Form & Funding

While much is made of artistic freedom, the forms
into which our efforts flow (sculpture, pictures,
performance.) and the containers through which
those forms can circulate legibly as artworks
(museums, markets, the media.) are rather
well-defined. If our ambition is to act
effectively and with prominence in the cultural
realm, we must present ourselves in a recognizable
manner.
These forms and containers are neither fixed nor
neutral; they reflect evolving historical,
political and economic conditions and concerns.
This seminar will examine a number of instances in
which the range of acceptable artistic expression
was determined or regulated through funding by
political (or politically-motivated) actors. By
gaining familiarity with these relatively overt
instances, participants will develop a sensitivity
to the subtler ways in which power guides gesture.
Subjects of study will include: the Works
Progress Administration's Federal Art Project
(1935-1943); the Congress for Cultural Freedom
(1950-1966); and the National Endowment for the
Arts (1965-present). We will consider the
flourishing of corporate involvement in the arts
throughout the 1980s, its relation to the economic
policies of the Reagan administration, and its
influence on post-conceptual art. Mary Jane
Jacob's curatorial engagement with the Spoleto
Festival (1991; 2000-2008) and Ruangrupa's
Documenta 15 (2022) will help us to think about
whether settlements of the International art elite
can produce (rather than merely model)
counter-hegemony.
When artists have a realistic conception of the
structural constraints under which they labor,
they are in a position to succeed professionally
while reserving space in their work and their
spirit for esoteric meanings.