STOP THE PRIVATIZATION OF CHELSEA COVE!

[From the Aaron Burr Society]:

Diana Taylor is back. The girlfriend of Mayor Bloomberg sits on the board of directors of Sothey’s Auction House [1], Brookfield Properties’ Zuccotti Park [2] and the Hudson River Park Trust [3]. This trifecta of interlocking boards will be partying at the annual meeting of the Hudson River Park Trust. Please join Occupy Museums and Sotheby’s Teamsters Professional Art Handlers who will be protesting this event.

• THURSDAY, APRIL 12TH, 6 P.M.
• ST. PAUL’s CHURCH
• 315 WEST 22nd STREET (near 8th avenue)

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OPEN CALL: FREE ART FOR FAIR EXCHANGE AT THE 2012 ARMORY SHOW

Piers 92 & 94, New York City
Saturday and Sunday, March 10th & 11th
1-4pm
FB event page

Occupy Museums invites all artists and non-artists to join a mobile exchange art fair on the sidewalk outside of this year’s Armory Show in New York City. Participants are encouraged to bring items such as paintings, drawings, sculpture, conceptual art, crafts, food, and other objects to exchange with Armory attendees and each other. We particularly welcome modes of exchange are not based on profit.

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Update from the Aaron Burr Society [f7]

Pilgrims,

Today we celebrate the 256 anniversary of Aaron Burr’s birth. Tomorrow is the full moon and we will commune with the spirit of Aaron Burr while marching in Williamsburg’s McCarran Park blowing the big chrome horn [see fotos] and imbibing the distilled spirits of 2nd Whiskey Rebellion
 
The moon is a powerful force to reckoned with but that ain’t the only reason we’re celebrating tomorrow night. Tonight we had two Occupy Wall Street meetings, that's right two in one night. First was Occupy Museums with brother Noah and all those new sisters and brothers. And the second was with Outreach to spread the word about Making World, an OWS forum on the Commons which is a’comin’ in a few weeks. Hell’s bells but I’ve been going to so many OWS meeting that I don’t know if I’m coming or going.
 
Now some of y’ll have been sending cards and letters complaining about our infrequent and erratic postings. And ya ain’t been seeing no Occupiers getting arrested so all y’ll been a thinking it’s over. But think again, that ain’t the case. We’re all planning to break out in the spring with a few surprises before the Equinox just to remind ya'll that we’re still here. And the Society has also been getting around too.
 
Check out the links:

• There has been a lot of press about Occupy Museums but this one written by our friend from the REPOhistory days wrote the best one http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/reviews/pollack/occupy-moma-1-17-12.asp#.TxXGPvebwyQ.facebook
• the Society has also been Occupying indoors http://www.capitaloffense.info/aaronburrsociety.html
• pgs 13 to 16 from a performance for the opening of a show curated by another REPOhistorian who is also in the above show with the usual suspects http://davidplakke.us/client/ACF_Political_24Jan2012/index_13.html

[#j27]: MoMA Intervention; Video, Photos & Re-enactment by Paul Talbot

Click the image to see the photoset in OwA Photos

RE-ENACTMENT:

Update: Activist Technology Demo Day & Other Occupy Art News

At EYEBEAM, on Saturday [j28], Occupy with Art participated in the Activist Technology Demo Day, along with other occupiers like the OWS Tech Ops, and the folks who McGyvered the bicycle-driven generators at Zuccotti Part during the occupation last fall. Some amazing apps were on display, with the app-makers on-hand to answer questions and bandy around new ideas for collaborations and exchange. It was a really great event! OwA co-organizers Chris Cobb, Paul McLean and Seth Wulsin passed out Yoko Ono/OWS Wish Tree cards to the many attendees packing the workshop/presentation space, and talked about the projects we're working on for 2012. Paul Talbot came by to photograph the event (we'll post those when they're processed), and CO-OP/Occuburbs/-fest coordinator Chris Moylan came by as well. Quite a few folks from OWS and Arts & Culture supported, too, including Owen, who's working with Rachel Shragis on translations of the Declaration Flow Chart, and Jez of Archive WG, who was still wearing the (fake) bloody shirt he'd worn for his kickoff performance at the previous evening's Occupy Museums intervention at MoMA. We displayed the new blanks of the Declaration with the finished print at our table (see photos), along with handmade signs by Chris Cobb, some flyers from the occupation, relevant texts, and Adrian Rocchio's GA hand signal prints. An informal panel inspired some passionate conversation about technology's impact on activist praxis, at one point almost switching to People's Mic mode, when the wireless microphones glitched out.

Some notable activist tech people/projects:

• Vibe app: a new GeoSocial App with which users send Mini-Blogs with Anonymous and Self-Destruct options.  http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/vibe/id433067417?mt=8

• Augmented Reality Activists: an archive, a meeting place, and a  knowledge center for activists working with augmented reality  http://augmentedrealityactivists.blogspot.com/

• Signal Strength:  It consists of modules for ad-hoc social networking that let people in an urban area interact offline, leveraging their mobile phones for untraceable communications. http://www.ameliamarzec.com/signalstrength.html

We were able to meet-up with these folks to talk about their participating in some of our 2012 programs, like Wall Street to Main Street and CO-OP, and the Space Team residency at Hyperallergic (which starts on Wednesday - more details soon).

>>

Other Occupy Art News:

• Occupy Museums is on a tear! Check out the latest news, photos and video HERE.
• Occupy Town Square is happening right now at Washington Square Park! Get on over there!
• The Novads' Salon IV was, we heard, "loads of wild fun - think all the freedoms we enjoyed in the park this Fall, but indoors :)" - kudos to the Revolutionary Gamers and all who joined in on another memorable occupy-fun happening!
• The Tax Dodgers hit one out of the park last week & are planning a doubleheader for next week. Stay tuned for details!

Great #j13 MoMA Action Coverage at ARTFAGCITY

Occupy Museums meeting beneath Sanja Iveković's "Lady Rosa of Luxembourg"

[EXCERPT]:

On Friday night, Occupy Museums — in conjunction with Arts and Labor, 16 Beaver, and Occupy Sotheby’s – conducted an exceptionally clear and efficient GA under Sanja Iveković’s controversial feminist monument Lady Rosa of Luxembourg, while a small group from Arts and Labor demonstrated with OWS banners and a flugelhorn outside the museum. Though “this isn’t Wall Street” was the general response from museum visitors, articulate speakers pinpointed specific issues. Feasible goals were set.  The crowd, of about fifty people in the atrium and a combined sixty looking down from MoMA’s three landings, included a notable increase in women and academics.

[LINK]

#J13 #OCCUPYMUSEUMS #OCCUPYWALLSTREET - MoMA BANNER DROP @ DIEGO RIVERA EXHIBIT

Uploaded by RhodesPictures on Jan 14, 2012

MoMA is exhibiting work from one of the most renowned Mexican painters of the twentieth century, Diego Rivera. Diego influenced by the Mexican Revolution and the Russian Revolution, believed that art should play a role in empowering working people to understand their own histories. Meanwhile MoMA buys and sells millions of dollars in art at Sotheby's auction house. Sotheby's has locked out 43 Local 814 union art handlers, claiming they are unable to negotiate a new contract with them. "The auctioneer proposed cutting the handlers' workweek to 36 1/4 hours from 38 3/4 hours and increasing the number of temporary laborers, according to both sides. The union said new work rules would decrease eligibility for overtime, resulting in take-home pay declining 5 percent to 15 percent. Temporary workers without medical or pension benefits would replace unionized art handlers as they retire or find other jobs. Chief Executive Officer William Ruprecht, yearly salary doubled in 2010 to $6 million dollars."

http://www.sothebysbadforart.com/content/

• See post at Ken Vallario's blog: "When Art is a luxury…Art is a lie!"

Locked out Sotheby's art handlers confront Diana Taylor, Bloomberg's partner and Sotheby's board member

The locked out Sotheby’s art handlers and members of Occupy Wall Street confronted Diana Taylor (Bloomberg's partner), a member of the Sotheby’s board, at the Dec 1 meeting of the Hudson River Park Trust. If you have trouble hearing what Taylor says to the teamsters, it is the following: she will resign from the board if Sotheby’s accedes to any of the art handlers’ demands (i.e., getting back health care and a decent living wage).

Occupy Museums & Occupy 477 Stand against Foreclosures - Dec 6, 2011

477 W. 142nd Street is a landmark building on Alexander Hamilton's former estate. The building has served for decades as a residence for low-income families and been a key site of the black community in New York City. The house is currently facing foreclosure by Madison Park Investors LLC and E.R. Holding. Brutal tactics have been used to try and force residents out, including the sabotage of the building's boiler as the winter months approach.

December 6th marks the international day of action for Occupy Wall Street against the foreclosures led by the 1%. On this historic day Occupy 477 and Occupy Museums join forces to stand against gentrification and stand up for the right to housing for all!

It just so happens that The Museum of Finance on Wall Street is housed in the former headquarters of the Bank of New York, founded by Alexander Hamilton—America's first Secretary of the Treasury. Hamilton created the country's financial system. On December 6th, we will march a replica of 477 W. 142nd Street to the Museum of American Finance, and offer it as an exhibit of the damaging effects of Wall Street’s financial system on American’s everyday lives.

December 6th
12:00 PM ----Meet at 477 West 142nd st. HDFC
3:00 PM----Arrive at Museum of American Finance, 48 Wall Street, New York

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Philip Glass and Lou Reed speak at Occupy Lincoln Center - Dec 1, 2011

Occupy Museums protests the anti-democratic policies of Lincoln Center and Bloomberg at Satyagraha

Occupy Museums to protest the anti-democratic policies of Lincoln Center and Bloomberg on the last performance of Satyagraha Thursday December 1, 2011 at 10:30PM.

It is no doubt timely that Philip Glass' opera 'Satyagraha'--which depicts Gandhi's early struggle against colonial oppression in South Africa--should be revived by the Metropolitan Opera in 2011, a year which has seen popular revolutions in North Africa, mass uprisings in Europe, and the emergence of Occupy Wall Street protests in the United States.

Yet we see a glaring contradiction in ‘Satyagraha’ being performed at the Lincoln Center where in recent weeks protestors from Occupy Wall Street have been arrested and forcibly removed for exercising their First Amendment rights to peaceful public assembly.

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This Wednesday Occupy Museums once again stands in solidarity with the art handlers at Local 814 who have been locked out of their jobs for three months. Despite pulling in record profits last year, Sotheby's is demanding wage and benefit cuts and has hired unskilled replacement art handlers at a lower wage. The union has stood vigilant on the picket lines against these injustices for twelve weeks, but are still without a fair contract. Join us Wednesday November 9th, on the picket line outside of Sotheby's contemporary art auction to show your support and solidarity for Teamsters Local 814!

Schedule of Events:

Wednesday November 9th, 2011

4PM Meet in Liberty Park

4:45 Occupy the Subway

5:30 Meet with Teamsters Local 814 and Hunter College Students and March to Sotheby's!

OCCUPY MUSEUMS [2] TODAY!

This Thursday 10/27/11, Occupy Museums returns to MoMA!

Meet at 2:30 PM, Liberty Square, for an information-sharing assembly (under red sculpture) OR meet at 4:00 PM at MoMA.

We will be joined by the Art Handler’s Union, Teamsters Local 814, who have been locked out of their Sotheby’s union jobs for over three months now. Following Occupy Museums, we will march to the Teamsters’ picket line at the Sotheby’s evening auction, which starts at 6:00 PM on 1334 York Avenue.

Occupy Museums and the Teamsters Local 814 stand together in solidarity!

Please join us and to bring your own manifestos (BYOM), to read in the General Assembly at the doors of the museum! Please keep them short- 3 minutes max so that everyone can participate. For this action
we are moving away from the voice of a sole author to a collective voice. We welcome all to be part of our assembly and let your voices be heard!

What is Occupy Museums?

We are artists, art lovers, and art workers! We live and love art and are committed to its growth. However, we see many museums in their current manifestations as key elements of a larger system whose funding structure and relationship to the market, disempowers artists, and alienates art from the 99%. Value is manufactured by false scarcity, propped up by the cult of celebrity and the parlor game of speculation. This undermines the potential power of art to be a much greater force in our society.

We believe that to Occupy is to claim space for dialog and transparency through the physical presence of our bodies. It is to hold space that was previously inaccessible. As Occupiers, we bring the General Assembly to the doors of the museum, to engage in a dialog about the relationships between the arts and capitalism.
This is only the beginning.

At its core, the Occupy Movement is about imagining and building a just and democratic future. It is generative not destructive. We are shifting collective consciousness. We are here to envision what the museum can be, what art can be, and how we can create a society that works for the 100%.

Schedule:
2:30 -- Informational assembly at Liberty Square
3:15 -- Occupy 4 train to MoMA
4:00 -- General Assembly at MoMA!
5:00 – March or M31 Bus to Sotheby’s at 1334 York Avenue
5:30 -- Stand in Solidarity with Teamsters Local 814

twitter: #occupymuseums

CLICK THE OM LOGO AT THE TOP OF THE POST TO READ THE NEW ARTINFO ESSAY BY BEN DAVIS, "Why I Support the Occupy Museums Protesters, and Why You Should Too."

CLICK THE IMAGE TO GET MORE INFO AT THE OCCUPY MUSEUMS FACEBOOK PAGE.

OCCUPY MUSEUMS!

The game is up: we see through the pyramid schemes of the temples of cultural elitism controlled by the 1%. No longer will we, the artists of the 99%, allow ourselves to be tricked into accepting a corrupt hierarchical system based on false scarcity and propaganda concerning absurd elevation of one individual genius over another human being for the monetary gain of the elitest of elite. For the past decade and more, artists and art lovers have been the victims of the intense commercialization and co-optation or art. We recognize that art is for everyone, across all classes and cultures and communities. We believe that the Occupy Wall Street Movement will awaken a consciousness that art can bring people together rather than divide them apart as the art world does in our current time…

Let’s be clear. Recently, we have witnessed the absolute equation of art with capital. The members of museum boards mount shows by living or dead artists whom they collect like bundles of packaged debt. Shows mounted by museums are meant to inflate these markets. They are playing with the fire of the art historical cannon while seeing only dancing dollar signs. The wide acceptance of cultural authority of leading museums have made these beloved institutions into corrupt ratings agencies or investment banking houses- stamping their authority and approval on flimsy corporate art and fraudulent deals.

For the last few decades, voices of dissent have been silenced by a fearful survivalist atmosphere and the hush hush of BIG money. To really critique institutions, to raise one’s voice about the disgusting excessive parties and spectacularly out of touch auctions of the art world while the rest of the country suffers and tightens its belt was widely considered to be bitter, angry, uncool. Such a critic was a sore loser. It is time to end that silence not in bitterness, but in strength and love! Because the occupation has already begun and the creativity and power of the people has awoken! The Occupywallstreet Movement will bring forth an era of new art, true experimentation outside the narrow parameters set by the market. Museums, open your mind and your heart! Art is for everyone! The people are at your door!

Dear Occupiers,

Since I posted Occupy Museums yesterday on FB, it's going quite viral on the internet. There is lots of discussion about what it means, whether it's a good idea what museums are doing for the 99% and the 1%.

These discussions, I feel, are really good ones to be having in the context of Occupy Wall Street, because this movement is about changing how we do things in this country from finance to culture- moving away from a culture that mainly benefits the 1%

I'll need help in planning this action tomorrow. Since it was supported by the A & C, I'd like to make sure that this action comes from the heart of our movement. Who would like to be a part of the historic first Occupation of MoMA of 2011?

My idea is that artist and everyone occupies museums together, bringing your artworks as well as OWS signs in protest. I'll bring my coin mask for example. We meet at 3:00 at 60 wall street for a short teach-in, then head over to touch base with the park, maybe doing a people's mic to get more peopleto join us.  Once at the Museums, we'll have a short GA with an opening statement, then people can get on stack and speak out their mind using people's mic.

Here are things we'll need:

-a one page info sheet about how museums generally and the ones we are going to specifically are pyramid schemes of the 1%  Paul- you wrote an email that has lots of info..I have turned it into a shared google Doc called Occupy Museums-someone to handle the twitter feed-OWS press -everyone bring a piece of their art to proudly display

Day 1: Revised  Schedule:

3:00 Meet at Liberty Park

Teach-in about the museums we are going to occupy

4:30 Livestream- read document in front of 5000 viewers.

Occupy the 4 train

5:00 Occupy MoMA

hours: 10:30-5:30

11 W 53^rd street New York, NY

Occupy the M3 Bus

6:00 Occupy Frick Collection

hours: 10:00-6 PM       

1 East 70th Street, New York, NY

Occupy the 6 train

7:00 Occupy New Museum

Thursdays 6-8 free 

235 bowery