MRPJ#2/Untitled: “What Ideals Guide Our Actions?” by Sarah Schulman

We know we are opposed to Helms, but what do we stand for? We in the arts community need to start articulating our agendas for what kind of arts reward system we want. Of course this isn’t going to happen this year or next year but a vision of a democratic, antiracist structure gives us something concrete to work towards. So, here are some preliminary proposals for a more equitable panel/granting system.

1. Panels should be 100% artists. Critics and administrators get salaries and have long standing debts and alliances. Administrators and critics are also overwhelmingly white, far out of proportion to artists. Besides, once a critic or administrator is associated with an artist, his or her own prestige grows along with that artist’s career, creating even more bias in funding choices. As it stands today, the person who has the power to allow or deny you a booking or give you a good or bad review is the same person who is going to decide whether or not you receive a grant and the same person who gives out awards at the end of the season. Such a system is ripe for corruption and should be discontinued.

2. Artists should not be allowed on the same panel more than once every five years. This way, decision-making power will rotate throughout the community, moving through a variety of circles, ethnicities and aesthetic agendas.

3. Obviously, people on panels should forfeit their right to apply for that cycle. This is currently the rule at New York Foundation for the Arts and would avoid all the conflict-of-interest controversy currently raging.

4. Panels should proportionally reflect under-funded communities. So, if 90% of a panel’s awards go to white artists, then 90% of the next year’s panel should be composed of Black, Latin and Asian artists.

5. Finally, white artists must refuse to participate in segregated programming, panels and festivals. If artists demand more democratic distribution of our meager resources, we can strengthen the integrity of our community.

It is up to artists to build a vibrant, resonant alternative to the current system of racial and friendship cronyism. Right now we’re being offered two choices: Helms or The Same Old Thing. We have to say no to both.