When Coronavirus Closes Your Lab, Can Science Go On?

In 2013, Detroit filed for bankruptcy because of a poor economy. While the city’s industrial businesses have floundered, the art scene has thrived, bringing in new sources of income through art galleries and investments in contemporary art. This new art scene is one factor to measure Detroit’s recovery and prospects of growth for the future.

In the face of terror and war, art and history needed protection. A group of professors, activists, archeologists, and historians created a network to preserve and protect art and history in Syria.

The organization Working Artists and the Greater Economy (WAGE) works with non-profit arts organizations to establish fair payment for artists. WAGE established a fee structure for 15 categories of artistic labor with a sliding scale based on the organization’s total operating expenses. Organizations that adhere to the fee structure are WAGE ‘certified.’

The National Gallery of Art’s “Just Us” program brings seniors with memory loss symptoms to the museum for ‘meditation’ on paintings. Using the paintings as prompts, visitors are encouraged to react to and interpret what is before them mentally engaging them and providing an opportunity for socialization.

In Poland, artists have used a traditional tool to advocate for and obtain fair compensation: unionizing. While the artists’ union is not officially recognized by the state, it has successfully obtained better pay for artists from galleries and grant funders and led a 2012 strike.

In response to the low percentage of artists who are paid—even by large, prestigious museums—for exhibiting their work, the organization Working Artists and the Greater Economy (WAGE) advocates for fair pay for artists. This is done primarily by a “certification” program that calculates fair compensation for an artist based on the exhibiting institution’s operating budget and the type of labor executed by the artist.

All around the world there is a trend for pop-ups to take over empty spaces and give the spaces meaning for a short period of time. For instance, in a time when capitalism dominates society, the Museum of Capitalism filled an Oakland warehouse for two months to spark conversation on the topic. These pop-ups act as an educational resource, a creative asset to neighborhoods, and a more accessible way for artists to engage with social issues and a large audience.

In order to raise funds to purchase new work by women and artists of color, the Baltimore Museum of Art has deaccessioned redundant or hard to display work by major male, white artists.

Through academic study and scholarship, the work of pioneering curators and new hires at prestigious organizations, and focused collecting by museums, the work of 20th century African American artists is becoming increasingly recognized resulting in a rewriting of the story of American art.

Developed out of an Arts & Labor working group during Occupy Wall Street, the Art Handlers Alliance (AHA) advocates for fair compensation and improved hiring practices for art handlers. Using a “bill of rights” as a template, the AHA has been part of negotiations between employers and unions that represent some art handlers—such as the Teamsters—and obtained for workers increased compensation and benefits.