OPP Sponsors threewalls' Hand-in-Glove Conference

Logo Design by Plural

OtherPeoplesPixels is pleased to partner with the upcoming Hand-in-Glove Conference organized by threewalls with the Alliance for Independent Arts Organizers (AIAO) in conjunction with the MDW Fair. Hand-in-Glove will take place in Chicago October 20-23, 2011 and pre-registration is happening now (through October 8th). While the going is hot, we invited co-organizer Abigail Satinsky, Director of Programming at threewalls to fill us in on the Conference's inspiration, mission, and highlights.

AS: Hand-in-Glove is a new, semiannual conference that addresses the pragmatic realities and imaginative possibilities of self-organized, noncommercial and artist-run spaces, publications, residencies, and a variety of other pro jects that challenge traditional formats for the production and reception of art at the grass-roots level. PHONEBOOK 3, released at the Hand-in-Glove Conference and available for sale thereafter, is the essential guide for artists and arts administrators looking to connect with others in this ever-changing realm of independent artist-run culture, including everything from nonprofit and community institutions to flexible and self-organized art spaces, alternative schools, and event series. PHONEBOOK 3, in its third edition, contains over 750 listings of projects and essays by the people that run them.

Designed for both the artists who participate in these spaces and the organizers, administrators, and curators who run them, Hand-in-Glove is for anyone and everyone who participates in artist-run culture in order to talk about its past, current manifestations and potential futures. Conversations will range from sustainability to funding to unconventional organizing models, as well as the kind of creative administrative strategies people are using to stay open.  

Oftentimes, it’s  a make-do approach to keeping an artist space open or getting a publication printed. Support is usually a combination of personal donations, small amounts of grant money, the copy machine at work, and a Kickstarter campaign. At Hand-in-Glove, we want to network with each other for larger solutions as well as discuss the ethics of starting small and keeping small, the compromises of becoming bigger and the inventive problem solving that keeps independent culture alive and well. This is a creative conversation that should be collectively authored amongst artists and their support structures, taking into account the people and the economies that make things happen.

Hand-in-Glove brings together speakers from across the country that have started micro-granting initiatives, residency programs that are about learning to live off the grid, veterans of artist spaces, executive directors of venerable institutions, and amateurs. We will be hosting arts organizers from Minneapolis, Detroit, St. Louis, San Francisco, New Mexico, North Carolina, Philadelphia, Oregon, New York, and many other places. Martha Wilson of Franklin Furnace Archive, Mark Allen from Machine Project, writer Lane Relyea, Renny Pritikin, founder of the National Association of Artists Organizations, Ted Purves, artist and MFA Program Chair at California College of the Arts, and keynote Nato Thompson, curator at Creative Time (and former Chicagoan), will give their take on artist-run organizing of the last 30 years and its future. We hope you can join us!

Pre-registration (before October 8) is $100 and includes lunch on both Friday and Saturday (catered by Roots & Culture Community Kitchen) and continental breakfast on all three days. Registration at the door or after October 8 is $50/per day with no food included. We have scholarships and student discounts available, please check our website.

We also have a special offer from OtherPeoplesPixels: $25.00 off any new website account for the first year of service for every conference attendee. Email Abigail (at) three-walls.org with questions or to claim your discount.