A Sharp Image of A Blurry Object, 2019/2020. Kenneth Pietrobono/Uncertainty Labs.
Image of a black text on a white background left-aligned reading A Sharp Image of a Blurry Object, with a yellow border in a wooden frame.
REDISTRIBUTION
DISCUSSION 1
What do we mean when we say Redistribution? What exactly are we redistributing? When is something redistributive? What do we mean when we say equity? When is something equitable? What is the difference between a redistribution of wealth versus a redistribution of equity?
“Redistribution is the repair work of democracy.”
Part 1
Amy Whitaker, researcher in art and finance, discusses the difference between a redistribution of wealth vs. a redistribution of equity and what is at stake in the difference.
“If these inequities continue, this country will fall.”
Part 2
Catherine Green, Founder and Executive Director of ARTs East New York, discusses community organizing, mutual aid vs. individualism, and the need for reparation.
REFERENCES, PART 1:
“The Social LIfe of Property,” by Pablo Helguera, Michael Mandiberg, William Powhida, Amy Whitaker and Caroline Woolard, Pilot editions, 2018
Lisa Cooke, "Violence and Economic Activity: Evidence from African American Patents,1870 to 1940," 2013
Will Davies, The Limits of Neoliberalism, Sage Publishing, 2014
Mierle Laderman Ukeles, "Manifesto! Maintenance Art -- Proposal for an exhibition 'Care,’” 1969
Amy Whitaker, “Artists Are Entrepreneurs. We Should Compensate Them Accordingly,” Artsy, August 14, 2018. Commentary on debate and developments in resale royalties
Amy Whitaker and Roman Kräussl, “Fractional Equity, Blockchain, and the Future of Creative Work,” Management Science, July 23, 2020
DACS, Design and Artists Copyright Society, UK, #FairShareForArtists campaign for artists’ resale royalties
REFERENCES, PART 2:
Newark Mayor Ras Baraka on Guaranteed Income To Alleviate Income Inequality, NPR, July 5, 2020
Jeremy Kahn, “George Floyd protests force Britain to reckon with its role in slavery, leading some companies to pay reparations,” Fortune.com, June 12, 2020, on Llyod’s of London and other corporations paying reparations
“There Goes the Neighborhood,” WNYC. Catherine Green and others on ARTs Easy NY, gentrification and rezoning
Kenneth Pietrobono, “How NYC’s New Cultural Plan and the ‘People’s Plan’ Can Work in Tandem,” Hyperallergic, July 26, 2017
The BREATHE Act, 2020: “This visionary bill divests our taxpayer dollars from brutal and discriminatory policing and invests in a new vision of public safety—a vision that answers the call to defund the police and allows all communities to finally BREATHE free.”
GUEST BIOS:
Amy Whitaker is the award-winning author of Art Thinking, a book described by William Deresiewicz as "a spiritual guide to practical endeavor." Amy holds an MFA in painting and an MBA and serves on the faculty at New York University in visual arts administration. Her research on blockchain and fractional equity for artists has been covered in The Art Newspaper, Artsy, Artforum, and elsewhere, and she speaks widely at conferences including Meaning Conference (Brighton, UK) and the Aspen Ideas Festival. She is also the author of two other books, Museum Legs and Economics of Visual Art, and numerous general and academic articles. In 2015, she was the first entrepreneur-in-residence at the New Museum Incubator. She worked previously for MoMA, the Guggenheim, and the Tate, and for the artist Jenny Holzer. https://steinhardt.nyu.edu/people/amy-whitaker
Catherine Mbali Green-Johnson is a creative visionary, cultural curator and community organizer that has inspired communities nationally and internationally through the lens of the arts for sustainable, equitable, resident-led development for decades. As the Founder and Executive Director of ARTs East New York, over the past 10 years she has provided a growing community of 120,000 Brooklynites with access and affordability in innovative arts programming and cultural initiatives to address health disparities, environmental sustainability, violence, economic development, gentrification and displacement prevention. As an independent consultant Catherine Mbali has continued to fight for justice and socio economic equity through multicultural arts programs. Her portfolio of work includes cultural event curating in South Orange, NJ, Anti-Gentrification work in New Orleans, LA, educational tours to Cienfuegos, Cuba and artist representation in Dakar, Senegal, wherever this creative entrepreneur works she brings an innovative and thought provoking approach to equity, resilience and empowerment. Green-Johnson studied Fashion Design at Meredith College in Raleigh, N.C. She went onto work in the fashion industry and owned her own clothing line before using her passion for the arts to bring new cultural opportunities to communities of color across the globe. catherinembali.com
Thanks to Nate Harrison for post-production help.
Discussion 1 was released on Wednesday, July 29, 2020.