coverage of any expenses. 

Number of Artists who received Any Form of Payment relative to the Number of Artists in the Exhibition

Respondents were asked to define the size of the exhibition within three different categories: solo exhibition, 2-5 artists and 6 artists or more. Results were compared using the number of artists in an exhibition as a factor. 

 

• For solo exhibitions, 73% reported that they received some form of payment while 27% received no payment. 
• For exhibitions involving 2-5 artists, compensation occurred 53% of the time.
• For exhibitions with 6 or more artists, 69% did not receive any form of compensation. 

Any Form of Payment by Institution

This data illustrates whether or not artists received any form of payment, compensation or reimbursement from specific institutions, including the coverage of any expenses. The institutions included in this table are those for which there were 4 or more respondents. 

 

Significantly more respondents received some form of payment from:

• Creative Time (87.5% vs. 12.5% who did not)
• Sculpture Center (83% vs. 17% who did not)
• Socrates Sculpture Park (86% vs. 14% who did not)
• The Kitchen (100% received payment). 

Significantly more respondents reported that they did not receive any form of payment from:

• Exit Art (88.5% vs. 11.5% who did)
• Performa (92.3% vs. 7.7% who did) 

Type of Exhibition and Size of Artist Fee received

When respondents reported having received an honorarium or artist fee for their participation in an exhibition, separate from the coverage of any shipping, installation or travel expenses, they were asked to define the amount of within 9 ranges. The following notes any significant differences within those ranges.

 

• For solo exhibitions, 26% received an artist fee anywhere between $2,000 and $4,999, while 19% did not receive any honorarium. 
• For exhibitions involving 2-5 artists, 47% received an honorarium between $100 and $500, while 22% did not receive any artist fee. 
• For exhibitions involving 6 or more artists, 48% received less than $300 honorarium, while 40% did not receive a fee.
• Number of Respondents per Institution
• P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center had the highest percentage of respondents (7%). This may have occurred because P.S.1 was listed on both surveys in error.
• A total of 18% of respondents reported that they did not exhibit in any non-profit institution between 2005 and 2010. 
• 18% of respondents exhibited in non-profit institutions not listed in the survey. These institutions were compiled and listed together in an 'Other' category.

Amount of Artist Fee Received by Institution

This analysis does not indicate differences in the size of the artist fee received in relation to the size of exhibition. It provides analysis of the artist fee received by specific institutions.

 

• There was no significant difference between the ranges of payment between the two surveys, which were separated into Small to Medium Institutions and Large Institutions and Museums. 
• 44% of those who exhibited at P.S.1. Contemporary Art Center, and 50% of those who exhibited at Queens Museum of Art reported that they did not receive an artist fee or honorarium. 
• All of those who exhibited at Smack Mellon received an artist fee or honorarium, with 43% receiving between $100 and $299, and another 43% receiving between $1,500 and $5,000.
• 59% of respondents who indicated that they exhibited in 'other' small to medium sized non-profit institutions received artist fees ranging from $25 to $300, while 18% did not receive any. 

Coverage of Installation Expenses

Respondents were asked how much of their installation expenses were covered by the institution using four different categories: None, Partial, All, and Had No Expenses. 

 

• 42% were fully covered by institutions for their installation expenses. 
• 34% were partially covered. 
• 10% were not covered. 
• The remaining 14% had no installation expenses. 
• Gender differences in the Coverage of Travel Expenses
• 69% of female respondents reported that they did not have any travel expenses, and of the remaining 31% who did, only 10% of them were partially or fully compensated for their expenses. 
• 45% of male respondents reported that they did not have any travel expenses, and of the remaining 55% who did, 50% of them were partially or fully compensated for their expenses.

The 2010 W.A.G.E. Survey poster, designed by Common Space Studio and including a drawing by William Powhida, can be downloaded here. Published in 2012.

Videos

Made in response to an off-the-cuff remark by the Artistic Director of dOCUMENTA (13). 2013. We R not amused. Watch in full screen for best effect! Or view here.

 

Creative Time presents Democracy in America: W.A.G.E. at the Park Avenue Armory. 2008. Video by Benjamin Brown.

 

W.A.G.E. Womanifesto, broadcast on Manhattan Neighborhood Network, made as a Performa09 TV Commission with CIRCULAR FILE.

 

W.A.G.E. RAGE, broadcast on Manhattan Neighborhood Network, made as a Performa09 TV Commission with CIRCULAR FILE.

 

Dear Arts Administrator, broadcast on Manhattan Neighborhood Network, made as a Performa09 TV Commission with CIRCULAR FILE.

Precedent

1933: Public Works of Art Project (PWAP)

1934: Artists' Committee of Action 

Fighting censorship and advocating for artists' interests and welfare, the Artists' Committee of Action was formed by Hugo Gellert, Saul Belman, Stuart Davis, and Zoltan Hecht soon after a protest they had organized in response to the destruction of Diego Rivera's pro-labor mural at Rockefeller Center.

1934: The Artists' Union

Based in New York City, The Artists' Union was a leading voice for unemployed artists, advocating within the Works Progress Administration-Federal Art Project (WPA/FAP) for more positions, better pay and working conditions, and lobbying against proposed cutbacks. Beyond the WPA/FAP, the Artists' Union fought censorship, lobbied for permanent federal funding for the arts, and for a Municipal Art Gallery in New York City in response to the destruction of Diego Rivera's mural at Rockefeller Center. After the gallery opened, they fought to remove a provision that excluded foreign-born artists from exhibiting work.

1935: Federal Art Project (FAP)

The visual arts division of the New Deal/Works Progress Administration provides employment for approximately 5000 artists across 48 states through the Federal Art Project until 1943. 

1936: American Artists' Congress/Art Front

Organization founded in 1936 in response to the call of the Popular Front and the American Communist Party for formations of literary and artistic groups against the spread of Fascism. In May 1935 a group of New York artists met to draw up the 'Call for an American Artists' Congress'; among the initiators were George Ault, Peter Blume, Stuart Davis, Adolph Denn, William Gropper, Jerome Klein, Louis Lozowick, Moses Soyer, Niles Spencer and Harry Sternberg. Davis became one of the most vociferous promoters of the Congress and was not only the national executive secretary but also the editor of the organization's magazine, Art Front, until 1939.

1968: Canadian Artists' Representation/Le Front des artistes canadiens (CARFAC)

Established by Canadian artists in 1968, CARFAC is the national voice of Canada's professional visual artists, defending artists' economic and legal rights and educating the public on fair dealing with artists.

1969: Art Workers' Coalition

What preceded our efforts? The Art Workers' Coalition: read their Published Documents and Open Hearing Documents courtesy of Primary Information.

1969: Black Emergency Cultural Coalition (BECC)

In the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library's Archives: the Black Emergency Cultural Coalition was organized in January 1969 by a group of Black artists in response to the Metropolitan Museum of Art's exhibition, 'Harlem on My Mind', which omitted contributions to the Harlem community by Black painters and sculptors. Self-described as "an action oriented watchdog group that strived to develop the legitimate rights and aspirations of individual African-American artists and the total art community," the BECC's main goal was to agitate for greater representation of Black artists in New York City museums and establish a Black curatorial presence. In 1971, the BECC called for the boycott of an exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art after talks between the coalition and the museum failed to produce greater participation and visibility for Black artists. With the creation of an Arts Exchange program in correctional facilities in 1972 in response to major riots at Attica, the BECC's work moved beyond the arts industrial complex and into the prison industrial complex.

1969: Puerto Rican Art Workers Coalition

In the summer of 1969, artists Marcos Dimas, Adrian Garcia, Martin Rubio and Armando Soto joined the Art Workers Coalition and began collaborating with Rafael Montanez Ortiz, co-chair of the Art Workers Coalition Decentralization Committee, and founder of El Museo del Barrio. By winter the Puerto Rican branch of the Art Workers Coalition was formed. Read more from the history of Taller Boricua 1969-2010.

1969: The Guerrilla Art Action Group (GAAG)

Formed in October 1969 by artists Jon Hendricks, Poppy Johnson, Silvianna, Joanne Stamerra, Virginia Toche and Jean Toche, GAAG used violent-non-violent direct action to attack and ridicule an (art) establishment corrupted by profit and private interest. Sound familiar? Blood Bath. Cockroach release. Letters. Manifestos. Licensing cards.

1971: Seth Siegelaub's The Artist's Reserved Rights Transfer And Sale Agreement

Until things change: use this contract. Hans Haacke still does.

1972: Boston Visual Artists' Union

An artists' union forms in Boston and remains active until 1979. In 1977 members of the BVAU protest the $4 entry fee for "The Massachusetts Open" at Worcester Art Museum. 

1972: International Wages for Housework Campaign

Founded in 1972 with the publication of Power of Women and the Subversion of the Community by Mariarosa Dalla Costa and Selma James, the International Wages for Housework Campaign demanded remuneration from the state for unwaged work in the home and community, asserting that the work women do outside of the market reproduces the entire working class—and thus, the market economy is entirely built on the unwaged work of women. Out of this movement came Black Women for Wages for Housework, Wages Due Lesbians, the English Collective of Prostitutes and WinVisible (women with visible and invisible disabilities).

1973: Hollis Frampton

Some things never change: The elucidating letter written to MoMA's Curator of Film by Hollis Frampton in 1973.

1974: Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA)

An extension of the WPA, CETA was enacted in 1973 to train workers and provide them with jobs in the public service. Under it, artists were recognized as chronically unemployed and in 1974 the San Francisco Arts Commission initiated the CETA/Neighborhood Arts Program, employing artists as salaried, community-based cultural workers. Providing free performances, workshops, classes, and exhibitions, CETA artists were pivotal to the revitalization of neighborhoods by bringing with them critical funding that sustained small cultural organizations serving Black, Hispanic, Asian, and Native American communities. By the late 1970s CETA was the largest public funding source for the arts, employing over 10,000 artists nationwide with an annual budget in 1978 of $75 million. In New York, the formation of CETA Artists Organization (CAO) served to unify artist workers. While not recognized as a collective bargaining unit, it advocated for more jobs under CETA and to make the program permanent. It also worked with non-artist CETA workers, including District 37 Municipal Labor Union.

1975: The Second American Artists Congress

Almost 40 years after the first congress in 1936, Survival!, the second convening, was hosted by the Boston Visual Artists' Union, the largest individual artists organization in America.

1985: The Guerrilla Girls

Reinventing the "f" word for the art world - feminism.

 

Reading List

1506 Words, Including 15 Footnotes by Claudia La Rocco

9.5 Theses on Art and Class by Ben Davis

A Brief History of Neoliberalism by David Harvey

A Guidebook of Alternative Nows edited by Amber Hickey 

A Letter to Goldsmiths Art Students on Capitalism, Art and Pseudo-Critique by Prolapsarian

A Manual for the Immaterial Worker by Bureau for Open Culture

A Postcapitalist Politics by JK Gibson-Graham 

A Short Life of Trouble: Forty Years in the New York Art World by Marcia Tucker

A White Institution's Guide to Welcoming People of Color and their Audiences by Fannie Sosa and Tabita Rezaire

Accessibility in the Arts: A Promise and a Practice by Carolyn Lazard 

Agitate! Educate! Organize! American Labor Posters by Lincoln Cushing & Timothy W. Drescher

AIDS Demo Graphics by Douglas Crimp 

Alternative Art New York: 1965-1985 edited by Julie Ault 

An Aesthetic Education in the Era of Globalization by Gayatri Spivak

Are You Working Too Much? Post-Fordism, Precarity, and the Labor of Art edited by Julieta Aranda, Brian Kuan Wood, and Anton Vidokle

Art after Money, Money after Art: Creative Strategies Against Financialization by Max Haiven 

Art and its Institutions: Current Conflicts, Critique and Collaborations edited by Nina Möntmann

Art and Revolution: Transversal Activism in the Long Twentieth Century by Gerald Raunig

Art and the 99% by Erin Sickler

Art and Value by Dave Beech

Art as an Autonomous Commodity within the Global Market by Dan Zimmerman

Art for the Millions: Essays from the 1930s by Artists and Administrators of the WPA Federal Art Project edited by Francis V. O’Connor

Art Futures by Anthony Davies and Simon Ford

Art Gallery Exhibiting: The Gallery as a Vehicle for Art edited by Paul Andriesse

Art Workers: Material Conditions and Labour Struggles in Contemporary Art Practice edited by Airi Triisberg, Erik Krikortz & Minna Henriksson

Art Workers: Radical Practice in the Vietnam War Era by Julia Bryan-Wilson

Art (world) & racism by Howardena Pindell

Art Worlds by Howard S. Becker

Artistic Labor Markets and Careers by Pierre-Michel Menger

Artistic Labour, Enclosure and the New Economy by Alberto López Cuenca

Artistic Lives: A Study of Creativity in Two European Cities by Kirsten Forkert

Artists Against War and Fascism: Papers of the First American Artists’ Congress edited by Matthew Baigell and Julia Williams

Artists in the Workforce: Employment and Earnings 1970-1990 by Neil O. Alper and Gregory H. Wassail, Joan Jeffri and Robert Greenblatt, Ann O. Kay, Stephyn G. W. Butcher and Harry Hillman Chartrand 

Artists' Work Classification by Alison Gerber

Arts and Social Exclusion: A Review Prepared for the Arts Council of England by Helen Jermyn

Arts Workers in California by the Urban Institute (Jenny R. Yang, Amanda Briggs, Jessica Shakesprere, Natalie Spievack, Shayne Spaulding, Steven Brown)

Beauty & The Beast: Collectivity and the Corporation by Legacy Russell

Being a Thing: The Work of Performing in the Museum by Abigail Levine

Beyond the Turnstile: Making the Case for Museums and Sustainable Values by Selma Holo and Marie-Tere Alvarez 

Capitalism and Disability by Marta Russell and Ravi Malhotra

Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative? by Mark Fisher

Civic Virtue in Neoliberalism and Contemporary Art's Cartelisation by Suhail Malik

Class, Race, and Marxism by David R. Roediger

Code of Ethics for Museums by the American Association of Museums

Crack Capitalism by John Holloway

Creative Enterprise: Contemporary Art between Museum and Marketplace by Martha Buskirk

Critique as Alibi: Moral Differentiation in the Art Market by Suhail Malik

Critique of Creativity: Precarity, Subjectivity and Resistance in the 'Creative Industries' edited by Gerald Raunig, Gene Ray and Ulf Wuggenig 

Cruel Optimism by Lauren Berlant

Culture Incorporated by Mark W. Rectanus

Dark Matter: Art and Politics in the Age of Enterprise Culture by Gregory Sholette 

Debt: the First 5,000 Years by David Graeber 

Democracy: A Project Of Group Material (1990) Edited by Brian Wallis

Do the Right Thing: A Manual from the Malmo Free University for Women by Lisa Nyberg and Johanna Gustavsson

Economies of Abandonment: Social Belonging and Endurance in Late Liberalism by Elizabeth A.Povinelli

Eikonomia: Notes on Economy and the Labor of Art by Sotirios Bahtsetzis

Ethics And the Visual Arts edited by Elaine A. King & Gail Levin 

European Cultural Policies 2015: A Report with Scenarios on the Future of Public Funding for Contemporary Art in Europe edited by Maria Lind and Raimund Minichbauer

Former West Research Library, a project by BAK

Free Labor: Producing Culture for the Digital Economy by Tiziana Terranova

Free Your Mind: A Speculative Review of #NewMoMA by Claire Bishop and Nikki Columbus

From Institutional Critique to Institutional Liberation? A Decolonial Perspective on the Crises of Contemporary Art by MTL Collective

Fusing Arts, Culture and Social Change: High Impact Strategies for Philanthropy by Holly Sidford

GAAG: The Guerrilla Art Action Group, 1969-1976: A Selection by Jean Toche and Jon Hendricks with Poppy Johnson

Grammar of the Multitude: For an Analysis of Contemporary Forms of Life by Paolo Virno

Hands: Physical Labor, Class, and Cultural Work by Janet Zandy

Harnessing the Means of Production by Rebecca Gordon Nesbitt 

Heteropatriarchy and the Three Pillars of White Supremacy by Andrea Smith

High Price: Art Between the Market and Celebrity Culture by Isabelle Graw

Human Capital or Toxic Asset: After the Wage by Marina Vishmidt

I'd Rather Talk About the Post-part by Ralph Lemon

If You Don't Have Bread, Eat Art!: Contemporary Art and Derivative Fascisms by Hito Steyerl

Immaterial Labour by Maurizio Lazzarato

Incomplete Decommodification: Art, State Subsidy and Welfare Economics by Dave Beech

In the Break: The Aesthetics of the Black Radical Tradition by Fred Moten

Intern Nation: How to Earn Nothing and Learn Little in the Brave New Economy by Ross Perlin 

International Art English by Alix Rule & David Levine

Is A Museum A Factory? by Hito Steyerl

Liquid Modernity by Zygmunt Bauman

Loft Living: Culture and Capital in Urban Change by Sharon Zukin with an introduction by David Harvey 

Made in Art School by Lise Soskolne

Measuring the Economic and Social Impact of the Arts: A Review by Michelle Reeves

Mistaken Identity: Race and Class in the Age of Trump by Asad Haider

Models of Integrity: Art and Law in Post-Sixties America by Joan Kee

Mounting Frustration: The Art Museum in the Age of Black Power by Susan E. Cahan

Museum Highlights by Andrea Fraser

Navigating Social Capital in Support of the Occupations: Some Advice for Institutions by Nato Thompson

Neo-Bohemia: Art and Commerce in the Postindustrial City by Richard Lloyd 

New Institutionalism edited by Jonas Ekeberg

NewLiberalSpeak: Notes on the new planetary vulgate by Pierre Bourdieu and Loïc Wacquant

Nice Work If You Can Get It: Life and Labor in Precarious Times by Andrew Ross 

Notes on the edu–factory and Cognitive Capitalism by George Caffentzis / Silvia Federici

On (Surplus) Value in Art by Diedrich Diederichsen 

On the Necessity of Art's Exit from Contemporary Art by Suhail Malik (video documentation of lecture series)

Open Letter to Labor Servicing the Culture Industry by Chris Kasper

Other Forms of Conviviality: The best and least of which is our daily care and the host of which is our collaborative work by Park McArthur and Constantina Zavitsanos

Out of Order, Out of Sight, Volume 1 by Adrian Piper

Out of Order, Out of Sight, Volume 2 by Adrian Piper

Philanthropy in America: A History by Olivier Zunz

Plan 9 From the Capitalist Workplace: Insurgency, Originary Accumulation, Rupture by Stevphen Shukaitis

Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism by Frederic Jameson

Preliminary Materials for a Theory of the Young-Girl by Tiqqun and translated by Ariana Reines

Pricing Works of Art by Ian Burn (The Fox, 1975)

Prognosis on Collaboration by Bojana Kunst

Radical Thought in Italy: A Potential Politics edited by Michael Hardt and Paolo Virno 

Re-thinking Creative Economy as Radical Social Enterprise by Angela McRobbie

Researching Artists' Working Lives by Phyllida Shaw

Revenge Fantasies of the Politically Dispossessed (fiction) by Jacob Wren

Revolution at Point Zero: Housework, Reproduction, and Feminist Struggle by Silvia Federici

Risk Society by Ulrich Beck

Self-Organised edited by Stine Hebert and Anne Szefer Karlsen

Size Matters by Sarah Thelwall for Common Practice London

Some Random Ruminations on Value by Yvonne Rainer

Something out of Nothing: Marcia Tucker, Jeffrey Deitch and the De-regulation of the Contemporary-Museum Model by Nizan Shaked

Speculation as a Mode of Production by Marina Vishmidt

Strike Art: Contemporary Art and the Post-Occupy Condition by Yates McKee

Studies of Artists: An Annotated Directory by Donnell Butler, Princeton University Center for Arts and Cultural Policy Studies

Surviving Internships: A Counter Guide to Free Labour in the Arts by Carrot Workers Collective

Tainted Love: Art's Ethos and Capitalization by Suhail Malik and Andrea Phillips

Take Me I'm Yours: Neoliberalising the Cultural Institution by Anthony Davies

Talking Prices: Symbolic Meanings of Prices on the Market for Contemporary Art by Olav Velthuis

Terms and Conditions: Management Edition by Wealth of Negations

Terms and Conditions: Welfare Edition by Wealth of Negations

The ABC of the Projectariat: Living and working in a precarious art world by Kuba Szreder

The Affective Turn: Theorizing The Social edited by Patricia Ticineto Clough and Jean Halley 

The Artist's Contract by Maria Eichhorn

The Audit of Venus by Alison Gerber

The Biennial Reader edited by Marieke van Hal, Solveig Ovstebo, Elena Filipovic.

The Corrosion of Character: The Personal Consequences of Work in the New Capitalism by Richard Sennett

The Death of the Artist: How Creators Are Struggling to Survive in the Age of Billionaires and Big Tech by William Deresiewicz

The Design of Dissent: Socially and Politically Driven Graphics by Milton Glaser & Mirko Ilic

The Economics of Art and Culture by James Heilbrun & Charles M. Gray

The End of Capitalism (As We Knew It): A Feminist Critique of Political Economy by JK Gibson-Graham 

The End of Work: The Decline of the Global Labor Force and the Dawn of the Post-Market Era by Jeremy Rifkin

The Enigma of Capital and the Crises of Capitalism by David Harvey

The Field of Cultural Production by Pierre Bourdieu

The Fine Art of Gentrification by Rosalyn Deutsche and Cara Gendel Ryan 

The Gentrification of the Mind by Sarah Schulman

The Gift: Creativity and the Artist in the Modern World by Lewis Hyde

The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time by Karl Polyani

The Immaterial by Andre Gorz

The Irony of American History by Reinhold Niebuhr

The Mental Labor Problem by Andrew Ross

The mimicry of artistic practices in not a novelty – why art institutions still lack a method to support this phenomenon? by Nada Prlja

The Misfortunes of the "Artistic Critique" and of Cultural Employment by Maurizio Lazzarato

The Neoliberal Undead: Essays on Contemporary Art and Politics by Marc James Léger

The New Conservatism: Complicity and the UK Art World's Performance of Progression by Morgan Quaintance

The New Deal Art Projects: An Anthology of Memoirs edited by Francis V. O’Connor 

The New Spirit of Capitalism by Luc Boltanski & Eve Chiapello

The Next American Revolution: Sustainable Activism for the Twenty-First Century by Grace Lee Boggs 

The Other America: Art and the Labour Movement in the United States by Philip S. Foner & Reinhard Schultz

The People's Cultural Plan by The People's Cultural Plan

The Politics of Production: a report on the conditions for producing 'artists' moving image' by Dan Ward, commissioned by City Projects

The Power of Women and the Subversion of the Community by Mariarosa Dalla Costa & Selma James

The Problem with Work: Feminism, Marxism, Antiwork Politics, and Postwork Imaginaries by Kathi Weeks 

The Profitable Artist: A Handbook for All Artists in the Performing, Literary, and Visual Arts published by the New York Foundation for the Arts

The Revolution Will Not Be Funded: Beyond the Non-Profit Industrial Complex INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence

The Rich And The Rest Of Us: A Poverty Manifesto by Tavis Smiley and Cornell West

The Sadness of Post-Workerism by David Graeber

The Triple Negation of Colored Women Artists by Adrian Piper

The Undercommons by Stefano Harney and Fred Moten

The Wages of Whiteness: Race and the Making of the American Working Class by David R. Roediger

The Work of Art: Value in Creative Careers by Alison Gerber

There Is No Alternative: The Future is Self Organised by Anthony Davies, Stephan Dillemuth and Jakob Jakobsen

There's No Place Like Home and L'1% C'est Moi by Andrea Fraser

This Work Isn't For Us by Jemma Desai

Tidal: Occupy Theory, Occupy Strategy by Occupy Wall Street

To Defend the Revolution Is to Defend Culture: The Cultural Policy of the Cuban Revolution by Rebecca Gordon-Nesbitt

Training for Exploitation? Politicising Employability and Reclaiming Education by Precarious Workers Brigade

Unconcealed: The International Network of Conceptual Artists 1967–77: Dealers, Exhibitions and Public Collections by Sophie Richard

Untitled (Labour): Contemporary Art & Immaterial Production (conference)

Usus Pauper by Howie Chen

Value, Price and Profit by Karl Marx

Wage Labour and Capital by Karl Marx

Wage Theft in America by Kim Bobo

Wages Against Artwork by Leigh Claire La Berge

Wages Against Housework by Silvia Federici

Wages For Facebook by Laurel Ptak

Waging Culture: A Report on the Socio-Economic Status of Canadian Visual Artists by Michael Maranda, The Art Gallery of York University

What We Want Is Free: Generosity And Exchange In Recent Art by Ted Purves

White Collar: The American Middle Classes by C. Wright Mills

Whiteness as Property by Cheryl I. Harris

Whitewalling: Art, Race & Protest in 3 Acts by Aruna D'Souza

Who Cares? Dance in the Gallery & Museum by Sara Wookey

Why Are Artists Poor? The Exceptional Economy of the Arts by Hans Abbing

Work, Work, Work: A Reader on Art and Labour edited by Jonatan Habib Engqvist, Annika Enqvist, Michele Masucci, Lisa Rosendahl, Cecilia Widenheim

You Are Not A Gadget by Jaron Lanier

Press

Paying Artists, Equitably

Art New England, May/June 2021

 

Where Artists and Amazon Workers Align

Hyperallergic, January 2020

 

Small Arts Groups Spend Greater Percentage of Budgets Paying Artists Than Large Ones: Report

ARTnews, December 2019

 

Arts Group Evaluates Five Years of Fair-Pay Certification

Next City, December 2019

 

Special Report: ‘Toxic donors’ are coming under fire at art museums — but not in liberal San Francisco. What will SFMOMA do?

Mission Local, May 2019

 

The Accidental Activist

Tikkun, April 2019

 

Arts Power 50: The Changemakers Shaping the Art World in 2019

The Observer, April 2019

 

The Artist-Activists Decolonizing the Whitney Museum

The Paris Review, March 2019

 

Activists Plan To Take On The Whitney Museum With "Nine Weeks of Art and Action"

Artforum, February 2019

 

Here Are the 75 Artists Appearing in the 2019 Whitney Biennial—and the One Who Declined in Protest

Artnet, February 2019

 

2019 Whitney Biennial Announces Participating Artists

Artforum, February 2019

 

The Whitney Biennial: 75 Artists Are In, and One Dissenter Steps Out

The New York Times, February 2019

 

Museums in the changing world order: a question of ethics

The Art Newspaper, February 2019

 

Why Artists are Struggling to Make a Living From Their Art (and the Activists Fighting Back)

Frieze, February 2019

 

Pulling Out of the Whitney

PARIS-LA, January 2019

 

‘Whitney Museum, Shame on You’: Decolonize This Place Holds Town Hall on Warren B. Kanders Controversy

ArtNews, January 2019

 

W.A.G.E and Other Activist Organizations Call on Artists to Pull Support From Whitney Biennial

ALL ARTS, January 2019

 

Artists Urged to Boycott Whitney Biennial in Protest Against Tear Gas Manufacturer Links

Frieze, January 2019

 

W.A.G.E. Calls on Artists to Withhold Works from Upcoming Whitney Biennial

Artforum, January 2019

 

W.A.G.E. Asks Artists to Demand Payment and Withhold Content from 2019 Whitney Biennial

Hyperallergic, January 2019

 

Tops & Flops 2018 (Harry Burke)

Spike Magazine, December 2018

 

Can Artists Organize? The Story of W.A.G.E.

The New Yorker, December 2018

 

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

Girls Like Us, Issue #11, November 2018

 

Artists’ campaigns for better pay are picking up pace – but will museums take note?

Apollo, November 2018

 

Hoping to Alter Industry Compensation Standards, W.A.G.E. Launches Platform for Negotiating Artists’ Fees

ARTnews, October 2018

 

A new job to unwork at

4Columns, September 2018

 

This Online Calculator Helps Artists Demand Fair Pay

Frieze, September 2018

 

W.A.G.E. Introduces Fee Calculator to Help Artists Negotiate Fair Pay

Artforum, September 2018

 

WAGE Just Released a Calculator That Tells Artists If They’re Getting Paid Fairly for Their Work

Artnet, September 2018

 

Digital platform aims to help artists get fair pay

The Art Newspaper, September 2018

 

Tribune de Geneve, September 2018

 

Esse 94, Fall 2018

 

The Art of Fair Pay

The Philadelphia Citizen, June 2018

 

W.A.G.E. Hike

Metalsmith Tech, Spring 2018

 

Integrity and Nonprofit Values: Examples of Alignment and Misalignment

Nonprofit Quarterly, April 2018

 

#Paietonartiste

Le Courrier, March 2018

 

What It Means for ICA Philadelphia to Become the First WAGE-Certified Museum—and Why Other Institutions Should Care

Artnet, March 2018

 

First W.A.G.E. Certified Museum Speaks Volumes for Individual Artist Support

Grantmakers in the Arts, March 2018

 

ICA Philadelphia Receives W.A.G.E. Certification

ARTnews, March 2018

 

ICA Philadelphia Becomes First Museum Certified By W.A.G.E.

Artforum, March 2018

 

Philadelphia’s Institute of Contemporary Art Is the First Museum Certified by W.A.G.E.

Hyperallergic, March 2018

 

The Carnegie International Becomes First Biennial-Style Exhibition Certified by W.A.G.E.

Hyperallergic, December 2017

 

Carnegie International Named First W.A.G.E.-Certified Biennial-Style Show

ARTnews, December 2017

 

Fifty-Seventh Edition of Carnegie International Is the First Biennial Certified by W.A.G.E.

Artforum, December 2017

 

Carnegie International Commits To Fair Artist Pay

Artdaily, December 2017

  

Faut-il payer les artistes?

Le Courrier, August 2017

 

10 Organizations Helping Artists Build Community

Art511 Magazine, July 2017

 

"You May Add or Subtract From the Work"

Artforum, April 2017

 

Squeaky Wheel Joins National Movement To Pay Artists

The Buffalo News, March 2017

 

A Timeline of Attempts to Fix the Art World

ARTnews, January 2017

 

The Interventionists: Working Artists and the Greater Economy

Cultured Magazine, November 2016

Advocacy Group W.A.G.E. on What Its First Survey Tells Us About How Artists Are Treated in NYC

Artinfo, April 2012

 

Likes late-capitalist endgames, hates artists...

Possible Press, Volume 2, Issue 2, May 2011

 

Labor Movement: Nato Thompson interviews W.A.G.E.

Artforum International, March 2011

 

W.A.G.E. speeches 

Taipei Biennial 2010, organized by Tirdad Zolghadr, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taiwan, September 2010

 

WHITNEY WATCH

W.A.G.E. Open Letter

 

W.A.G.E. rage inside 'Democracy in America'
JamesWagner.com, October 2008