Wages of Whiteness in the Art Economy

“The art world’s economy is sustained by underpaid or free labor across many of its sectors, from the production of art to the construction and maintenance of museums. This is manifest through the dual expectation that cultural producers work for exposure whilst institutional staff and contracted laborers work for less than a living wage. Arts-activist campaigns like W.A.G.E. and Gulf Labor have strategically focused on correcting certain inbuilt inequalities, but neither have yet incorporated a discussion of the economic underpinnings of white supremacy in the art system, despite it regularly being cited as one of the least diverse professional sectors. To cite one question, can solely economic factors account for the highly racialized split between producers, on the one hand, and ground staff, on the other?

Decolonize This Place has operated on a maintenance economy that is more germane to movement-building work than the professional compensation structure of the established art world. How can such projects—which, like much movement work, rely on a political and personal commitment that is rarely remunerated—be promoted and sustained when they so evidently fall outside of art’s established commodity system of display and discrete consumption? To what degree can wider movements for reparations inflect upon the art world? In the years to come, with a Trump presidency likely to be hostile to the lifeblood of free and critical expression, movement art will be needed more than ever. Who’s going to be paying for it?”

– MTL+

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This event is part of Decolonize This Place, a three-month project by the collective MTL+ on invitation of Common Practice New York hosted at Artists Space Books & Talks. For the purposes of this project, 55 Walker Street has been converted by MTL+ into a movement space action-oriented around the issues of De-Gentrification, Indigenous Struggle, Black Liberation, Free Palestine and Global Wage Workers. Views and opinions expressed in this project are not necessarily those of Artists Space or members of Common Practice New York.

For more information and a schedule of weekly readings, screenings and art assemblies happening at Decolonize This Place visit decolonizethisplace.org