Artist Resources, Grants for Artists, Creative Projects, Making Money for Artists

Spring is upon us, at least where I am in Brooklyn, New York, Lenapehoking. The green buds sprouting from the trees warmly greet us after a long hibernation, and the bird songs continue to shift with the warmer weather. The sidewalks are filling up as busy humans with their own worlds move quickly to their destinations. After getting used to colder weather, the season is changing, full of new beginnings and possibilities.

For this Seeding Collaborations, we spoke with artists and educators Michael López and Karl Orozco who founded and run Risolana, a community risograph studio located in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Risolana’s name is inspired by the New Mexican concept of la resolana, which is a south-facing wall where community members can gather together. Risolana offers public access to a risograph printer and runs a range of educational workshops and programs highlighting the potential of the risograph as a medium and tool for artistic and social change.

For this Seeding Collaborations, we spoke with farid rakun—an artist, writer, editor, teacher and instigator based in Jakarta, Indonesia and a part of the artist collective ruangrupa. rakun is trained as an architect, but “wears different hats, dependent on who is asking.” We were drawn to his extensive practice in working collectively and his generosity in knowledge building and sharing. Our time with rakun was spent hopping from one idea to the next, including the plurality of collectivity throughout the world, making room for experimentation, and the importance of joy in art.

If the overnight popularity of ChatGPT and the following widespread attention on “artificial intelligence” (AI) seemed to come out of nowhere, it’s not as sudden as you may think. This rise belongs to a long lineage of technological developments—including familiar ones like the Internet—that have shaped the course of much of our history. Technology is entangled with our understanding of commodity, capital, and power. As many artists are deeply engaged in interpreting and creating works that address what’s happening across broader society, having nuanced conversations on the impact of AI across all art disciplines is necessary.

For this iteration of “Seeding Collaborations,” we expanded our ecosystem to the Netherlands where we spoke with Luke Cohlen and Marianna Takou from Casco Art Institute: Working for the Commons (Casco). Casco is an arts organization located in Utrecht, Netherlands, where they are exploring and practicing where the arts and the commons meet. As defined by Casco, the commons is where “the natural and cultural resources [is] held in common by a community.” In this interview, Cohlen and Takou offer insights into Casco’s approach to working for the commons and systems change. As an art institution that presents artists’ works, they are also tackling the other side of an art practice, and how we can actually support artists, whether it’s financially or through other types of resource sharing.

In this edition of “Seeding Collaborations,” we talked with Courtney Harge, CEO of OF/BY/FOR ALL. OF/BY/FOR ALL is a non-profit organization that is invested in the work of helping organizations connect with their communities in effective, authentic ways. Different sectors have been coming to terms with what “community” means to them especially as efforts in diversity and inclusion continue within various institutions. As the art world further defines and works with communities, Harge offers advice on what meaningful connections can look like—especially between institutions and communities.

In the midst of the transitions that we all faced during the past few years, we adjusted and adapted. For Fractured Atlas, the biggest transition that we experienced was an interim leadership period with Theresa Hubbard as the interim CEO. Today, we’d like to reintroduce Theresa to everyone as our new CEO.

In our new series of interviews “Seeding Collaborations” we discuss the rumblings of the art world and explore the possibilities blossoming from current movements. We interviewed Laura Zabel, Executive Director of Springboard for the Arts (Springboard), an artist-run organization based in Minnesota. They have offices in St. Paul and Fergus Falls, both of which are on Anishinaabe and Dakota land.

Our new series of longer interviews “Seeding Collaborations” discusses some of the changes that the art world is undergoing and how we can move forward in a more just path. To kick it off, we interviewed Hope Mohr and Daniel Park from Guilded, a cooperative of freelance artists incubated by the US Federation of Worker Cooperatives (USFWC).

There are tectonic shifts taking place in workplaces, indicated by movements like the Great Resignation and the continued unionization efforts across the art world. Even before the pandemic, career growth and how our careers impact livelihoods have been on many people’s minds. Typically, the further on you get into your career, the more complicated the next steps become. As you grow, it’s more likely that you’ll end up in managerial roles, leading teams, and having others report directly to you.