THE ARTS POLITIC ISSUE : BIAS | SPRING EDITOR Jasmine Jamillah Mahmoud EXECUTIVE EDITOR Danielle Kline CREATIVE DIRECTOR Kemeya Harper CULTURE EDITOR RonAmber Deloney 15 COLUMNISTS RonAmber Deloney and Brandon Woolf CONTRIBUTING WRITERS & ARTISTS Melanie Cervantes, Edward P. Clapp, Rhoda Draws, Amelia Edelman, Shanthony Exum, Rachel Falcone, Arlene Goldbard, Robert A. K. Gonyo, Malvika Maheshwari, Ashley Marinaccio, Gisele Morey, Michael Premo, Bridgette Raitz, Betty Lark Ross, RVLTN, Gregory Sholette and Wendy Testu. CONTRIBUTING VOICES Chris Appleton, Sally Baghsaw, Phillip Bimstein, Joshua Clover, Dan Cowan, Maria Dumlao, Kevin Erickson, Elizabeth Glidden, Joe Goode, Art Hazelwood, Elaine Kaufmann, Danielle Mysliwiec, Judy Nemzoff, Anne Polashenski, Garey Lee Posey, Kevin Postupack, Gregory Sholette, Manon Slome and Robynn Takayama. FOUNDING EDITORS Danielle Evelyn Kline & Jasmine Jamillah Mahmoud SPECIAL THANKS Department of Art and Public Policy at Tisch School of the Arts, NYU 31 THE ARTS POLITIC is a print-and-online magazine dedicated to solving problems at the intersection of arts and politics. Cultural policy, arts activism, political art, the creative economy—THE ARTS 12 POLITIC creates a conversation amongst leaders, activists, and idea-makers along the pendulum of global civic responsibility. A forum for creative and political thinking, a stage for emerging art, and a platform for social change, THE ARTS POLITIC provides a space that is intelligent, that is visionary, that is thoughtful, that will TAP new ideas from the frontlines to get things done. Copyright ©2010 by THE ARTS POLITIC. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. If you would like to order the print edition and/or subscribe to the online edition, please visit: theartspolitic.com/subscribe. We welcome your art, essays, poetry and more. For our guidelines, please visit: theartspolitic.com/submissions. Letters to the Editor can be sent via e-mail to: [email protected] General inquires can be sent via e-mail to: [email protected] Visit THE ARTS POLITIC online for articles, blog, our network index and more: theartspolitic.com ISBN: 978-0-557-40808-5 Contents in this issue LETTER FROM THE EDITOR 1 COMMENTS 3 LETTER TO THE POLICYMAKER 4 A high school teacher from Chicago, IL writes to United States Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, imploring him to make arts education matter. 8 OPENING ACTS Briefs & Trends 6 Reports The Living Voter Guide: A Performance Report 8 by Robert A. K. Gonyo and Ashley Marinaccio The Political Economy of International Art: A Report on the 11th Istanbul Biennial 12 by Gregory Sholette Policy Brief Update: Artists in Empty Storefronts 15 by Jasmine Mahmoud Dialogue 28 City Council Candidates on Arts Policy 21 Interviews by Jasmine Mahmoud 50 Columns Questioning Cultural Diplomacy 28 by Brandon Woolf The Arts is Where It’s At! A Soapbox Moment for Arts Education 31 by RonAmber Deloney SPECIAL REPORT: BIAS Essays & Reports Mistaking Inclusion for Exclusion: Fighting Bias with Bias 34 by Edward P. Clapp Contents Housing is a Human Right: Stories from the Struggle for Home 36 by Rachel Falcone and Michael Premo The March for Kronos: All-Ages Arts Venues Under Attack 44 by Jasmine Mahmoud Dissecting Domination in Art: Positioning Dalit Artists in India Today 50 by Malvika Maheshwari TAP*MAP 54 Regional perspectives on bias Policy Brief 66 Arts policy strategies to confront and harness bias 69 EXHIBITION 69 Melanie Cervantes Rhoda Draws Bridgette Raitz RVLTN The Welcome to the NeighborHOOD Project POETRY 94 by Amelia Edelman LIBRARY 98 Cultural critic Joshua Clover talks about Miley Cyrus, Dee-Lite, and his latest book, 54 1989: Bob Dylan Didn’t Have This to Sing About 98 REFERENCES 102 ENDNOTE 103 by Arlene Goldbard REMEMBERING BACK COVER The People Speak by Shanthony Exum letter from the editor Lessons from Zinn For the past few months, I have been practicing chamber music with a string quartet. I play second violin (a position ripe for “second fiddle” jokes) with three other women, who—like me—seek one moment in the week for word-free, string-filled harmony. In our quest, I noticed something curious. Our repertoire includes “Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring” (Bach), “Arrival of the Queen of Sheba” (Handel), “Air on the G String” (Bach), “Summertime” (Gershwin), and “Prelude from English Suite No. 3” (Bach). A lot of Bach. We string players, like everyone else, have biases. This issue was born within a resonant field of bias. Tenth anniversary stagings of The Laramie Project. Uninformed words about the arts scene in Peroria, IL from the top arts official in the land, NEA Chair Rocco Landesman. Contested high school stagings of Rent. Jerry Saltz, a top art critic, decrying gender bias at the Museum of Modern Art, a top museum. The above has mostly lived in the space of last year, 2009. Yet, the intersection of bias and the arts provides a stream of longstanding and current material. It’s the yearly recognition that the Academy Awards celebrate “bests” in a rather THE ARTS POLITIC | 1 homogenous and politicized field. (That said, landmark 2010 why, in “Policy Brief Update: Artists in Empty Storefronts,” I wins by Kathryn Bigelow for Best Director and Mo’Nique for interviewed engineers of art-in-storefront campaigns to chart Best Supporting Actress indicate, perhaps, the path towards this trend for future practitioners. a new and needed direction). It’s the recurring fight for arts A second lesson: “What matters most is not who is sitting in funding—and by extension recognition that the arts are not the White House, but ‘who is sitting in’—and who is marching “second fiddle,” but rather a valid part of society—at local, state outside the White House, pushing for change.” Teenagers in and federal levels. (For more instances and solutions, see “Arts Staunton, VA knew this when they stormed their town hall— Policy Brief.”) fifty youth strong—to protest the closing of Kronos Art Gallery, But there are also less told stories of bias. In San as chronicled in the Special Report interview, “The March for Francisco, artist Wendy Testu curated “The Welcome to the Kronos: All-Ages Arts Venues Under Attack.” Marching can NeighborHOOD Project.” (See Exhibition.) This youth-led take many forms—as artists Michael Premo and Rachel Falcone exhibition revealed untold portraits of Hunters Point/Bayview, reveal. They curated “Housing is a Human Right,” (also in the a waterfront neighborhood plagued by neglect: where the city Special Report section) a multimedia documentary portrait of of San Francisco allowed toxic dumping near a community everyday New Yorkers struggling to retain their homes. comprised largely of low-income African-American residents. In Third lesson: “We don’t have to engage in grand, heroic Cambridge, MA doctoral student Edward Clapp put out what actions to participate in the process of change. Small acts, when became a controversial call for 20UNDER40, for essays about multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world.” Take how to improve the arts from those under forty-years of age. Betty Lark Ross, a teacher in Chicago, IL, who wrote to United (See his thoughts on the controversy in the Special Report essay States Secretary of Education Arne Duncan in “Letter to the “Mistaking Inclusion for Exclusion.”) When editing this issue, I Policymaker.” With frustration and proposed solutions, Ross strived to unearth these stories of bias to best improve the arts. implored Duncan to make the arts matter in public education. But the significance of this issue goes beyond the arts. Her means to improve arts education—a letter—is an example Earlier this year when Howard Zinn passed, I was reminded of that many of us can follow. his gift. Zinn, the People’s historian, chronicled history through A fourth lesson: “The artist… is telling us what the world the stories of everyday folk and their struggle for a more perfect should be like, even if it isn’t that way now. The artist is taking us society, a struggle to match the rhetoric of inclusivity, equality away from moments of horror… by showing us what is possible.” and justice to reality. Zinn’s bias—to cover untold stories—was Some policymakers, like Seattle, WA City Councilmember his tool against bias. Sally Bagshaw, know this. To best plan a new waterfront for Lessons from Zinn better illuminate why investigations the emerald city, Bagshaw incorporated artists into Seattle’s around arts, politics and bias are necessary. Zinn wrote, “What waterfront planning (See Dialogue for more). In Exhibition and we learn about the past does not give us absolute truth about TAP*MAP, artists like Garry Lee Posey and Joe Goode, two the present, but it may cause us to look deeper than the glib directors of anti-bias plays, speak about staging possibilities of statements made by political leaders and the ‘experts’ quoted in justice and progress. the press.” Information is a powerful activism tool. This Robert Throughout this issue, we celebrate Howard Zinn’s anti-bias A. K. Gonyo and Ashley Marinaccio—founders and Artistic ethos. (Flip the magazine to the back cover to find Shanthony Directors of Co-op Theatre East, a New York City-based theater Exum’s tribute to Zinn.) But we also identify, and even—when company that produces civically engaged performance—prove. appropriate—celebrate, our own biases. We, each of us, have During last year’s election season, they staged “The Living biases, which when recognized, can be a tool for understanding Voter Guide” on the streets of New York City—a performed and and action. Very much like quartet practice, an awareness of informative guide for passerbys about upcoming city races. (See the ongoing concert of biases can act as needed moment for Opening Acts.) Similarly the Brainstromers—an art collective, harmony, and for progress.