“Deeds for AIRS”: Mutual Aid and Arts Institutions
By Rayna Holmes, Administrative & Development Associate
IN THE MONTHS SINCE MARCH 2020, THE DAILY CONTEXT OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC HAS INTERTWINED WITH the movement against systemic racism and white supremacy and with the systemic fractures within our “democratic” political system. Against this backdrop, it is not surprising that long-standing issues within the arts community around socioeconomic disparities and experiences of inadequate care for artists and arts workers have gained new attention. Our current collapse is possible because of the high-functioning yet chaotic world we have collectively created under capitalism: a world in which it is normal for artists to supplement their work with service, gig economy, and other roles and yet still live paycheck to paycheck without guarantees of housing, healthcare, basic respect, or protection from environmental instability.
In moments like these, capitalism tells us to find a new hustle, to adapt our lives without question and walk confidently into the unknown. The ideology of the “American Dream” works to reprimand those who look to their community for support. Bailouts and tax-breaks for corporations are no-brainers. But the call to give consistent funds to people in need and allow many to receive livable wages (possibly for the first time)? Tough sell. Acknowledge the absence of adequate social infrastructure? Never.
This limbo has prompted many to reassess the relationship between collective action and care. Instead of just looking out for ourselves, how can we put in place and participate in new systems that center collective care and long-lasting solidarity? Though still contentious within broader social systems, the notion of mutual aid has gained significant recognition and acceptance since the outset of the current pandemic and global quarantine. Mutual aid stems from, to quote Mutual Aid NYC, “[a] responsibility as a community is to ensure that all people have what they need to thrive…[it] means long-term solidarity with the community, not a momentary act of charity.” Whether by donating to various bail funds or mutual aid networks or by volunteering at food or protest resource distribution sites, many of us have engaged with mutual and direct aid over the past six months. Slowly we are recognizing the work we can do individually to elevate the living conditions of others, and realizing how necessary it is to collectively expand the traditional concepts of care for others.
These awakenings around wealth redistribution, mutual aid, and community support among the general population are rooted in the extensive work, education, and sacrifices made by queer, Black and brown, and immigrant communities. Marginalized communities have long operated with networks of care, from communities formed after the Civil War to support formerly enslaved peoples to formal and informal efforts created in the wake of the global HIV/AIDS pandemic to support and advocate for the neglected queer community. Other examples include the Black Panther Party’s Breakfast Program, which led to the inception of our current public school free meal programs, and community farms throughout the country centered around supporting Black people, Indigenous people, and people of color (BIPOC) to dismantle injustice in our food systems. Today, these models, among many others, offer an opportunity for art institutions to bolster and build on the types of radical care that many marginalized communities already practice.
THE KITCHEN—AND MANY OTHER ART ORGANIZATIONS FOUNDED IN NEW YORK IN THE 1970S—WAS CREATED OUT OF A DESIRE from within artist communities to create a home for otherwise ignored art forms, and the organization established itself as a space where community could grow around the pillars of risk, experimentation, and welcoming the unknown. Now almost fifty years later, the landscapes have changed dramatically but the questions remain the same: how does an institution foster and support its community, and adapt to changing needs? What is the role of an institution when the people, the artists, and their ideas combined are what stand at the center? What does traditional institutional support look like and where does it fall short?
As The Kitchen’s team continuously examines how to best provide for artists and encourage their work through paid programming and residency opportunities, it is within my purview as the social media manager, and as a young, Black, New York native, to explore similar needs from a communications standpoint. While our work as an institution has always aimed to support artists across all stages as they realize their Kitchen projects, our social media channels create new avenues for us to remain committed to our artists outside their work with our institution. And though social media platforms such as Instagram and Twitter have taken on added significance through their role in sparking engagement and action towards racial justice over the past two decades, we acknowledge that our collective reliance on such corporate platforms is perhaps paradoxical.
In addition to promoting programming, we have used our social media feeds to foster new relationships and collaborations and to share resources. In late 2019, this meant launching our From Our Friends and Family series on Instagram to highlight performances, exhibitions, and talks featuring our artists and other like-minded institutions as a way to encourage our audiences to “follow” art makers beyond The Kitchen’s annual programming. In March 2020, I launched From Our Artists, a series on Instagram, Facebook, and Kitchen Magazine platforms that highlights recent releases, publications, or new work by artists we previously have collaborated with, providing audiences with further ways to connect with the people they are used to seeing on our floors. Starting in June, we began sharing resources about actions and direct aid efforts to benefit those within and beyond our community, in addition to donating prepared foods to arts organizations that were in closer proximity to protests than our building on West 19th Street and that opened their doors to protestors.
STILL, I CONSTANTLY ASK MYSELF, WHAT MORE IS WITHIN MY CAPACITY to do, achieve, inspire through my role at The Kitchen? Now as we progress into fall, I look to our peer organizations not only for partnership, but for guidance, insight, and wisdom as we explore creative ways to engage communications platforms to support our community beyond the stage.
One of these organizations is Performance Space New York, launched in 1980 and located in the East Village. As a new way to support their five Artists In Residence of The People’s Space—a community project supported by Performance Space—the organization has launched a campaign to raise funds to purchase a home for these artist community members. We invite you to learn about the Deeds for AIRs campaign and contribute to their efforts, which we feature here as one of the many calls to action put forth by our peers and community members.
The People’s Space Artists-in-Residents, Supported by Performance Space New York, Announce Deeds for AIRS, a Crowdfunding Campaign for Black Artists Brought Together Through Turmoil, Necessity, and a Bold Vision for Change
Five Black Artists, Many of Them Trans, and Most Experiencing Houselessness, Collaborate to Raise Money for Seed Funds; Production Money for Virtual and Site Specific Creative Works; and the Collective Ownership of a Property. Artists-in-Residents (AIRs) Include Danyele Brown, Donte McKenzie, Rj Eve Mertus, Angel Robertson, and Stev
Artists-in-Residents (AIRs) at The People’s Space—a community project that came together within the walls of Performance Space New York’s Keith Haring Theatre amidst the ravages of COVID-19 and racism as a site for mutual aid—announce the crowdfunding campaign Deeds for AIRs. Supported by Performance Space New York, five Black artists—most of whom are houseless—raise money and awareness to realize a transition to collective ownership of a property and access to the resources to continue current (and catalyze future) creative works. The AIRs—who include Danyele Brown, Donte McKenzie, Rj Eve Mertus, Angel Robertson, and Stev—will showcase their work across Fall 2020, including durational performance, mass choreographed demonstration, painting, digital art, culinary art, and more. Click here for the Deeds for AIRs’ gofundme page (fundraising deadline is October 15).
The People’s Space came together as a mutual aid effort organized by Performance Space New York community members Dada Coz, Jonathan González, Monica Mirabile, Sarah Snider, and Ripley Soprano, taking form and morphing over time to meet the needs of the community. (These artists are part of Performance Space's 02020 cohort, convened to run the organization with its staff, board, and leadership.) As González explains, “What started as FREE CRIB 4 BLACK LIVES—a distribution center and place for rest—expanded to weekly teach-ins on abolitionist texts, medic and harm reduction training, acudetox sessions, nighttime BBQ’s, and studio time. Almost overnight, there was an accumulation of comrades, and people of all kinds colliding at the once historic squat—122CC—trialing to cultivate a police free zone to gather and not be afraid of each other.”
Among those present and creating work in Performance Space’s Keith Haring Theatre were the AIRs, whose urgent need for shelter was answered by Performance Space and The People’s Space community members by finding temporary housing they could occupy immediately. But a more permanent solution is needed. With their support, the AIRs hope the funds raised will secure both long-term housing for themselves and eventually other houseless, Black, Indigenous, trans, and queer artists—as well as the resources to grow the practices they’ve upheld in the face of an artistic economy that rewards and reinforces privilege.
Danyele Brown, a performance and product design artist who seeks to further develop a trans-utilitarian practice—merging her artistic backgrounds to build a world of intentionality for trans women’s bodies and experiences—says, “Living, for us, has to be understood as the work itself—in a way that does not exist for artists with resources and a place to stay and certain things set up to make it happen. We need space for us to do what we need to do and to be the voices and agents of our own experiences. I want to help myself and my friends in a way that deinvisibilizes the work we’re doing all the time and the struggle we’re constantly engaged in.”
González says, “Unapologetically, the AIRs have questioned the role of artists, cultural philanthropy, and institutions to be bolder, and more life-affirming for a creative ecosystem where community is not a term used lightly; where respectability is not the attribute for participation. That other-place that they are up to asks us to fathom beyond basic needs, and instead to thrive for the aim of art to meet this moment head on.”
This fundraiser is an actual test to see if art and art communities can build homes for artists. For more information about the AIRs or to contribute to the Deeds for AIRS campaign, click here.
Images: 1) Illustration by Tuere Lawton. 2-4) Courtesy of Performance Space New York.