On or about February 20, 2010, we will transform Winkleman Gallery into a think tank for approximately one month, complete with blackboards, work tables, beer*, coffee-makers* and a mini-fridge*. We solicit your active participation in this project if you are an artist, critic, art dealer, collector, academic, art-lover, art-hater, or member of the general public.
We need your help to find answers to such questions as:
*Is contemporary art a luxury commodity for the wealthy that limits the possibility of ownership, understanding, and access based on class, education and geography? If so, why exactly is that a problem?
*Why do people keep making art (or writing about it, or showing it, or caring about it) even when they don’t ever earn any money from it?
*When/if artists do manage to earn some money from their work, why does it sometimes make them feel queasy to sell their art to wealthy collectors?
*If New York is the Belly of the commercial Beast we despise, why are we paying so much to live here?
*Why do we keep going to art exhibitions when we don’t like 90% of what we see?
*How much of “hating the art world” is simple sour grapes and how much of it is because the art world really is gross?
*Why on earth would anyone pay more than, say, 200 bucks for a painting?
* Is it ‘selling out’ to go to the Bahamas with a collector or design his yacht? What if you’re kinda broke and this might be your only chance to go to the Bahamas?
* What are some possible viable alternatives or modifications to the current commercial art market system? What’s wrong with Capitalism? Isn’t it great!?
We will be hosting a series of presentations, discussions and other art-like events. Do you have an idea for a discussion or an event? Are there any special talents you’d like to share or topics on which you’d like to hold forth? Do you have a karaoke machine? Please share!
THIS IS NOT A REGULAR OLD ART SHOW! Don’t send us your art unless it features relevant performance, can be written on a blackboard with chalk, or involves a lecture.
We can’t do this without you. We don’t have any answers but we want to facilitate the coming-together of wildly varying people, over beer if possible. Let us be the President Obama to your Boston policeman and Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
If you have any ideas, please post them here or email us at hashtagclass@gmail.com.
Come forward!
All best,
J & B
*not yet approved by our host and subject to possible financial, safety and/or legal issues.