Summer School
Art,
Education & Radical Resistance
ABC No Rio in Exile at PS122 Gallery
150 First Avenue - NYC
July and August
2022
Summer School: Art,
Education & Radical Resistance focuses on the artist's role as activist,
art as a community organizing tool and teaching as the sharing of resistant knowledge. Emphasizing the processes of artists participating in public discourse
Summer School examines how support for shared values drives alternative politics and ideas through the arts.
Historically
summer school is a place for remedial education
with the focus on improving skills to prepare students for required curriculum. Offering a different type of remediation
the projects included in Summer School: Art
Education & Radical Resistance are creative in nature and fill a gap left by mainstream histories
governments
educational systems
and other established institutions.
In the spirit of community spaces
PS122 Gallery's exhibition space will be activated by events and workshops throughout the duration of the show
with installations changing in concert with these events.
Summer School includes artwork,
documentation, workshops,
skill-shares
and other public presentations. All events are free to the public
but may require RSVP.
ABC No Rio frequently explores new ways to organize and implement its projects. Summer School continues this tradition of actively involving participating artists, collectives and other entities in the planning, organization, and installation of exhibitions.
Land Acknowledgement
ABC No Rio is of settler origin, created in 1980, on what is currently known as the Lower East Side on Manhattan Island. The land on which it exists has been the site of human activity for 12,000 years and is the traditional territory of the Lenape people, who were pushed out in the final decades of the 18th century.
Today, this city is a home and meeting place for many indigenous peoples from across Turtle Island. As a settler institution, ABC No Rio recognizes its responsibility to actively work to support indigenous sovereignty, to recognize colonial histories, and to redress their present-day manifestations. ABC No Rio is grateful for the opportunity to work in this community and on this land. The territorial acknowledgment given here is its small part in dismantling and disrupting colonial structures; it is responsive and will change regularly.
Given the recent Supreme Court decision impacting women's reproductive health, ABC No Rio supporters are encouraged to contribute to Indigenous Women Rising's Abortion Fund.
Summer School: Art
Education & Radical Resistance is funded in part by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and the New York State Council on the Arts.
Summer School Events
July 10 and July 17 at 2:00pm COMPLETED
Plant Dyes and Propaganda
by Interference Archive with Willa Goettling
In this two-part workshop participants will learn how to use natural dyes to create vibrant flags and banners meant to live in public spaces.
In the Sunday July 10 session we will identify regional plants used for dyeing and learn the basics of various natural dye processes. We will then use a variety of regional plants to dye fabric together in a process called bundle dyeing. All materials for dyeing will be provided
however participants will also be encouraged to bring plants that hold personal significance-so that different nyc spaces and geographies are represented in the dyed textiles.
In the Sunday July 17 session we will use a combination of our previously dyed and recycled fabrics to create flags and banners with messaging. All materials for constructing and decorating flags will be provided
however participants should again feel welcome to bring any additional fabrics or materials they wish. We will make the flags with the intent to later install them in public spaces to be regularly viewed and interacted with. Flags can be made individually or collectively.
Before the start of the workshop participants will receive a handout with helpful resources
should they wish to prepare any materials beforehand.
Sunday July 24 at 2:00pm COMPLETED
DOCUMENTARY RIGHTS and RESPONSIBILITIES
With Kevin Frech
As laws radically change, art interventions and protests flair in our polarized society, and the need for documenting history is incredibly urgent. But what are your rights as a filmmaker? And what are your responsibilities to those you film?
This practical seminar from veteran filmmaker Kevin Frech has two parts: the first covers issues from interacting with law enforcement to understanding property rights, on-camera releases as well as protecting yourself and those around you.
The second part includes tips to get the best, most impactful footage you can: better framing, better lighting, and better sound.
This seminar is ideal for citizen activists, journalists and socially-engaged artists.
Kevin R. Frech is a mixed-media artist and award-winning filmmaker. His work explores the turbulent and comedic interactions of people on their environment, and vice-versa. He has filmed on location in five continents and his works have shown in Seattle, Chicago, New York, Beijing, Venezia, Sao Paolo and Panama City, and on PBS and the Sundance Channel.
Thursday July 28 at 7:00pm COMPLETED
Couple of artists on some history and capitalism
With Robby Herbst and Jim Costanzo
Robby Herbst will share a history of the West Coast free-schools movement connecting Vanguarde art practices to the Bay Area Counterculture. His talk will track the little known and influential Portala Institute, founded in Menlo Park, CA in 1966, as an incubator of educational innovation. The extended Portola Network connects platforms for educational experiments to the Whole Earth Catalog, little known 1970's era counter-education publication projects, The New Games movement and the People's Computer Company. The talk will touch on the themes of anti-fascism, and new forms of labor that were emerging in the 1970s.
Jim Costanzo will discuss the most recent failure of Capitalism. The coronavirus pandemic comes 15 years after criminal activities by Wall Street crashed the international banking system which led to protests in the Mideast and Occupy Wall Street. Before coronavirus, the gap in income between billionaires and working people was the highest in U.S. history. It has grown larger during the pandemic. Economic inequities have always manifested itself in the exploitation of women, minorities, workers and the environment. Disaster Capitalism and Surveillance Capitalism are important concepts to understand our current situation but ultimately it is just Capitalism.
Saturday July 30 at 4:00pm COMPLETED
Artist Talk with NeON Photographers
NeON Photography is a free, community-based network that offers vocational training and an outlet for creative expression and artistry. The classes are offered in partnership with the NYC Department of Probation's Neighborhood Opportunity Network community centers and are open to the entirety of each of the seven communities where the centers are located (Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brownsville, East New York, Harlem, Jamaica, North Staten Island, and the South Bronx). The photography in the "Summer School" exhibition reflects the work of five of the 500+ graduates of the NeON Photography classes.
Characteristic of all NeON Photographers, this work is an exploration of the artists, the people and places that make up their communities, and the different ways they inhabit spaces.
https://nyc.gov/neonphotographers
Thursday August 4 at 5:00pm COMPLETED
Octavia Project Student Presentations
The Octavia Project uses speculative fiction as a lens through which to envision new futures and greater possibilities for our world, blending creative writing, art, science, and technology. Its summer program brings together young women, trans and non-binary youth to build new worlds, believing that their ideas and imaginations are vital to a more just and equitable future.
http://www.octaviaproject.org
Friday August 5 - Sunday August 7 COMPLETED
Post-American World Symposium
Organized by Amplifier, Inc.
An in-person and virtual discussion of the tools, technologies, policies, regulations, systems, concepts, and visions that will contribute to shaping another form of governance to take the place of the current one.
Friday August 5: 6:00pm - 9:00pm
Saturday August 6: 12:00pm - 5:00pm
Sunday August 7: 12:00pm - 5:00pm
http://www.amplifycities.org
Tuesday August 9 at 6:00pm COMPLETED
What is Mobile Print Power?
Members of Mobile Print Power will present a participatory public art making skill share, focusing on the collective's process and methodologies. Using their recently completed box set as a guide, members of MPP will share their history through a collection of prints and other ephemera as well as questions that have emerged over the years. Participants will be introduced to the specific ways that MPP approaches their work, and how they can apply these ideas, processes and concepts in their own art making.
Mobile Print Power (MPP) is a multigenerational collective from different corners of NYC and the world. MPP started as a weekly printmaking and political education workshop at Immigrant Movement International in Corona, Queens (IMI Corona) in March, 2013. Over time, and as regular participants in the workshop began to emerge as co-facilitators and co-organizers, they began referring to themselves as a collective: Mobile Print Power.
http://www.mobileprintpower.com
Thursday August 11 at 7:00pm COMPLETED
About the footprints, what we hide in the pockets and other shadows of hope
Screening of 90-minute video by Russian artist collective Chto Delat documenting their collaboration with the Piraeus Open School for Migrants in Athens.
Chto Delat (What is to be done?) was founded in 2003 in St. Petersburg, Russia, by a group of artists, critics, philosophers, and writers from St. Petersburg, Moscow, and Nizhny Novgorod. The collective uses a range of media to explore the post-socialist condition, knowledge production, and the politics of commemoration.
http://www.chtodelat.org
Friday August 12 at 6:00pm COMPLETED
Skill-share on the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program
Artist Christina Freeman will offer a workshop on the expansion of the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program and help participants understand their options and prepare their paperwork.
Saturday August 13 from 12:00 - 4:00pm COMPLETED
Meme and Scheme
Join Shawn Escarciga for an afternoon of shared knowledge and meme making. Sign up for a free 20 minute slot and come prepared to: discuss a grant proposal or fundraising question you have; brainstorm a creative idea; vent about the state of the (art/creative) world; ask for administrative advice for a project you're working on; pointers for cover letters, outreach; seek help with design for an event/show; etc.
In an attempt to push against self-seriousness and avoid gate-keeping knowledge in the art world, Shawn will share their years of non-profit arts and artist experience. They may not have all the answers, but this is a dialogue and might lead to a longer conversation after the fact. Then they'll make you a meme to commemorate the experience. You can see their meme work on Instagram @missladysalad and learn more about their work at www.shawnescarciga.com.
Schedule your appointment on Calendly
Sat July 23 + Sun August 14, 1:00-5:00pm COMPLETED
Writing with Our Body Videos
Videos to view in conjunction with Priyanka Das' Writing with Our Body workshop.
On continuous loop in the gallery: Bitch Beauty by MM Serra, Belle de Nature by Maria Beatty, Care/Of by Sofia Theodore-Pierce, Sweet Pie or Goodbye to Loathing by Cherry Brice Jr, I Tried to Write a Love Letter with My Body by Priyanka Das, and Tilting Towards Chaos by Mark Street
Register for the Writing with Our Body Workshop on Eventbright
The films screened as part this workshop courtesy The Filmmakers Coop and the individual filmmakers. Thank you.
Thursday August 18 at 6:00pm COMPLETED
Celebrating the Workers Justice Project's Liberty Cleaners
A reception to celebrate the organizing of the Workers Justice Project's Liberty Cleaners
Celebrating 110 years since the victory of the Bread and Roses Strike, the WORKERS ART COALITION platformed the WORKER'S JUSTICE PROJECT LIBERTY CLEANERS. Tapping into the fun/creative potential of Instagram and TikTok, content creators experimented with building off the educational/empowerment work Liberty Cleaners have done in partnership with SUNY Empire's Harry Van Arsdale Jr. School of Labor Studies and Orbis Consulting.
These initial TikTok explorations inquired into engaging the potential of social media forms for worker justice, activism, and ethical consumption, as well as the continued and increased institutional commitment to the organizing work of Liberty Cleaners and the like.
Sat Aug 20 and Sun Aug 21, 11am-1pm
Sun Aug 27, 11am-2pm COMPLETED
Writing With Our Body
Presented by Priyanka Das Online on Zoom
REGISTER at Eventbrite
This three-day transdisciplinary-interactive workshop will delve deeply into understanding what it means to experience one's surroundings with one's senses and somatic. This workshop series challenges hegemonic art-making practices by utilizing one's body as a primary resource of creativity, art practice, and activism.
This series of intensive workshops cover: the idea of "Writing With Our Body" and how it can be interchangeable and subjective based on the subject and the environment they are placed in, and how to integrate this concept into one's art practices.
NOTE: Videos related to this screening will be presented in PS122 Gallery on Saturday July 23 and Sunday August 14, 1:00pm - 5:00pm.
Priyanka Das was born in India and currently lives and works in New York City. She is an artist, filmmaker, writer, and curator. Her work aims to ignite thoughts, feelings, and emotions that delve deep into the essence of "otherness" mediated by somatic, psychic, and cerebral intimate lived experiences.
Wednesday August 24 at 6:30pm COMPLETED
Panel: Reforming the UN
A response to a June 1, 2022 proposal by the Ukrainian Ambassador to the United Nations by three art-world persons with news-published experience at the UN:
--Peter Duhon (re. United Nations Development Programme)
--Peter Fend (re. United Nations Environment Programme/Food and Agriculture Organization)
--Sante Scardillo (re. United Nations Department of Peace Operations)
Thursday August 25 at 6:00pm COMPLETED
Big Sky Workshop Celebration
A screening of a documentary produced by young artists aged 13-19 who live in the Queensbridge Houses celebrating their participation in Big Sky's Summer Program. Students came together to learn drawing, painting, filmmaking, photography, music, sculpture, and performance in Long Island City and on Governor's Island.
Big Sky Workshop is an alternative arts education platform, community building organization, and arts collective. Its focus is on reimagining equity, community, and education. Big Sky Workshop programs aim to foster a connection between mindfulness and creativity and to assist with nurturing creative practices at any level in sustainable ways. In cultivating creativity, we focus on the big picture, connecting personal well-being, art historical and contemporary practices, and the natural world. Our programming seeks to court and develop possibility.
http://www.bigskyworkshop.com/
Friday August 26 at 4:00pm COMPLETED
CHTO DELAT and EDELO in Conversation:
Collective Art, Education & Radical Resistance
Live Stream on Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAG8fxAqEBY
A conversation streamed online among members of EDELO and CHTO DELAT, on the themes of art education and radical resistance. In collaboration with Common Notions.
CHTO DELAT (What is to be done?) was founded in 2003 in St. Petersburg, Russia, by a group of artists, critics, philosophers, and writers from St. Petersburg, Moscow, and Nizhny Novgorod. The collective uses a range of media to explore the post-socialist condition, knowledge production, and the politics of commemoration.
EDELO (En Donde Era la ONU [Where the United Nations Used to Be]) is a house of art in movement and an intercommunal artist residency founded by Caleb Duarte Piñon and Mia Eve Rollow in 2009 in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico. EDELO was a center for art and experimental creation in which the division between cultural art and popular art was no longer taken into account. For four years, the center served as a platform for free creation; through it, a network of artistic collaboration was generated with Indigenous communities that work for their autonomy, something not well seen by the Mexican State.
COMMON NOTIONS emerges from, and renews, a long line of writers and readers, editors and publishers, as well as independent bookstore buyers and bookstore lovers, who recognize the power of the printed word to inspire cultural shifts through the bold ideas of a new society emerging within the existing world.
