#6 Ambition, Uncertainty & Justice
Dear friends, dear faraway nearby,
how is your heart feeling? June felt strange this year, it is usually a very busy season for me involving lots of traveling but this year the pace was interrupted. I got to work on other things that did make feel June very different. 2020 has taught us a lot about the fragility of expectations and predictions of events and trends. Do you remember your own lists at the beginning of the year and what goals and plans you had on them? We rely a lot on linearity in our thinking: cause and effect, work and merit, mistakes and consequences....etc. but we know that this linearity is unfortunately often just a "best world scenario" while the real world has taught us often other lessons. 2020 might have opened the veil a bit more for us to understand that even during these uncertain times, it's still the same people who benefit from linearity while everyone else spirals back and forth in uncertainty.
A few days ago I've read this brilliant piece by Maris Kreizman that I felt deep in my bones:
"Where does ambition go when jobs disappear and the things you’ve been striving for barely even exist anymore? And what if the things for which you’ve been striving no longer feel important because they’re the spoils of a rotten system that needs a complete overhaul?
I still want to create and get paid for it — a necessary evil as long as we’re living in capitalism — but our opportunities seem to be narrowing, the world becoming a little smaller each time. The scope of our ambitions must be downsized, over and over again."
[...] my ambition for my community and the wider world has gotten bigger and broader. I don’t know exactly where I fit in it, but I do know that I want all workers to be treated with dignity and respect — a small, humble ask that requires an unending amount of work. And I want all people who are unable to work or unable to find work to also be treated with dignity and respect. I want to become more active in organizing, I want to be a resource for those looking for guidance in their careers — at least while we’re living under capitalism — and I want to make enough money to be able to throw some of that money at the world’s problems. My medium-size dreams for myself may be getting smaller, but my ambitions for the greater wide world have to be enormous. It’s the only way to get through."
I've been thinking a lot about how our definition of professional success is changing right now. And the sort of questions we need to ask: How can we succeed in systems that are often toxic? What different decisions do we make when we realize that the shit jobs/ internships we've endured will never pay off? How will be rethink our actions when we finally understand that those who we protect in the networks of silence will never invite us to sit with them on the table? Who gets to succeed in the structures in place and who gets to pay the prize?
Over the past months we've seen so many stories break of museum leaders who had to resign because they abused their power, and everybody in this industry knows that this is just the tip of the iceberg. There are still plenty of people in charge of institutions that care more for prestige than they care for the systemic conditions their leadership creates for others in the institution. I'm not writing this because I'm particularly bitter, the contrary is actually true. I'm still very hopeful and this is where my professional ambition is going at the moment.
Movements like Black Lives Matter, indigenous rights, environmental justice, LGBTQI+ (with a big acknowledgement of trans lives), intersectional feminist protests and many other causes, are ambitious movements in the best sense. Yes, they are rightly angry because they have to demand change, they often tried through "polite" ways in writing, through conversations, until their tired and unsafe bones could not afford to try the same ways again. This anger is informed by hope: that there is a concept like justice, that transformation and other ways are possible, and that it's about time that systems change. Because let's be clear, if these groups ever lose hope and faith that change is possible, it's no longer about equity, instead the driving force will be uncontrollable anger, the prime motive will become revenge (as Kimberly Jones put it in this interview).
And there was a second writer who inspired some thoughts, this time Esmé Weijun Wang wrote these lines on her Instagram:
This feeling relates to so much of what I've just written above. It goes both ways, don't pick up the glass with your bare hands, and don't expect others to do it.
Writing
I had the pleasure to host in June a session of #MuseumHour on success as a museum worker.The current systems benefit those coming from contexts of privilege while those dealing with the oppressive impact of race, class and gender need to fight harder. While we are currently rethinking the systems in place it's about time to hold institutions accountable about how they create environments so that people from underrepresented communities can succeed better. It's been a fascinating discussion and I turned it into a post, read it here>
As you might remember, I started a mini-series at the beginning of lockdown called "How to Mend the Brokenness? Some Solace during COVID-19" the series contains answers by museum workers, gallerists and many others on how they are coping and what they've been learning. The latest edition deals with unemployment from a different perspective.
In the Swiss canton Thurgau the artistic scholarships (Förderbeiträge) have been awarded and I had the pleasure to write about the fantastic artists selected [German]
Auf der Suche nach Wildnis, über die Künstlerin Rhona Mühlebach
Die Natur als politscher Ort, über das Künstlerduo Huber.Huber
Expedition in die Dunkelheit, über den Fotografen Andri Stadler
I also got to write about one of the first exhibitions in Switzerland including art created during the lockdown. The museum is focused on outsider artists and it doesn't come as a surprise that the shown works were created by trained artists and amateurs. Kunst im Ausnahmezustand: Die Geburt der Corona-Kunst
Recommendations
Reading
On the Limits of Care and Knowledge: 15 Points Museums Must Understand to Dismantle Structural Injustice
Museum of Human Rights CEO resigns after allegations of systemic racism
SFMOMA Staffers Condemn ‘Racist Censorship’ and Institutional Inequities in Letter Calling for Change
Curators Urge Guggenheim to Fix Culture That ‘Enables Racism’
An open letter to Swiss museums & institutions signed by over 50 black artists and cultural workers
The Bulldozing Effect of the Black Square
Black Squares Don’t Save Black Lives
SFMOMA Accused of Censoring Black Voices After Removing Comment by Former Employee
Cultural institutions are feeling compelled to stand up for racial justice, but artists and activists want action, not just statements of solidarity.
Layemi Ikomi created this public spreadsheet of London galleries and museums and their show of support (or lack thereof) for the current Black Lives Matter protests.
Layemi Ikomi, Aye Ikomi and Eibhlin Jones have also written an email template for people to use in order to contact the institutions listed but also any gallery, museum, collection or platform (on and offline) to find out what actions they will take and if there is a financial commitment attached to their plan. Find the two templates here> [Scroll down at the page]
This is a powerful piece William C. Anderson and we should consider how concepts such as "neutrality" or a false sense of “Objectivity” do harm those in vulnerable positions AND how to protect those who commit to journalistic ethics
Hyperallergic celebrated LGBTQ Pride Month June with the series Reflections From Queer Art Workers featuring one queer art worker and asking them to reflect on what this time means to them.
Saint, soldier, writer: Spain celebrates forgotten women of its Golden Age [well ignored by the systems in power would be more accurate than forgotten]
Roxane Gay and Other Authors Reveal Salary Disparities With #PublishingPaidMe Hashtag
Where are you directing your ambition currently? What has been on your mind lately? Drop me a line by replying to this letter or get in touch directly via anabelroro@gmail.com. You can also find me on Twitter or Instagram.
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In solidarity.
Yours,
Anabel