It’s election time for the Radical Art Caucus! We are seeking three Executive Officers and a Treasurer! Consider nominating yourself or nominating someone you know for these important positions. As a little reminder, RAC’s mission is:

The Radical Art Caucus (RAC) has as its primary mission the promotion of art and art historical scholarship that addresses historical and contemporary problems of oppression and possibilities for resistance.  RAC brings together scholars and artists who ground their work in the material knowledge of cultural conditions and practices related to critiquing fundamental issues of unequal distribution of resources, social hierarchies, and unjust political authority which affect disenfranchised populations in all periods of history.  Furthermore, RAC seeks to provide an intellectual and professional environment for the discussion of labor and social justice issues specifically related to contemporary practices of art and art history.  RAC members will debate and advocate for a more critical institutional practice in order to promote radical democratic principles within and outside the academy.

Please consider joining us in the continued pursuit of these goals! There will be a number of opportunities to meet the current RAC Officers at CAA 2010, so please come to one of our events, introduce yourself and ask questions (see radicalartcaucus.org for details)!

Below you will find a description of the roles of the Executive Officer and the Treasurer. If you are interested in nominating yourself or nominating someone else, please email Joanna Gardner-Huggett (jgardner@depaul.edu) a one paragraph statement explaining your interest in serving on the Executive Board of RAC by February 28h 2010.

Timeline for nominations and voting:

February 28th-Deadline for nominations and statements of interest

March 12th-Circulation of list of nominees and statements-voting begins (According to our bylaws, all members of RAC are eligible to vote.)

March 26th-Voting ends.

March 29th-Election results announced on RAHL

Do not hesitate to contact me if you require any further information!

Joanna Gardner-Huggett, RAC Secretary (2009-2012)

A.    Executive Officers:  RAC shall have 3 Executive Officers at all times.
1.     Executive Officers shall serve 2-year terms. At that point, the membership shall be polled for nominations to these positions. Voting shall take place anonymously through electronic and written communication with the Secretary.
2.     All RAC members are eligible to serve as Executive Officers.
3.     Executive Officers shall choose who serves as acting chair of the annual meeting.
4.     The primary duty of the Executive Officers is to coordinate a submission for a panel sponsored by RAC at CAA. They will take suggestions at the annual meeting under advisement, propose a theme and chair, and follow up on necessary details as these arise.
B.    Treasurer:
1.     The Treasurer shall serve a 3-year term and be elected by the membership as per the guidelines established for the Executive Officers.
2.     The primary duty of the Treasurer shall be to call for and collect dues as per the standards laid out by CAA.  Any changes to the dues structure shall be made through the Treasurer.
3.     The Treasurer shall use dues for any of the administrative costs incurred by RAC including, e.g., mailings.  All additional suggestions concerning spending of funds must go through the Treasurer before being voted on by the membership.

Radical Art Caucus at CAA 2010

Thursday, February 11th:
1.    Radical Art Caucus Business Meeting, 7:30-9:00AM: Regency A,
Gold Level, West Tower, Hyatt Regency. All members and anyone
interested in joining the Radical Art Caucus are most welcome!
Agenda here

2.    Radical Art Caucus Session “Autonomizing Practices in Art, Art
History, and Education,” Thursday, February 11, 9:30 AM–12:00 PM Grand
CD South, Gold Level, East Tower, Hyatt Regency Chicago

Chairs: Alan W. Moore, independent scholar,
Staten Island, New York; Susan King Obarski, University of California,
Irvine

Speakers:
1.    Autonomy, Pseudo-Autonomy, and Prefigurative
Politics, Rebecca Zorach, University of Chicago

2.    San Francisco 1978-83: Socialist School
and Rats for Profit, Michael R. Mosher, Saginaw Valley State
University

3.    The Guerrilla Clock-Fixers of UX,
Jonathan Lackman, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University

4.    Autonomous Practices: Media Collectives
of the Women’s Liberation Movement, Dara Greenwald, Rensselaer
Polytechnic Institute

3.    Radical Art Caucus, Drinks, 9:00PM-? BAR 151, Hyatt Regency
Atrium. Join members of the Radical Art Caucus at BAR 151 and learn
more about the organization. (BYOD)

Friday, February 12th:

1. Radical Art Caucus, “Occupations: Labor, Activism, Art, and the
Academy in Crisis”
Friday, February 12, 12:30 PM–2:00 PM, Regency C, Gold Level, West
Tower, Hyatt Regency Chicago
Chair: Sarah Kanouse, University of Iowa
Speakers:
1. Taking a Radical Stance against Occupation without
Perpetuating Myths of a Militant Resistance, Aaron Hughes, Iraq
Veterans Against the War

2. 3Cs: Counter-Cartographies Collective, Tim
Stallman, 3Cs: Counter-Cartographies Collective, Liz Mason-Deese, 3Cs:
Counter-Cartographies Collective

3. Preoccupied: Organizing, the Work of Art School
Academics, Therese Quinn, School of the Art Institute of Chicago

Update from the Gaza Freedom March

http://www.generalstrikecomics.com/gaza-freedom-blog/

in solidarity,

Hutch

Hello all,
My name is Adrienne Fletcher and I am a graduate student at the
University of Florida working on a thesis project researching the use
of social media in museums. I will be conducting an online survey and
am in the process of collecting E-mail contacts for the appropriate
person in as many museums as possible that are currently using or are
interested in using social media as a type of communication tool. All
respondents will receive a copy of the survey results at the end of
the research. If you are interested in participating in the online
survey which will be sent out in January or are interested in having
your institution take part, please E-mail me the appropriate E-mail
address for the contact person in your museum.

The survey will be looking into effectiveness, measurement, time and
tactics of social media use for museums.

Thank you for your time,

Adrienne

adriennefletcher@ufl.edu
University of Florida

Dear All,

Just to remind you that we have the last of this year’s ‘Marxism in
Culture’ seminars tomorrow, Friday 18 December, in the Wolfson Room at
the usual time 5.30.

One Dimensional Woman: A Critique of Contemporary Consumer Feminism

Nina Power (Roehampton University)

All the best,

Warren

A call to arms!
Published on Thursday, December 10, 2009 by CommonDreams.org
Artists: Raise Your Weapons
by Stephanie McMillan
In this time of escalating exploitation, poverty, imperialist wars,
torture and ecocide, we don’t need a piece of art that consists of a
mattress dripping orange paint, cleverly titled “Tangerine Dream.” In
this time, as countless multitudes suffer and die for the profits and
luxuries of a few, as species go extinct at a rate faster than we can
keep track of, we don’t need an orchestra composed of iPhones. In this
time, when the future of all life on Earth is at stake, spare us the
constant barrage of narcissistic tweets juxtaposing celeb gossip with
quirky food choices.

If we lived in a time of peace and harmony, then creating pretty,
escapist, seratonin-boosting hits of mild amusement wouldn’t be a
crime (except perhaps against one’s Muse). If all was well, such art
might enhance our happy existence, like whipped cream on a chocolate
latte. There’s nothing wrong with pleasure, or decorative art.

But in times like these, for an artist not to devote her/his talents
and energies to creating cultural weapons of resistance is a betrayal
of the worst magnitude, a gesture of contempt against life itself. It
is unforgivable.

The foundation of any culture is its underlying economic system.
Today, art is bullied to conform to the demands of industrial
capitalism, to reflect and reinforce the interests of those in power.
This system-serving art is relentlessly bland. It is viciously
soothing, crushingly safe. It seduces us to desire, buy, use, consume.
It entertains us and makes us giggle with faux joy as it slowly sucks
our brains out through our eye sockets.

The system exerts tremendous pressure to create art that is not only
apolitical but anti-political. When the dominant culture spots
political art, it sticks its fingers in its ears and sings, “La la
la!” It refuses to review it in the New York Times or award it an NEA
grant. Political art is vigorously snubbed, ignored, condemned to
obscurity, erased. If it’s too powerful to make disappear,  then it is
scorned, accused of being depressing, doom-and-gloom, preachy,
impolite, and by the way, your drawing style sucks. Also by the way,
you can’t make a living if your work’s not vacuous, cynical and
therefore commercially viable, so go starve under a bridge with your
precious principles.

We’re taught that it’s rude to be judgmental, that to assert a point
of view violates the pure, transcendent and neutral spirit of art.
This is mind-fucking bullshit designed to weaken and depoliticize us.
In these times, there is no such thing as neutrality — not taking a
stand means supporting and assisting exploiters and murderers.

Let us not be the system’s tools or fools. Artists are not cowards and
weaklings — we’re tough. We take sides. We fight back.

Artists and writers have a proud tradition of being at the forefront
of resistance, of stirring emotions and inspiring action. Today we
must create an onslaught of judgmental, opinionated, brash and
partisan work in the tradition of anti-Nazi artists John Heartfield
and George Grosz, of radical muralist Diego Rivera, filmmaker Ousmane
Sembãne, feminist artists the Guerrilla Girls, novelists like Maxim
Gorky and Taslima Nasrin, poets like Nazim Hikmet and Kazi Nazrul
Islam, musicians like The Coup and the Dead Kennedys.

The world cries out for meaningful, combative, political art. It is
our duty and responsibility to create a fierce, unyielding, aggressive
culture of resistance. We must create art that exposes and denounces
evil, that strengthens activists and revolutionaries, celebrates and
contributes to the coming liberation of this planet from corporate
industrial military omnicidal madness.
Pick up your weapon, artist.
Stephanie McMillan is a cartoonist. She creates the daily comic strip
“Minimum Security,” and the weekly editorial cartoon “Code Green.” She
has a graphic novel with Derrick Jensen, “As the World Burns: 50
Simple Things You Can Do to Stay in Denial(2007, Seven Stories Press).
Her website is at stephaniemcmillan.org.
–
__________________________________

David Bacon, Photographs and Stories
http://dbacon.igc.org

Obama Shapes An Arts Policy … Cautiously

BY BRETT ZONGKER Associated Press
Chicago Sun-Times
December 8, 2009
http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/obama/1925708,obama-arts-policy-nea-120809.article

WASHINGTON – In his first year, President Barack Obama
has marshaled the largest infusion of cultural funding
in decades – despite a few stumbles.

Though still far less than arts advocates contend is
needed, they have high hopes this president could
transform cultural policy, funding and arts education
for years to come.

“I think and feel he’s very much in the John F. Kennedy
tradition – he embodies the humanities, essentially,”
said Jim Leach, a former Republican congressman from
Iowa whom Obama named chairman of the National Endowment
for the Humanities. “That doesn’t mean a conservative
leader can’t also. Abraham Lincoln was a great
conservative who embodied the humanities.”

Across Washington, cultural leaders have taken note of
Obama’s approach. They’re impressed with the variety of
musical performances and workshops held at the White
House this year, covering classical, jazz, Latin and
country tunes.

There’s also the $100 million in new funding for the
arts, including a one-time $50 million infusion from the
economic stimulus package to preserve arts jobs. There
were sizable increases as well in the annual
appropriations for the arts and humanities endowments.
Both agencies will receive $167.5 million in 2010, their
largest allocations in 16 years.

Arts supporters wanted more money, but they say the
increases were significant and symbolic of Obama’s
commitment.

“It’s still a relatively small amount of money – a $12.5
million increase [for 2010] spread over 100,000 arts
organizations,” said Michael Kaiser, president of the
John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. “But
symbolically, it was very important because so many
state and local arts agencies are being cut by their
state and local governments, so to have the federal
government … actually put more into arts, I think was
very important.”

Obama’s efforts in the arts ran afoul of critics in
August when a National Endowment for the Arts official
asked artists to coordinate with the Corporation for
Public Service on ways to help bolster Obama’s public
service agenda.

“I would encourage you to pick something, whether it’s
health care, education, the environment – you know,
there’s four key areas that the corporation has
identified as the areas of service,” the NEA’s Yosi
Sergant told artists on the call. He was reassigned
after the call became public and later left the agency.

Critics said it was an overreach at Obama’s NEA, while
supporters argued that the episode was overblown. Still,
the White House issued an advisory for government
agencies to avoid even the appearance of politics
playing a role in federal grants.

At a dinner during last weekend’s Kennedy Center Honors,
Education Secretary Arne Duncan said improving arts
education will be a key element of his proposed changes
in former President George W. Bush’s No Child Left
Behind law. He said parents, teachers and students all
have noticed a “narrowing of the curriculum.”

“I’m convinced when students are engaged in the arts,
graduation rates go up, dropout rates go down,” Duncan
said.

The Obamas presided over the Kennedy Center Honors, but
they also have been frequent guests at Kennedy Center
performances and at New York’s museums and theaters.

“Both the president and the first lady have demonstrated
an interest in the arts that is more active than most of
their predecessors,” said George Stevens Jr., who has
produced the Kennedy Center Honors as a national
celebration of the arts for the past 32 years. “They’re
young and connected to what’s going on in the world, and
a part of that is the performing arts.”

Stevens has been enlisted to co-chair the President’s
Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. The Obamas
also have quietly recruited some of the biggest names in
music, architecture, dance and show business to help
guide arts initiatives. “Sex and the City” star Sarah
Jessica Parker, acclaimed cellist Yo-Yo Ma, and actors
Forest Whitaker and Alfre Woodard are among 25 members
appointed to the committee.

Other key arts appointments also have broken the mold.

At the NEA, which has been cautiously rebuilding since
congressional conservatives slashed funding to less than
$100 million in 1996, Obama appointed an outspoken
Broadway producer, Rocco Landesman, as the nation’s top
arts official.

Landesman has said he would like to resume making grants
to individual artists, a longtime practice targeted in
the 1990s when conservatives said the NEA was supporting
obscene art. He may hold off, though. The NEA’s annual
funding has yet to fully rebound to its high of nearly
$176 million from 1992.

At the National Endowment for the Humanities, Obama
chose Leach, who contends that inadequate consideration
of Iraqi cultural issues may have contributed to the
march to war in Iraq.

“To shortchange the humanities can be very expensive if
you make mistakes based upon not factoring in cultural
considerations to policy,” he said.

Leach said arts and humanities programs are most
essential in difficult times. As the nation is faced
with two wars, a weak economy and a polarizing debate
over health care, Leach is conducting a 50-state
“civility tour” to promote respectful discourse. He also
plans to promote better understanding of foreign
cultures.

“I’d point out in a historical way that during the Great
Depression we were spending vastly higher percentages of
federal resources on the arts and humanities than we do
today,” he said. “The public coalesced around the notion
that it was important to bring perspective to issues of
the day.”

In pressing to restore arts funding, the advocacy group
Americans for the Arts has stressed the economic impact
of the arts, totaling nearly 6 million nonprofit jobs
among 100,000 organizations. That’s up from just 7,000
nonprofit arts groups 50 years ago.

Federal grants helped fuel that growth, said Robert
Lynch, president and chief executive of the lobbying
group, by leveraging other public support and private
funding for the arts. “It’s been so successful over the
past 50 years, it’s good business sense for there to be
a bigger investment,” Lynch said.

Despite the increased funding this year, it’s too soon
to judge Obama’s impact, he said.

_____________________________________________

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Hola all soft_skinned_Trans(i)s,

We the Chicana Coyotek Gangs (CCG)
are really happy to bring today’s
Transborder Immigrant Tool Weather Report.

We are well liked in the Netherlands,
but just down the road from our
super lab we are not:

On Nov 29, 2009, at 5:32 AM, whtguy916@yahoo.com wrote:

“Give the illegals a map to your house ASSHOLE

DON’T GIVE THEM A MAP TO MINE

YOU SON OF A BITCH YOU SHOULD BE ARRESTED AND BEATEN
FOR HELPING ILLEGAL CRIMES BE COMMITTED.”

A VERY LOUD NOTE que no?
CCG is getting lots these very LOUD notes.

WE hope that the LUNAR BRACEROS
from 2125-2148
can send some amor sin borders
now rather than tomorrow.

Also, we are happy to report
that one of our lead chica del trans
dr. cardenas did some radio time:

http://www.ksro.com/Programs/KSROAMNews/Interviews/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10074465

by the way she connected sonically with her new little chipped-in toe ring!

Other side of el code dr. stalbaum has been doing double duty as
mistress of the universe and tireless dislocative tester. Her
new magik tool will be ready to make a scene next week!

http://www.walkingtools.net/

Over in OC land our poll number are down!

Do we not give you enough LUV?!

December 01, 2009 7:44 AM
Poll: 56% say border-crossing tool threatens national security
http://www.ocregister.com/news/tool-221803-border-poll.html

CCG is now going to have to give up our Vegas Dreams of
becoming Las Gagas ricas y famous and just be one more poll dancing
trans-national threat.

Meanwhile here in New Aztl

Dear All,

See below for information on an a recently organised event happening next week:

Dmitry Vilensky & Alexei Penzin from
Chto delat/What is to be done?
Lecture: Tuesday December 1st at 6.00pm
Small Hall / Cinema (to the side of Loafers)
Richard Hoggart Building
Goldsmiths College, New Cross, London SE14 6NW

Chto delat/What is to be done? was founded in 2003 in Petersburg by a
group of artists, critics, philosophers and writers from Petersburg,
Moscow, and Nizhny Novgorod with the goal of merging political theory,
art, and activism. Since then, Chto delat has been publishing an
English-Russian newspaper on issues central to engaged culture, with a
special focus on the relationship between a repoliticization of
Russian intellectual culture and its broader international context.
Their last major exhibition was seen as part of the Istanbul Biennale.

Further information is available at http://www.chtodelat.org/

Organised by Marxism in Culture and the Micropolitics Research Group,
Goldsmiths.

All the best,

Warren