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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
An update on the development of WAGENCY, posted on wageforwork.com on January 19, 2017.
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.
An introduction to WAGENCY, circulated on November 21, 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?
Written and circulated in response to the museum's announcement of expansion plans in May 2016. Circulated on May 16, 2016.
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.
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.
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.
A text commissioned for SUPERCOMMUNITY, e-flux journal's contribution to the 56th Venice Biennale.
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.
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.
An illustrated PDF, #17 in Printed Matter's Artists & Activists series, published by Printed Matter, Inc.
How to announce to your board that your organization is going to pay artist fees.
An intervention at the New Museum (all ethics have left the building and mother is turning in her grave).
An open letter to the institution from W.A.G.E.
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.
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.
