Posted to East Village Arts Blog, January 13, 2012

[Link to EVA blog HERE.]

Happy New Year! Occupy with Art, ringing in 2012, has several projects we'd like to share with East Village Arts.

First, OwA is launching our collaboration with Yoko Ono this Saturday at 1PM in Liberty Square. If you are familiar with Ms. Ono's Imagine Peace Tower and Wish Tree Projects, then you will have a general idea of this project. We will hold a brief press conference announcing the distribution of 10,000 cards with a Wish message from Ms. Ono in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street, after which OwA will be facilitating the free dissemination of these unique conceptual text-artworks here in New York City and beyond. We would like to send a few cards to every Occupation in the world, if that's possible. http://www.occupywithart.com/press-release-1_14_2012/

Second, we are working on "Wall Street to Main Street," a 3-month arts and culture project located in Catskill, NY. We are partnering with a team of coordinators in the Hudson River Valley, headed by Fawn Potash, artist and faculty member at New York City's School of the Visual Arts, and Geno Rodriquez, formerly the director of the Alternative Museum in New York City. Our project is supported by the Greene County Council on the Arts, in conjunction with their program Masters on Main Street (administered and curated by Potash). Wall Street to Main Street will consist of exhibits, installations, performances, panel discussions, projections, screenings, radio broadcasts, music and more, taking place in storefront spaces on Catskill's Main Street, and in satellite venues nearby. OwA just released an international Call for Entries and Proposals (see links below), and 99%/Occupy artists are especially encouraged to submit. The deadline for submissions is February 1. Wall Street to Main Street will open March 17 and run through May.

http://www.greenearts.org/call-for-entries
http://www.occupywithart.com/ws2ms-call-for-entries/
[DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION: FEBRUARY 1]

Third, Occupy with Art is partnering with the Hemispheric Institute of NYU to present Low Lives: Occupy!, a special event featuring livestreaming video and performance, slated for March 3rd. Low Lives (you can check out their website at LowLives.net) is an innovative new media platform that for the past 3 years has worked with dozens of artists and venues around the world to produce compelling 99% art. The Low Lives selection team (Jorge Rojas, Christina deRoos and Juan Obando) is committed to diverse voices and an international cultural community, making the partnership with the Hemispheric Institute a natural fit. Just last week we learned that Mark Read of N17 "99% Bat Signal" fame has signed on to participate in LL:O as both a performer and presenter. The OwA site will serve as a clearinghouse for info and documentation on the project as it evolves. We are soliciting Calls for Entries and Proposals from performance artists and presenters right now, which, is available on the OwA websites, and also on the Low Lives and Hemispheric Institute sites.

hemisphericinstitute.org
lowlives.net
http://www.occupywithart.com/owslow-lives/2012/1/5/official-call-for-entriespresenters-for-low-lives-occupy.html
[DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION: FEBRUARY 6]

Finally, a brief mention of a 4th project: CO-OP/Occuburbs, which will be situated in Huntington, NY (Long Island), and is being coordinated by Christopher Moylan there. We are establishing programming for screenings and exhibits with the Cinema Arts Center and BJ Spoke Gallery, and others. At this point, the impetus of this project is to develop an alternate 99% art economy modeled on and inspired by the co-op food and small farm networks, and integrated directly with them. Chris has penned two great essays, soon to be published in the Brooklyn Rail, now posted on the OwA site, which we're using as a platform or point of origin for an exciting exploration of what it means to Occupy in the suburbs and how the linking of beautiful 99% food and art might offer a brighter future for our communities.

It's our hope that East Village artists and art organizations will join with us to create great 99% art in 2012! Please contact us at occupywithartNY@gmail.com, if you'd like to learn more about how we can work together.

- Paul McLean, co-organizer of Occupy with Art (formerly Occupennial)

Occupy with Art is an affinity group of the Arts & Culture Working Group of the NYCGA for Occupy Wall Street.