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Working Artists and the Greater Economy (W.A.G.E) Archived Websites

Call Number

MSS.616

Creator

Working Artists and the Greater Economy (W.A.G.E.)

Extent

38 websites
in 38 archived websites.

Language of Materials

Websites are in English, with some Spanish.

Abstract

This collection contains websites related to Working Artists and the Greater Economy (W.A.G.E.), mostly documenting their web presence from 2015-2017. W.A.G.E. was established in 2008, to work for fair and regulated compensation for visual and performing artists in the non-profit arts institutions. The majority of their work operates around their W.A.G.E certification program and WAGENCY. The website includes historical information about the organzation; members of the certification program and how to become a member; and events, writings, and videos highlighting their activist work pressuring arts organizations to pay their freelance artists equitably.

Historical Note

Working Artists and the Greater Economy (W.A.G.E.) was established in 2008 out of a series of discussions with artists and curators on their experiences with non-payment from art institutions. Out of these meetings, they wrote the wo/manifesto on economic inqualities in the arts sector. In 2010, they launched the W.A.G.E. Survey Report "to gather information about the economic experiences of visual and performing artists exhibiting in non-profit exhibition spaces and museums in New York City between 2005 and 2010." This led to the W.A.G.E. Certification program to recognize arts institutions that commit to paying artists a minimum standard payment. W.A.G.E. received non-profit status in 2011 and partnered with Artists Space to hold programming and investigate their artist compensation practice. In 2016, W.A.G.E. began its collaboration with Decolonize This Place, "an action-oriented space working around Indigenous struggle, Black liberation, Free Palestine, global wage workers and de-gentrification." In 2018, WAGENCY was launched, which certifies artists when they successfully negotiate fees and/or withhold art when organizations do not pay standard renumeration. In 2019, they released a report on the first 5 years of W.A.G.E. certification, W◼A◼G◼E◼ D◼A◼T◼A◼. As of 2022, 108 institutions are certified.

Arrangement

Arranged by date added to Archive-It.

Scope and Contents

This collection contains websites related to Working Artists and the Greater Economy (W.A.G.E.), mostly documenting their web presence from 2015-2017. The website contains information on their wo/manifesto; mission; history of the organization and history of artist organizing; board members; fundraising efforts specifically their Wages 4 W.A.G.E. campaign; writings on artist compensation; news; and events. A major focus on the website includes the 2010 W.A.G.E survey on artist payment from non-profit arts institutions and guidance on W.A.G.E. certification program and how to get certified. Many of their events and videos focused on publicizing the results of the survey and getting artists and institutions involved in the certification program. Other events include exhibitions and performance art exhibited by W.A.G.E. members, as well as conferences, meetings, and symposia focusing on activism in the arts sector. In 2016, they began publicizing their work on the WAGENCY program.

Conditions Governing Access

Open to researchers without restrictions.

Conditions Governing Use

This collection is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use materials in the collection in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

Preferred Citation

To cite the archived website in this collection: Identification of item, date; Working Artists and the Greater Economy (W.A.G.E) Archived Websites; MSS 616; Wayback URL; Fales Library, New York University.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

http://www.wageforwork.com/ was selected by Lisa Darms in September 2015 and captured through the use of Archive-It. Archive-It uses web crawling technology to capture websites at a scheduled time and displays only an archived copy, from the resulting WARC file, of the website. Additional websites in the collection were likely added to capture embedded and linked materials from the http://www.wageforwork.com/ domain. https://culturalworkersorganize.org/events-2/art-workers-organize/ was added in September 2022. The accession number associated with this website is 2022.048.

Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements

Due to technical or privacy issues, archived websites may not be exact copies of the original website at the time of the web crawl. Certain file types will not be captured dependent on how they are embedded in the site. Other parts of websites that the crawler has difficulty capturing includes Javascript, streaming content, database-driven content, and highly interactive content. Full-Text searches of archived websites are available at https://archive-it.org/organizations/567.

Take Down Policy

Archived websites are made accessible for purposes of education and research. NYU Libraries have given attribution to rights holders when possible; however, due to the nature of archival collections, we are not always able to identify this information.

If you hold the rights to materials in our archived websites that are unattributed, please let us know so that we may maintain accurate information about these materials.

If you are a rights holder and are concerned that you have found material on this website for which you have not granted permission (or is not covered by a copyright exception under US copyright laws), you may request the removal of the material from our site by submitting a notice, with the elements described below, to the special.collections@nyu.edu.

Please include the following in your notice: Identification of the material that you believe to be infringing and information sufficient to permit us to locate the material; your contact information, such as an address, telephone number, and email address; a statement that you are the owner, or authorized to act on behalf of the owner, of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed and that you have a good-faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; a statement that the information in the notification is accurate and made under penalty of perjury; and your physical or electronic signature. Upon receiving a notice that includes the details listed above, we will remove the allegedly infringing material from public view while we assess the issues identified in your notice.

Appraisal

Robots.txt (a piece of code designed to limit crawler activity within a website) was ignored. Individual links were added to the web archives to capture all content associated with W.A.G.E. Websites were rescoped to attempt to capture the YouTube and Vimeo videos embedded in the websites.

Collection processed by

Nicole Greenhouse

About this Guide

This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2023-08-20 17:04:28 -0400.
Language: Description is written in: English, Latin script.

Processing Information

Intial crawling of this collection was performed by Lorena Ramirez-Lopez. Crawling of the websites in this collection were ceased in 2018. In 2022, one-time crawls were ran for missing videos and event page already in the collection. This finding aid was created in Fall 2022 and description was standardized across the collection.

Revisions to this Guide

October 2022: Edited by Nicole Greenhouse to add additional archived websites

Repository

Fales Library and Special Collections

View Inventory

Working Artists and the Greater Economy (W.A.G.E.)

Box: Electronic Records (Material Type: electronic records)

Scope and Contents

Working Artists and the Greater Economy (W.A.G.E.) was established in 2008 out of a series of discussions with artists and curators on their experiences with non-payment from art institutions. The majority of their work operates around their W.A.G.E certification program and WAGENCY. The website includes historical information about the organzation; members of the certification program and how to become a member; and events, writings, and videos highlighting their activist work pressuring arts organizations to pay their freelance artists equitably.

pOWER (100): A Screenplay YouTube Video

Box: Electronic Records (Material Type: electronic records)

Scope and Contents

2013 PREMIERE: W.A.G.E.'s brand-new infomercial-dramedy, pOWER (100): A Screenplay! W.A.G.E. take an off-the-cuff admission made by dOCUMENTA (13) curator Caroline Christov-Bakargiev at a recent panel discussion and create a fictionalized melodrama, a world where the very powerful curator finds herself treated like an artist! It's de(OCU)MENTED! Yeah...we're just crackin the FUCK(D) UP over here. Pass it on!

Dear Arts Administrator YouTube Video

Box: Electronic Records (Material Type: electronic records)

Scope and Contents

WAGE, Working Artists and The Greater Economy, have made this commercial for the activist cause of securing standards of payment from art institutions in the United States.

WAGE RAGE YouTube Video

Box: Electronic Records (Material Type: electronic records)

Scope and Contents

WAGE, Working Artists and the Greater Economy, made this commercial to advocate for systematic change to the abuse of artists' labor in the United States.

WAGE WoManifesto YouTube Video

Box: Electronic Records (Material Type: electronic records)

Scope and Contents

WAGE, Working Artists and the Greater Economy, made this video to spread their manifesto around the world in advocacy of the rights of artists and art workers.

Democracy in America: W.A.G.E. Vimeo Video

Box: Electronic Records (Material Type: electronic records)

Scope and Contents

Creative Time presents Democracy in America: W.A.G.E. (Working Artists and the Greater Economy) at the Park Avenue Armory. 2008. Video by Benjamin Brown.

April 26: Martha Wilson: Activist History Teach-in

Box: Electronic Records (Material Type: electronic records)

Scope and Contents

Teach-in at the Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation on April 26, 2017 featuring a performance of Matha Wilson's Martha Does Donald, and presentations by artists Ann Agee, Rehan Ansari, Tomie Arai and Betty Yu (Chinatown Art Brigade), Todd Ayoung (REPOhistory), Avram Finkelstein (ACT UP and Gran Fury), Alicia Grullón (Percent for Green), Amin Husain and Nitasha Dhillon (MTL), Rasu Jilani, Taja Lindley (Harriet's Apothecary), Katherine Perko, Gregory Sholette (Gulf Labor Artists Coalition), Lise Soskolne (W.A.G.E.), and Barbara Zucker (A.I.R. Gallery).

Critical Issues in Contemporary Art Practice: Lise Soskolne

Box: Electronic Records (Material Type: electronic records)

Scope and Contents

Talk by Lisa Soskolne at the Henry Art Gallery on March 9, 2017 on the work of W.A.G.E. since 2008.

Wages of Whiteness in the Art Economy

Box: Electronic Records (Material Type: electronic records)

Scope and Contents

Event at Artists Space on December 10, 2016 on white supremacy in the art system and the racialized split between artists and art workers. The event was part of Decolonize This Place, a three-month project by art collective MTL+.

W.A.G.E. Presentation

Box: Electronic Records (Material Type: electronic records)

Scope and Contents

Event at Neu Kirche Contemporary Art on September 7 on the W.A.G.E certification program.

Art + Money: Right to Work: Artists and Wage, with W.A.G.E

Box: Electronic Records (Material Type: electronic records)

Scope and Contents

Event at Recess Art on August 18, 2016 on the W.A.G.E. certification program.

Protected Blog

Box: Electronic Records (Material Type: electronic records)

Scope and Contents

Private page not captured by crawler.

Artists at Work: A Conversation on Art and Labor

Box: Electronic Records (Material Type: electronic records)

Scope and Contents

Lecture at Boston University on March 23 on issues facing working artists.

Chat Room

Box: Electronic Records (Material Type: electronic records)

Scope and Contents

Chat Room was a quarterly forum at the Northwest Film Forum on art in the age of the Internet.

Charge 2016

Box: Electronic Records (Material Type: electronic records)

Scope and Contents

Charge 2016 was a three day event to platform artist led alternative models of sustainability; advocate for equitable compensation for artists; and consider artists' work in the larger economy. It took place at Art League Houston on January 8-10, 2016.

Alliance of Artists Communities 2015 Conference

Box: Electronic Records (Material Type: electronic records)

Scope and Contents

Full schedule of 2015 Alliance of Artists Communities conference in Providence Rhode Island.

On Value

Box: Electronic Records (Material Type: electronic records)

Scope and Contents

Event at Artists Space on October 3, 2015 on the value relations of art production. It was part of We (Not I), a four-day program of discursive meetings, presentations, and events that brings together a wide range of artists, writers, curators and thinkers identifying with feminist practices to exchange and produce content addressing questions around the role of "we" in contemporary art practice,

The Artist's Resale Right

Box: Electronic Records (Material Type: electronic records)

Scope and Contents

Event at Artists Space on July 22, 2015 to discuss the American Royalties Too Act (ART Act).

Art Handling Symposium

Box: Electronic Records (Material Type: electronic records)

Scope and Contents

Symposium at ALLGOLD on March 28, 2015 focusing on conversations between art laborers and art producers.

art-agenda Dossier: Launch of two new Dossier projects

Box: Electronic Records (Material Type: electronic records)

Scope and Contents

Two project announcements of art-agenda Dossier: Dossier #3: W.A.G.E's online tool for determining compensation of commissioned digital artworks, and Dossier #4: Daniel Steegmann Mangrané's QR Constellation.

Public Assets: small-scale arts organisations and the production of value

Box: Electronic Records (Material Type: electronic records)

Scope and Contents

One day conference organized by Common Practice UK "to discuss the ways in which small-scale arts organisations produce artistic value beyond measurability and quantification, provide spaces for public experience extra to the market, and in so doing contribute importantly to cultural wealth." It took place on February 15, 2015.

II. W.A.G.E.: How Creative Labor Should Be Compensated

Box: Electronic Records (Material Type: electronic records)

Scope and Contents

Event at CUE on December 11, 2014, where W.A.G.E. presented their research and advocacy regarding artists and earnings, minimum payment standards for creative labor, and certification for institutions that fairly compensate labor.

charge

Box: Electronic Records (Material Type: electronic records)

Scope and Contents

charge was a two day practicum to platform and convene artist led alternative models; open up conversations around equitable compensation of artists; and consider artists' work in the larger economy. It took place at Art League Houston on November 8-9, 2014.

Projects at Common Practice New York

Box: Electronic Records (Material Type: electronic records)

Scope and Contents

Projects launched by Common Practice New York, including the publication Near Contact, by David Joselit and Amy Lien & Enzo Camacho; Out of Alternatives, a symposium on the role of small-scale arts organizations in New York City; Seminar and conference with the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College; and research papers by Rebecca Gordon-Nesbitt and Sarah Thelwall.

Composing Differences

Box: Electronic Records (Material Type: electronic records)

Scope and Contents

Event at MoMA PS1 on April 27, 2014. Composing Differences "brings together artists, curators, researchers and others from Europe and the United States, who are establishing new platforms to experiment with art and knowledge production, which defend the circulation of knowledge and the immaterial value of art as a tool of social change."

Simon Leung: ACTIONS!

Box: Electronic Records (Material Type: electronic records)

Scope and Contents

Performance in September 2013 at the Kitchen reflecting on "actions" directed at the Museum of Modern Art from the 1960s to the 2010s.

W.A.G.E. Survey Release

Box: Electronic Records (Material Type: electronic records)

Scope and Contents

Event at Artists Space on April 20, 2012 presenting the 2010 WAGE Artists Survey.

W.A.G.E.: Feeling the Shape of the Arts Economy

Box: Electronic Records (Material Type: electronic records)

Scope and Contents

Event in partnership with Artists Space on January 9, 2012. Event included a brief introduction to W.A.G.E. Certification; a presentation by artist, economist, and sociologist Hans Abbing, author of Why are Artists Poor: The Exceptional Economy of the Arts; and discussion.

The Artist Theater Program: A Group Show of Film and Video Work by Visual Artists

Box: Electronic Records (Material Type: electronic records)

Scope and Contents

Group screening curated by Erika Vogt inviting visual artists who make use of film and video to present their work within the context of a theatrical exhibition venue. At the Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater (REDCAT) on February 28, 2011.

An Evening with W.A.G.E. (Working Artists and the Greater Economy)

Box: Electronic Records (Material Type: electronic records)

Scope and Contents

Event at the New Museum discussing the "Free" exhibition on December 9, 2010.

"Free"

Box: Electronic Records (Material Type: electronic records)

Scope and Contents

"Free" was an exhibition at the New Museum from October 20, 2010-January 23, 2011. "Free" explores how the internet has fundamentally changed our landscape of information and our notion of public space.

W.A.G.E. Survey Report Summary

Box: Electronic Records (Material Type: electronic records)

Scope and Contents

The W.A.G.E. Survey aimed to gather information about the economic experiences of visual and performing artists exhibiting in non-profit exhibition spaces and museums in New York City between 2005 and 2010.

W.A.G.E. Teach-In

Box: Electronic Records (Material Type: electronic records)

Scope and Contents

Event at CCS Bard on April 14, 2009, held by W.A.G.E. members A.L. Steiner, K8 Hardy, and A.K. Burns.

Navigating the Art of Change

Box: Electronic Records (Material Type: electronic records)

Scope and Contents

Article by Janet Brown published in the GIA Reader, Vol 20, No 1 (Spring 2009).

NOBODY PUTS BABY IN A CORNER

Box: Electronic Records (Material Type: electronic records)

Scope and Contents

NOBODY PUTS BABY IN A CORNER was a series of feminist gatherings in NYC through 2009-2010 initiated by Malin Arnell and Johanna Gustavsson, two Swedish artists attending the Whitney Independent Study Program.

Human Resources

Box: Electronic Records (Material Type: electronic records)

Scope and Contents

Homepage for Human Resources, an arts organization in Los Angeles focusing on "contemporary and conceptual art, with an emphasis on performative and underexposed modes of expression."

Art Workers Organize

Box: Electronic Records (Material Type: electronic records)

Scope and Contents

Panel discussion on May 28, 2016 that was part of Public Exposures: The Art-Activism of Condé + Beveridge (1976-2016) at OCAD University.

Fales Library and Special Collections
Elmer Holmes Bobst Library
70 Washington Square South
2nd Floor
New York, NY 10012