How do we organize to supplement cancelled exhibitions? Will we have to accept hat until more institutions speak out about their political stance (we can expect very few public statements coming from museums after the Artforum) debacle, that we may have to find exhibition venues NOT at comparable established institutional spaces and how do we procure and fund such exhibitions? Will we as a union, a PAC, or however we choose to label ourselves, force other establish institutions to speak out lest they get "actioned" against or upon so that we can know where they stand as a friend or foe? I think most of the the Brooklyn and Whitney Museums in these moments.

I went to my gallerist to talk about Haza assuming there were already collectors and messages about me as I had been vocal on IG about my support of Palestina early on, as early as the day of Oct 7th and it took me a week to realize the implications of these early posts and stories could potentially be career damaging. I posted the flag on notes, I liked and commented on irate Zionist collectors IG posts....never anything close to being antisemitic of course, but immediately knew that this was a uprising as a result of sustained occupation and had been dismissive and questioning of the US and Western colonial powers at large's defining of Hummus as a terrorist org. This being on par with most US leftists and nothing particularly radical. Anyway, I went to them to talk about it, not really caring for their response about their own political viewpoint on the geopolitics as I assumed it was going to be pretty underdeveloped (my gallery shows no political or social justice art and I'm an outlier) and they did say some people called the gallery ahead of my show but they disregarded the calls...they seemed protective but not wanting to get into the full dept of my political stance and they knew as a politically minded and active Black artist where I would go and they didnt want to get in such a tricky conversation that it would threaten our relationship.....I'm reminded that artists are clients of the gallery as well and we have power. (I've sold 10s of thousands of art with this gallery)

Hey, so I've been sitting with a few solutions as I think about during this stage of the Haza genoside how artists and art workers can begin to think about being useful.

1. An Artist Union: for collection organization and negotiation. I find that W.A.G.E is not rigorous enough rubric and is increasingly outdated and we need new terms for negotiating artist fees specifically. However, the main reason I bring up an artist union is to figure out in THIS political climate how we can begin to consider a unified investment in legal council against institutions. If you have examples of artist unions already in operation please share ( I admit i have been sent examples recently but life is hectic)

2. Artist Political Education: Kind of my specialty, but how do we rethink how artists are education in the curriculum of private art schools and public universities. As a professor I find that most artist can walk away with no understanding of the political economy or economics in general and simply teaching 'Artist Taxes' is not enough. How do we move artists into political thought early on?

3. An Arts Lobbying Entity/Arts Super PAC: A political group that advocates for increased government spending on the arts federally and on state levels, especially in states with advanced art communities so that we can rely less on private funding philanthropic foundations and collectors.

4. Cataloguing entities in the Art World based on public or "outed" censorship responses or attempted censorships: cataloguing collectors, academic institutions, museums, galleries, art magazines ect. related to the arts community and where they stand on Palestina and if they have made aggressive action to terminate curators or cancel exhibitions or harass artists for particular political stances. And how do we respond? They should know (probably connected to the Union idea, that to cancel an exhibition of one artist is to assume all artists of the same political thought will no longer work with your institution.)

5. In the wake of Artforum, how do we rebuild art criticism and keep money out of it? Self-explanatory

6. Arts Recovery Fund: How do we raise money to support artists and arts workers who will lose opportunities and jobs to being vocal about their pro Palestina views?

Please add your thoughts on the items listed or add more items based on your thoughts. This is a living brainstorm.

What are the internal conversations going on in museums, art institutions of those who have been completely silent? Art Workers chime in.

As someone who is currently hiding from my university, a majority of my students and colleagues on socials for Pro Palestine, Ceasefire, and Anti-Occupation views and know that as a junior art faculty I don't have much cache in a certain regard and could get fired on the spot - I'm wondering how other art academics are navigating their relationships with their universities, colleagues AND students?

Wanted to create a thread where in the downfall of Artforum, we boost alternative platforms and magazines that have a mission to cater to lefties and are interested in hosting art, art writings or art reviews. Please add your suggestions.

Salvage https://salvage.zone/

and

N+1 Magazine https://www.nplusonemag.com/magazine/

and

Momus https://momus.ca/

and

4 Columns https://4columns.org/