(image courtesy Human Resources for Art Workers)
Although the art world maintains a supposedly progressive and liberal veneer, it is rife with economic exploitation, sexual harassment, and racial- and gender-based discrimination. Human Resources for Art Workers (not to be confused with the longstanding Chinatown arts space Human Resources), is a collective and working group that aims to address these issues via a platform of restorative justice, support groups, and legal counsel. Through discussion groups and brainstorming sessions, they hope to provide a framework for bringing accountability to the largely unregulated arts and culture industry.
Hosted by artist and activist Christy Roberts Berkowitz, next Wednesday’s meeting features Anuradha Vikram, head curator at 18th Street Arts Center and author of Decolonizing Culture: Essays on the Intersection of Art and Politics. Vikram’s talk will focus on the ways these issues affect nonprofit organizations and community-based groups, and how the “lack of professional standards can undermine important cultural and social justice work,” she told Hyperallergic. As other industries like entertainment and media go through their own reckonings, in the forms of the #MeToo movement and the struggle for wage equity, Human Resources for Art Workers is working to produce a similar reconsideration of power structures within the art community.
When: Wednesday, November 28, 7–10pm
Where: Women’s Center for Creative Work (WCCW) (2425 Glover Place, Elysian Valley, Los Angeles)
More info at Women’s Center for Creative Work.
