ART WORKERS LAB @ PS122GALLERY

Special Lab Hours Thursday - Saturday 12-6p + by appt.

The Art Workers Lab’s core programs will be organized by and with Culture Workers Education Center (“CWEC”), Museum Workers Happy Hour (“MWHH”), and PS122 Gallery. Additionally, the organizers will invite a diverse group of partners and projects to convene at PS122 Gallery and work on ongoing or new projects that focus on the development of tangible resources for workers in the arts. One such project is the featured Documents of Resistance, with a focus on workers of color, by MWHH co-organizer and artist Antonio Serna.
During the lab, MWHH will hold five sessions to develop The Museum Workers Manifesto. Museum workers from across New York City—including workers at cultural and community centers/organizations—will collaborate on a collective document rooted in ethics, accountability, equity, and workers’ rights that envisions the kind of mutual support that can be given and received from the museum community, be it employers, co-workers, contractors, specialists, visitors, community members, both local and international.
New interventions, collaborations, and experiments will be coupled with information- and resource-sharing cultivated for the duration of the lab. There are opportunities for labor-focused groups beyond the organizers’ existing and preferred networks to find time and space for their community/public engagement. Groups wishing to contribute should plan to organize or participate in at least one program at the gallery during the Lab in order to refine an ongoing process, solicit feedback on their ideas, display final resources, or make visible their process of developing ideas.

Programs and experiments may produce through their process: visual content, printed or electronic media, and communications materials, or other resources that contribute to a growing body of shared resources.

PROGRAM

ONGOING Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays 12:00 - 6:00pm Art Workers Lab Open Office Hours

Anyone can stop by to learn about PS122, MWHH, and CWEC, engage with materials in the gallery, and sign up for future programs. For Thursday appointments w/ CWEC, please contact: info@cultureworkers.org

Friday, Jan 24, 6:00 - 9:00pm Art Workers Lab Kick-Off Party

Saturday, Jan 25, 4:00 - 6:00pm Precarious Labor: A roundtable on Freelancers, Community Art Practices, and Museums CWEC hosts a roundtable conversation prompted by artist and educator Kerry Downey on the practice and implications of using freelance and precarious workers to execute community based arts programs.

Thursday, Jan 30, 7:00 - 8:30pm Manifesto Session 1:

American Indian Community House Study Session on the Great Law of Peace American Indian Community House is offering an opportunity for museum and cultural workers to learn from their Haudenosaunee neighbors about the Great Law of Peace, the guiding principles of a governance system indigenous to New York state.

Theme: Museum Governance & Community Accountability

Friday, Jan 31, 7:00 - 8:30pm Manifesto Session 2:

Civil Rights X Workers Rights Lessons from the Black Workers Movement of the 1960s. As part of his Document of Resistance art/archive project, Antonio Serna, artist and co-organizer of MWHH, will present a film and archival items related to revolutionary black workers movement of the late 60s. A discussion will follow about the relationship between civil rights, human rights, and workers rights, drawing parallels between the factory and the museum. Theme: Labor Rights, Working Conditions, Worker Strategies

Thursday, Feb 6, 6:00 - 9:00pm Performance at 7:00pm Manifesto Session 3:

Abang-guard: Museum Worker Participatory Performance

Theme: Unifying Potential of Work. i.e. Loving what we do

Sunday, Feb 9, 1:00 - 3:00pm Manifesto Session 4:

Access Issues for Museum Workers & Visitors Tressa Belesi and Lily Lipman are the co-founders of the Access Caucus at the Tenement Museum. The session will explore what it means to be a worker with a disability. Tressa and Lily will facilitate a discussion about improving accessibility for workers and visitors at museums and cultural institutions.

Theme: Access

Sunday, Feb 16, 1:00 - 4:00pm Manifesto Session 5:

Multi-Topic Manifesto Session This session will address topics including stewardship and worker care care, diversity and inclusion issues relating to race, and potentially more. Representatives from different museums will facilitate break out groups depending on topic.

Themes: Worker Care, Issues Relating to Race

HOSTED BY

Culture Workers Education Center

and PS122 Gallery

For inquiries, please contact: Ian Cofre, Director info@ps122gallery.org

IG: @ps122gallery

***PS122 Gallery is free and open to the public and inclusive of all people, regardless of race, ethnicity, age, LGBTQIA identity, and class. Conveniently located on the ground floor of the 122 Community Center in the East Village of Manhattan near several public transportation lines, PS122 Gallery provides wheelchair accessibility through the 122CC main entrance, as well as wheelchair accessible water fountains and all-gender restrooms.****