imagine yourself performing your craft
in front of customers only to find out
that you’re not being paid for what
you’re worth if you’ve invested your
time and money into perfecting your
skill set of your craft you might find
yourself deeper in debt if you’re not
adequately compensated can you think of
any industries where this might be
happening well when was the last time
any of you walked by a musician enjoyed
her performance but didn’t compensate
her or when was the last time you went
to an art opening just to enjoy the free
drinks well my name is Arthur Poland oh
I’m here to talk to you about a
conversation one about the inequities of
the art world but more importantly how
art collective I’m a part of created
debt fair and debt Fair empowers artists
by highlighting these inequities that
Fair was a art installation that was
included in the 2017 Whitney Biennial
and we opened up a nationwide discussion
about art and debt and over 500 artists
collaborated presently I’m a working
artist I’m a museum technician and
reside in New York City I hold a BFA MFA
and a PhD in Fine Arts critical studies
but it’s our art collective occupy
museums that’s the generator this
project and the other members our tale
Barry Imani Jacqueline Brown Noah Fisher
Kenneth Pietro Bono and Gabriela spawned
you might ask yourself what’s a group of
artists why do they need to get together
in New York City to protest and organize
about the art inequities that’s where
all the best art opportunities are right
well I’m here today to talk about dead
and in case you haven’t guessed my
more than tripled and sometimes in my
case in the price of many others the
price of being an artist is dead and I’m
sure we all can agree about the
collective wealth and benefits that art
has in our society but think about where
would we be without this shared wealth
of the cultural institution libraries
schools theaters museums opera houses
where would our culture be maybe some of
you have like me student loans or
medical debt everyone in debt has to
structure their lives around these
payments that they have to make there in
2014 our collective started out by
creating these architectural models of
debt fair the next image and what we
wanted to do to show artists in debt
their artworks alongside of other Mucha
artists that are in these top-tier
and after some favorable reviews of this
exhibition in Brooklyn
there was a organization called Art
League Houston and they invited us to
come on down have ourselves a Texas
State Fair down the road a few hours and
Texan artists submitted images of their
artwork and they also answered some
questions about their debt and how it
affected their art practice if you go to
the next slide it shows the Houston Art
Fair in its full entirety and there’s a
group shot of what we did was cut out
holes within the sheetrock itself and we
house the artwork inside there we wanted
to show how this hidden debt is embedded
inside these cultural institutions we
wanted to make that public
the next image reflects the open gallery
shot of this
it was really a great opportunity to
work with them we also held had graphic
arts on the wall illustrating the
relationship in how artists were grouped
inside each shape and we also had
different packets and written literature
about this and the following year are
actually it was several months but we
were invited the following year in 2017
to participate in the Whitney Biennial
it was very unexpected and all of a
sudden they we started negotiating and
it was another great opportunity and
this time we were able to start the
conversation nationwide and we
collaborated with over 509 artists about
art and their relationship to debt when
they shared it on an online debt fair
platform as well
the next image shows the installation of
last year’s Whitney Biennial and those
509 artists declared over 45 million
dollars in debt if you look at the image
on the right that wall that highlights a
big projection screen and that’s a 17
and a half foot wall and this rotated
projections of the 509 artists along
with quotes and their responses to their
economic reality and how dead affected
them in their art practice those monitor
screens at the bottoms were for museum
visitors that they had the opportunity
to go up and ask her answer a handful of
questions about their own debt if they
wanted to
would you have listed your debt at the
Whitney Museum maybe just scrolled
through and seen some of the other
examples of artworks the main wall if
you could go back a slide the main wall
functions as an infographic and there we
housed 30 artworks inside the wall there
in three separate groups or what we call
bundles there’s the Puerto Rican artist
bundle the student loan servicer Navion
bundle and the Chase Bank bundle and
that jagged sawtooth edge line that’s in
red at the
reflects the global art price index
whereas the top blue line illustrates
the gains made by the hedge fund company
excuse me the hedge fund company
Blackrock in black rocks a major
investor in Chase Bank Naviance
and two top quarter Rican banks this
goes to show how artists debt is bundled
and then bought and sold freely on the
stock market and it’s sometimes it’s
really unclear of when your loans are
sold or who actually buys them meanwhile
the student loan delinquency rates keep
rising to new heights and that’s
illustrated on a line in the center of
many young artists that enter in and
gain admittance in these top-tier MFA
schools for art they held a belief
sometimes still do that that’s their
ticket into the top tier of the art
world once they get out and graduate but
really this isn’t the case it’s only for
a select few the proverbial needle in
the haystack where this happens they
think they’re going to make pens $1,000
hand over fist but this really isn’t the
case and the people the art investors
that do purchase some of these that what
they do is they flip these works
similarly to real estate investors that
flip apartment complexes or housing
buildings and if we look at the quote at
the top of the wall that’s by Larry Fink
he’s Blackrock CEO and also the Museum
of Modern Art’s board member and he
states the two greatest stores of wealth
internationally today our contemporary
yard and apartments in Manhattan and
this really hits home this analogy
occupy museums constructed debt fair in
order to create a new visual language of
how to look at art here you can see some
of the images of the details of the
artist some had figurative or political
themes others worked abstractly
was all varied in their approach to art
making and at this point I’d like to
reference a quote of our occupy museum’s
2014 press release it states how does
dead affect culture as more and more
people go into debt social mobility
decreases and people are spending their
entire lives paying off their homes cars
education and everyday expenses entire
governments are now beholden to private
investors that finance them it’s a clear
sign that the people no longer govern
themselves debt fuels a culture of
submission and the rules of this Wall
Street society sometimes taking out debt
isn’t really much of a choice and young
MFA’s are pushed into debt so early
before their careers even even really
begin meanwhile the Wall Street firms so
deep in it get bailed out and we’re left
to carry this heavy weight of debt on
our shoulders but debt is no longer a
dirty little secret that’s hidden it’s
now the stories becoming more apparent
and shared throughout the country that’s
also being spread through our middle
class and hopefully word gets out to
some of these movers and shakers people
that can make substantive change
meanwhile grassroots organizations and
arts collectives continue to fight and
come up with creative ways that they can
build a more equitable society thank you you
in front of customers only to find out
that you’re not being paid for what
you’re worth if you’ve invested your
time and money into perfecting your
skill set of your craft you might find
yourself deeper in debt if you’re not
adequately compensated can you think of
any industries where this might be
happening well when was the last time
any of you walked by a musician enjoyed
her performance but didn’t compensate
her or when was the last time you went
to an art opening just to enjoy the free
drinks well my name is Arthur Poland oh
I’m here to talk to you about a
conversation one about the inequities of
the art world but more importantly how
art collective I’m a part of created
debt fair and debt Fair empowers artists
by highlighting these inequities that
Fair was a art installation that was
included in the 2017 Whitney Biennial
and we opened up a nationwide discussion
about art and debt and over 500 artists
collaborated presently I’m a working
artist I’m a museum technician and
reside in New York City I hold a BFA MFA
and a PhD in Fine Arts critical studies
but it’s our art collective occupy
museums that’s the generator this
project and the other members our tale
Barry Imani Jacqueline Brown Noah Fisher
Kenneth Pietro Bono and Gabriela spawned
you might ask yourself what’s a group of
artists why do they need to get together
in New York City to protest and organize
about the art inequities that’s where
all the best art opportunities are right
well I’m here today to talk about dead
and in case you haven’t guessed my
more than tripled and sometimes in my
case in the price of many others the
price of being an artist is dead and I’m
sure we all can agree about the
collective wealth and benefits that art
has in our society but think about where
would we be without this shared wealth
of the cultural institution libraries
schools theaters museums opera houses
where would our culture be maybe some of
you have like me student loans or
medical debt everyone in debt has to
structure their lives around these
payments that they have to make there in
2014 our collective started out by
creating these architectural models of
debt fair the next image and what we
wanted to do to show artists in debt
their artworks alongside of other Mucha
artists that are in these top-tier
and after some favorable reviews of this
exhibition in Brooklyn
there was a organization called Art
League Houston and they invited us to
come on down have ourselves a Texas
State Fair down the road a few hours and
Texan artists submitted images of their
artwork and they also answered some
questions about their debt and how it
affected their art practice if you go to
the next slide it shows the Houston Art
Fair in its full entirety and there’s a
group shot of what we did was cut out
holes within the sheetrock itself and we
house the artwork inside there we wanted
to show how this hidden debt is embedded
inside these cultural institutions we
wanted to make that public
the next image reflects the open gallery
shot of this
it was really a great opportunity to
work with them we also held had graphic
arts on the wall illustrating the
relationship in how artists were grouped
inside each shape and we also had
different packets and written literature
about this and the following year are
actually it was several months but we
were invited the following year in 2017
to participate in the Whitney Biennial
it was very unexpected and all of a
sudden they we started negotiating and
it was another great opportunity and
this time we were able to start the
conversation nationwide and we
collaborated with over 509 artists about
art and their relationship to debt when
they shared it on an online debt fair
platform as well
the next image shows the installation of
last year’s Whitney Biennial and those
509 artists declared over 45 million
dollars in debt if you look at the image
on the right that wall that highlights a
big projection screen and that’s a 17
and a half foot wall and this rotated
projections of the 509 artists along
with quotes and their responses to their
economic reality and how dead affected
them in their art practice those monitor
screens at the bottoms were for museum
visitors that they had the opportunity
to go up and ask her answer a handful of
questions about their own debt if they
wanted to
would you have listed your debt at the
Whitney Museum maybe just scrolled
through and seen some of the other
examples of artworks the main wall if
you could go back a slide the main wall
functions as an infographic and there we
housed 30 artworks inside the wall there
in three separate groups or what we call
bundles there’s the Puerto Rican artist
bundle the student loan servicer Navion
bundle and the Chase Bank bundle and
that jagged sawtooth edge line that’s in
red at the
reflects the global art price index
whereas the top blue line illustrates
the gains made by the hedge fund company
excuse me the hedge fund company
Blackrock in black rocks a major
investor in Chase Bank Naviance
and two top quarter Rican banks this
goes to show how artists debt is bundled
and then bought and sold freely on the
stock market and it’s sometimes it’s
really unclear of when your loans are
sold or who actually buys them meanwhile
the student loan delinquency rates keep
rising to new heights and that’s
illustrated on a line in the center of
many young artists that enter in and
gain admittance in these top-tier MFA
schools for art they held a belief
sometimes still do that that’s their
ticket into the top tier of the art
world once they get out and graduate but
really this isn’t the case it’s only for
a select few the proverbial needle in
the haystack where this happens they
think they’re going to make pens $1,000
hand over fist but this really isn’t the
case and the people the art investors
that do purchase some of these that what
they do is they flip these works
similarly to real estate investors that
flip apartment complexes or housing
buildings and if we look at the quote at
the top of the wall that’s by Larry Fink
he’s Blackrock CEO and also the Museum
of Modern Art’s board member and he
states the two greatest stores of wealth
internationally today our contemporary
yard and apartments in Manhattan and
this really hits home this analogy
occupy museums constructed debt fair in
order to create a new visual language of
how to look at art here you can see some
of the images of the details of the
artist some had figurative or political
themes others worked abstractly
was all varied in their approach to art
making and at this point I’d like to
reference a quote of our occupy museum’s
2014 press release it states how does
dead affect culture as more and more
people go into debt social mobility
decreases and people are spending their
entire lives paying off their homes cars
education and everyday expenses entire
governments are now beholden to private
investors that finance them it’s a clear
sign that the people no longer govern
themselves debt fuels a culture of
submission and the rules of this Wall
Street society sometimes taking out debt
isn’t really much of a choice and young
MFA’s are pushed into debt so early
before their careers even even really
begin meanwhile the Wall Street firms so
deep in it get bailed out and we’re left
to carry this heavy weight of debt on
our shoulders but debt is no longer a
dirty little secret that’s hidden it’s
now the stories becoming more apparent
and shared throughout the country that’s
also being spread through our middle
class and hopefully word gets out to
some of these movers and shakers people
that can make substantive change
meanwhile grassroots organizations and
arts collectives continue to fight and
come up with creative ways that they can
build a more equitable society thank you you
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