World Building with AKA’s Collective

Transcription: Chelsea Boos.

Collective: Alexa Hainsworth; Jordan Baylon (they/she/he); Aurora Wolfe; Derek Sandbeck; Gabby Da Silva; jelly; Felicia Gay; Kaeten Bonli; Kathleena Chiefcalf; Lauren Warrington; and Tarin Dehod.

Sunday, August 28, 2022

Tarin: Hi everyone! I’m excited to start this week with you all talking back and forth around our visioning work at AKA. Can we start today with introductions and sharing where we living/working?

Alexa: Today I’m at Wanukewin making sculpture, taking walks to the buffalo, watching dance performance. It’s beautiful and so I’m feeling good.
Image: sculpture sitting in the landscape, on grass

Felicia: In Regina at home, just dropped my son off at the Science Center to meet up with an old friend from Saskatoon. Made me happy to see him reconnect.

Image: inside home, wall paper and artworks are on one wall next to a large window.

My home is definitely my favourite place to be.

Alexa: Lovely

Tarin: I’m at home, looking for a spot for asparagus plants and obsessing over the safety of toddler guard rails. Are they? And if my 3 yr old will fall out of bed if I don’t use one.

If you have a sunny well drained spot I have three asparagus plants up for grabs 🙂 Also I love this text service:

Image: screenshot of text that reads: In Saskatoon, Saskatchewan you are on Cree, Michif Piyii (Métis), Niitsítpiis-stahkoii (Blackfoot / Niitsítapi), and Očhéthi Šakówin land. More info: https://land.codeforanchorage.org/

Felicia: I found this great community partner here in Regina called the Comeback Society they have podcasts on Spotify and on their web page.

Image: Text on a white background reads: Things that can equally be true: You are resilient and need a break / You gave your all and need to back out / You are independent and still need others / You were sure and things changed / You are kind and have boundaries / Others have it worse and your pain is valid / You did your best and now you know more.

Derek: Hi all 🙂 I’m currently at the climbing gym on this cool afternoon. Hoping to get some baking done later today. Excited to turn on my oven 😊

Image: Derek smiling in front of climbing wall.

(responding to Felicia’s previous image: things that can be equally true)

Kathleena: Good afternoon everyone! I am enjoying a beautiful cloudy day on the acreage. I am tempted light my pumpkin spice candle because it looks like a beautiful fall day! The dogs are also enjoying today.
Image: two dogs on a deck with landscape in the background.

Kathleena (re: Image of Tarin’s land acknowledgement screenshot): This is amazing!

Aurora: Hi everyone! I’m out at my pals bee farm for the end of season harvest party. I’ve been living in my van for the weekend which is cozy because its been storming like crazy out here. I’m just enjoying some much needed bush time after an incredibly hectic summer 😊
Image: Selfie of feet against landscape with cloudy skies.

Kaeten: Hey everyone! I’ve just arrived back home in Brooklyn this afternoon after an exhausting but delightful trip to Pennsylvania to attend my friends Will and Eric’s wedding. Still emotionally reeling from it lol, it was an unbelievably moving ceremony. They rode in on a dirt bike and got married in front of a floaty castle!! 😭

Image: video of wedding – a floaty castle is in the background with a crowd sitting on benches and cheering in front. A dirt bike drives through the frame as people cheer.

Tarin: The tongue at the end

I just got back from McPhee Lake and many near misses with bears. “How fresh is this scat?”

Image: Water from a stream in a forest

Tarin cont’d: I kept thinking about how parks had put Cree syllabics on signage but Kings Island is still named for MacKenzie King and how is it really known by the rightful people of this land.

Lauren: Hi everyone 🙂 I’m spending some time at Nesslin Lake this week. I just got back from a walk in the forest and was admiring all of the colours that come out with the rain.

Image: moss and green forest

Image: lichen on the side of a tree

Image: a red-capped mushroom on the forest floor

Tarin: Lauren that mushroom is making me think of one of my favourite accounts I follow: https://www.instagram.com/blackforager/ And her chicken of the woods video
Image: screenshot of shared Instagram profile.

Gabby: Hi everyone 🙂 I’m celebrating my avó’s (grandma’s) 91^st birthday with my extended family.
Image: Close up of two slices of melon on plate

Tarin: I’m so grateful to hear how everyone is doing since we’ve began making space to connect with each other over our daily personal lives it has made a huge difference in feeling connected with the group on a deeper level than we are through our work and labour for AKA. It has also made me feel valued on a deeper level. That care is a priority.

I want to keep space for everyone to check in today, but also want to set up a next thought for us. Can we all talk about why we’re showing up to rethink the governance and leadership of AKA? What this work means to you and your interests and priorities?

Derek: I’ve viewed this work as an opportunity to make actual real change directly in my community. To start making real shifts away from systems that i don’t agree with and that I don’t think are serving us very well anymore. I’m interested in building relationships as priority and caring for those in my community as priority and I’m so excited to practice those things here and build together

Monday, August 29, 2022

Jelly: Hi everybody! Apologies for being late on responding and that this is now out of order 🙃 …really nice to see all the different places we’re messaging in from and what we’ve all been up to!

Image: A green field with trees and soccer nets.

I spent the weekend playing my soccer final on the hottest Saturday afternoon with no subs ⚰️ and then the rest of it on set for my friends’ film 8^th Street Menace.

Image: People sitting and standing in a brightly coloured room.

Jelly: (in response to Tarin’s previous msg: “I want to keep space for everyone to check in today”): I guess for me both PAVED and AKA occupy and fill important needs for artists at my level, in terms of the resources they provide, the types of opportunities available… I’ve been involved with efforts in other groups in the past to reimagine and shift governing structures and we could say those weren’t successful or haven’t stuck… Prob cos this work is tough, messy, unknown, and can so easily fall back into oppressive dynamics without meaning to. So, I feel like I’m here with hope to see how this one goes! Admittedly AKA is still fairly unknown to me in many ways and I sometimes feel quite adjacent to the “art” world as a musician, so I’m also here to try and learn more about how this scene functions and what would make AKA most accessible and functional within that ecosystem, a lot of the art world still feels very white/middle class/elitist to me so I’m especially interested in tearing into that 😈.

Lauren: (replying to photo of people in the room): I’ve been following this project on IG – I’m totally intrigued by its energy and am excited to see it

Lauren: (replying to Tarin’s previous msg: “I want to keep space for everyone to check in today”): Reimagining what an arts org is and how it can function feels necessary in a time when institution/systems can feel stagnant, redundant, and inaccessible. I think it’s cool that we are learning to unlearn in a way. To think experimentally in this space, and out of a place of care to co-create a future with community feels hopeful to me. Also (on a more nerdy level) I enjoy world-building (like in game development programs), it involves a lot of imaging/daydreaming about what and how reality could be and function. This work with the collective allows for this kind of imagining irl. It directly impacts a community I care about in real-time. I’m also excited to be talking and learning from everyone in the collective. I feel grateful to be in the space 😊.

Tarin (replying to Felicia’s message sharing The Comeback Society): Thanks for sharing about this group Felicia, I’m adding it to my listening list.

Tarin (replying to Lauren’s previous msg: “Reimagining what an arts org is and how it can function”): I’m connecting with this idea of world-building, it feels like it ties so much with some big questions we’ve been asking: what does Indigenous sovereignty mean to us in relation to action we can take? What does the idea look like to each of us and our communities?

Image Description – Red banner with black bird.

Stopped for a coffee and saw this little beauty by Priscilla Settee

Derek (replying to jelly’s previous msg: “I guess for me both PAVED and AKA occupy and fill important needs”): jelly I think what you expressed about feelings of adjacent to the art world is suuuuper valuable. I hope we push past that ‘world’ cause it feels restrictive and elitist and our community is full of all kinds of artists not just the contemporary art world ones

(replying to Lauren’s previous msg: “Reimagining what an arts org is and how it can function feels”): I hadn’t connected these things before re: world building/ungovernance. The fellow gaming nerd in me loooooves it

(replying to Felicia’s previous image: things that can be equally true): That’s why I love this so much. Good game design, good world building, good relationships, good care, they all require balance.

Alexa: I am interested in this project because I am invested in this community. It’s where I grew up. I am an artist that navigates these systems. I have heard the saying “ put your money where your mouth is” I don’t have the money, but I have the time and energy and know that my strength lies in building up artists. I have my ear to the ground, bringing people together and celebrating the achievements made from those connections motivates me.

Gabby: I’m here for community, collaboration, communication, active change, and mutual understandings. The desire that we can do more

Jordan: Oki and sending a big hello to everyone from here in Treaty 7. I’m catching up on all of the wonderful sharing and gorgeous ideas that are starting to bud. This weekend I spend a little time creating community with nature, specifically the Elbow river. I also got deep into this anthology of speculative Indigiqueer and 2Spirit science fiction, specifically a short story by Adam Garnett Jones called “History of the New World”, where we meet a young indigiqueer couple grappling with the choice to evacuate Earth for a planet that supposedly mirrors ours but has evolved independently. I’m riveted and would definitely recommend. Certainly it gets my brain sparking to consider the values that a system emerges from.

Image: Book cover for “Love After The End,” Edited by Joshua Whitehead.

Tarin: I’ve been working in artist-run-orgs since I was in 3^rd year university, i think I just realized that this summer. And in researching ARCs I’ve been inspired and felt the collective power of the grassroots radical movement that started them. I think there’s a space for some of us to tear down the imposed professionalization (self and otherwise) and make ourselves relevant again (not white-centred, elitist spaces). But I also think some arcs should end to make space for new more agile groups working from under-recognized methodologies and in hybrid forms ie. Arc + harm reduction to make use of regular funding.

I think it’s our job to see experimentation as more that supporting artists and communities in a one and done project and to think about it in bigger ways that root down intot he very structure of our orgs and collective. I’m still attached to adrienne maree brown’s idea that we don’t need to tear down, we can turn toward something else.

Tarin: I think of this preface a lot from Braiding Sweetgrass. “The sweetest way is to have someone else hold the end so that you pull gently against each other, all the while leaning in.”

Image: screenshot of text from a book.

Kaeten: I choose to participate in this ongoing project because it feels like a small effort I can make to give back to the community that I grew up in, and that continues to grow with me. Having lived away from Saskatoon/treaty 6 for so many years, I often feel disconnected from the creative scene there and thus struggle to maintain a sense of heritage and identity. And yet having also spent many years working in the non-profit art sector and learning to navigate the challenges of inequities inherent in artist-run centres, I see this work as something vital for me to understand where and with whom I can affect positive change, and how the work of collaboration and decolonization can happen beyond borders

I also just really believe in this team and the work y’all do 🙂 As bewildering (aka soul crushing) as a career in the arts can be, I often leave our meetings feeling hopeful and inspired by all of you

Also Jordan that short story by Adam Garnett sounds unreal, def going to follow that reco

Aurora: I feel like a lot of my interest in this work stems from frustrations working within art/cultural institutions in general but has evolved past that starting place. Since beginning this journey, I feel more connected to not only all of you but to the greater community. Additionally, this range of voices has really expanded my world in a meaningful way. Almost makes me feel like I’m experiencing different or new forms of accountability? I’m excited for more transformational thinking and doing

Tuesday, August 30, 2022

Derek: Thank you everyone for sharing everyone! It’s lovely to be reminded of why we’re all here 🙂

Now that we’ve expressed the ‘why’ I’m wondering if we chat about the ‘what’. We’ve been working through this idea of what is AKA? What do we want to grow it into. Our dream version naming it for ourselves and working towards it. I thought it might be nice to come back to this and ask again, what do you want AKA to be?

Oh, also good morning! Would also just love to know how everyone’s day has started 🙂

Mine started with coffee in grass.

Image: Hand holding cup of coffee against green grass.

Kathleena: Good morning everyone! Apologies for being late to the question. First of all I started my morning with my dogs waking me up with snuggles!

I believe this project is important because I am excited to hear different perspectives in our community and contribute to a project together. I love hearing multiple stories and perspectives. And the more hands that work on this project together, the better. Our community benefits so much with diversity and I am excited to hear and see all your thoughts and stories.

Alexa: This morning I watched my newly purchased work from small quirks at the Scc, titled Anti Aging Mairmaid swim laps in my kitchen window. I’ve been thinking about the connections to community and our neighbours Paved Arts and what words I would use to describe these relationships. I like the word “Amity” meaning friend or often used to describe friendly relations between nations.

Image: A swimmer figurine hangs in a window overlooking a garden.

Tarin: I started my day trying to get a number of things done at home and work while minding my 3 yr old. The flexibility to be with him but the challenge of working at home 2 days a week is overwhelming. It’s like nothing gets the right amount of attention. I’m caught up in our audit review and some final reports today.

Gabby: I returned to speech therapy for the first time in almost 2 yrs but I feel it still makes me more tired

Image: Screen capture of a document reading, On August 24^th, the ICOM Extraordinary General Assembly approved a new museum definition. The vote is the culmination of an 18-month participatory process that involved hundreds of museum professionals from 126 National Committees from all over the world. The new text reads: ”A Museum is a not-for-profit, permanent institution in the service of society that researches, collects, conserves, interprets and exhibits tangible and intangible heritage. Open to the public, accessible and inclusive, museums foster diversity and sustainability. They operate and communicate ethically, professionally and with the participation of communities, offering varied experiences for education, enjoyment, reflection and knowledge sharing.”

Also wanted to share this statement I read this morning about what a museum/gallery is as I feel it reads similarly to our goals.

Tarin: Image: Tote bag screenprinted with art and the words misaskwatominihk mahtawan on the front and text “JT ARCAND misaskwatominihk mahtawan (Saskatoon is magic), 2016.“ on the back.

Found this at Tucker’s tshirts today. It was our first bag and a big collaboration between our orgs.

I feel like I’m contending with the idea and association with institutions and museums. I’m dreaming that AKA in its new form and name (!) feels like a space that prioritizes kinship (Felicia that was your word from our strat plan and it has a sincerity that I think is vital) and it exists as a place of co-authorship where varied cultural approaches to leading and gathering are welcomed and respected and learned from. From artists to staff to collective to funders.

Felicia: Hi everyone, sorry it’s been hectic at work. I’m preparing for my final research exhibition that’s coming up in October.

Tarin: Don’t worry Felicia just pop in when you can.

What’s the show?

Felicia: It’s a large retrospect for Faye HeavyShield

Tarin: Really looking forward to experiencing that and celebrating you!

Jordan: I’ve been thinking about Derek’s question about the what, and I keep coming back to all the different ways people shared how they relate to AKA, to artist-runs, or to arts communities more broadly. I’m hearing a deep dissatisfaction and moral impetus to challenge and transform institutions and structural white supremacy. Still, I always think about how setting ourselves in opposition to whatever we want to transform can also make us beholden to it at the same time, and how anchoring to that thing as something our work is always in reference to can feel stifling and defeating. What are the possibilities that come from shifting from “I’m going to transform white supremacist structures and institutions” toward a propositions based on our desires and what would feel satisfying?

For example, finish this sentence: “As a free person living in a caring community, I would spend my time ________.” Imagine we all had universal basic income and we were able to make our best offerings, having our basic and most fundamental needs and dignities met and protected, what would our offerings be?

I’m going to try to dream about this… and also the Anti Aging Mairmaid 💕 🧜‍♀️ sweet dreaming!

Wednesday, August 31, 2022

Tarin: As a free person in a caring community, I would spend my time learning, gathering, cooking, and feeding people.

Derek: As a free person in a caring community, I would spend my time…creating and building with play as the focus and share and encourage others to play, build meaning connection through this and hopefully cultivate joy

Kathleena: As a free person in a caring community, I would spend my time educating and learning, baking, cooking and spending more time with my elders.

Aurora: Wow Jordan I love this guidance! As a free person in a caring community, I would grow gardens, meet my neighbours, connect with and learn from both friends and strangers, and probably engage in some sort of teaching pursuit. I would also get on the the land as much as possible, because I’m realizing that’s what truly makes me feel rested and grounded

Alexa: This is Big Bill spider I named after my father, she comes back every year in the same part of my garage as long as I can remember. I always look forward to seeing her. As a free person I feel very similar to Aurora in how I would spend my time. Meeting new people and hearing their stories, learning more about the plants in my garden and being as witchy as I want to be. Sharing food, making Art and telling jokes.

Image: Orb weaver spider hanging in a window looking onto a garden

Aurora (in response to Alexa’s image of the spider): Telling jokes! Yes! (Also amazing spider)

Gabby: As a free person in a caring community, I would spend my time listening and learning, creating, building connections. Time/abilities would not be a limitation since it is a caring community 🙂

Lauren: As a free person in a caring community, I would spend my time moving slowly. Taking time to learn from nature and community members. Probably more swimming, exploring water, and sharing food with friends. I would ask more questions, experiment, create collaboratively, and share openly.

Derek: Yes! Exploring water so much more. I’d love to spend every morning with the river, swimming with this guy. Nothing has ever been more stabilizing and calming for me.

Image: a dog in front of a body of water, with head turned and looking to the side of the camera.

Alexa: Just to add a quote by Desmond Tutu that relates to our discussion yesterday. “When we see others as the enemy, we risk becoming what we hate. When we oppress others, we end up oppressing ourselves. All of our humanity is dependent upon recognizing the humanity in others.”

Kaeten: Derek your response definitely resonates with me. I think play and pleasure is most of what comes to mind for me when I think of living in a free community.

As a free person in a caring community, I would spend my time making my environment and community beautiful. I would devote my energy toward designing structures, clothing, creating music and food that inspire me, and focusing on learning how to inspire and create with others. I have always felt that my role as an artist is to make others’ lives more vibrant, so I think I’d find a lot of fulfillment being the source of pleasure and vibrancy for my community

Jelly (in responde to Kaeten’s previous message: “Derek your response definitely resonates with me”: big yes to play and pleasure 🙂

as a free person in a caring world with all my needs being met, I think I would spend a lot of time at home building race tracks, making doll houses, sewing outfits, cooking feasts… and I’d also spend a lot of time away visiting my friends and my family across the world

Tarin (in response to jelly’s previous message “as a free person in a caring world with all my needs being met,”): How did I forget visiting?!

Felicia: Let’s see…

As a free and caring person I need to give myself permission to care for myself first in order to care for my family so that I can server others when opportunities present themselves. To be open and authentic so as to inspire my fellow peers to not fear who they are or where they come from. Being silenced is not an option.

Getting ready for two teens and 2 elementary kiddies for tomorrow…then straight to meetings. Going to find moments to look after myself.

Thursday, September 1, 2022

Jordan: As a free person in a community of care I would be at dances constantly. I would find intimate relationships through cooking. I would consecrate myself to the sacred witnessing of others, and there would be many others who keep these rites, and everyone of us would express them differently. I would know plants like people.

Wooooow. I’m so in love with everyone’s responses to that question! I love how there were so many common threads and points of resonance across different answers. Some people expressed in terms of values and principles; others imagined really vibrant an dynamic, and yet grounded actions; and everyone showed so much character and nuance. And all of that somehow emerging from the possibilities created by community, and then channelled back into it again in a synergistic way, and then connecting back to the self like Felicia 🙂 I also love Alexa’s Desmond Tutu quote and how it describes mutuality in a really intuitive and indisputable way!

But most of all. I LOVE that even though we gave space for the most utopian range of possibilities, I believe that all of you manifest your answers in your current life in *this world to some degree! It really feels like we have everything we need, together.

How do ya’ll feel receiving everyone else’s responses?

Image: Video of performer dancing in a crowded and dark room as people cheer (Tony Tran – VogueYYC KiKi Ball earlier this evening! 💅🏽 💥)

Tarin (in response to Jordan’s previous message “How do ya’ll feel receiving everyone else’s responses?”): I was excited to see food, gathering/witnessing, play (which parts of myself forget), and pleasure as interconnected threads. It feels like we can enable these dreams within AKA. We’re dreaming now about our own version of a mandate, can I venture that these priorities are that?

Positioning the visioning that we’re doing as a creating worlds also feels liek an anchor for the work we’re doing. A way to position and describe.

I’m getting so much positive energy from this conversation and its making this day at the office feel full of potential.

Also look at this incredible gathering/studio space Derek has been working on!

Image: video of interior space under renovation, divided with plywood walls

Gabby (in response to video): I spy a teddy 🐕‍🦺

Aurora: This looks so amazing!

I got the keys for my studio today and I’m very excited

Image: Person with arms raised in a white room with vaulted ceiling.

Tarin: I’m wondering if anyone has questions that come up for them in this community of care/world building?

Today I wonder what disagreement looks like in small wyas and in larger ways that require accountability and perhaps even restorative justice.

Lauren: Reading these responses makes me wonder how we can shift the balance? Maybe the more pleasure & play that is integrated into the work, the more sustainable it will feel, the more it will resonate with community. How can these ideas/actions/principles from our responses hold more weight and become part of what we are doing? What would it look like if we emphasize making these desires our reality?

Derek (in response to Jordan’s previous message “How do ya’ll feel receiving everyone else’s responses?”: Receiving everyone’s responses felt quite grounding to me, a reminder that we often all want similar things for ourselves and community. And we all just want to care for each other. Deep reminder to just be gentle with people, we’re here together often just trying our best

Aurora: I was also thinking about this today! I find this exercise so fulfilling, I think our membership would also find moments like this invaluable. This feels more organic, and less like work- more like an arts organism (forgive my pun) I guess the overwhelming question for me is how do we provide connectivity as a service? Facilitation of spaces like this seems really important. All week I’ve just been wishing I could share this feeling with other people.

I’ve been reflecting on spaces like Gordan Oakes red bear center on campus, and how this space serves its community and fosters connections. I’ve met so many people at soup and bannock, the action of sitting down and sharing a meal is so powerful

Friday, September 2, 2022

Jordan: I love Aurora’s prompt around “connectivity as a service” bc for me it surfaces a lot of interesting dynamics at play when it comes to non-profit and community work. When we start to program our offerings to community, acting or intervening upon it. This is ironic if you consider that all of you are here because you’re of the community and are seeking connectivity in one form or another. When Lauren talks about shifting the balance to make all of your collective dreams possible, I think on of the things this exercise proves is how powerful it would be for all of you AKA folx to *intentionally and consistently five *yourselves the gift of connectivity too. The community you embody then begets more communities. And instead of defaulting to the paternalistic unidirectional approach (“board governance”) normally favoured by non-profits you are instead the fractal for the transformative possibilities you want to manifest to scale.

How fun and playful and impactful and utterly intriguing would it be to explore how you real desires (which we can only seem to articulate in a utopia for some reason), could be integrated into how AKA creates community through art? I honestly believe that everyone one of your responses (including designing race tracks) could be an opportunity to model and experiment with teasing more permeability into our notions of art-making and art-sharing so that community can see themselves as belonging with AKA

But that’s just me – many of us references art in our responses to the utopia prompt, both explicitly and implicitly. How are you feeling about “art” in this conversation right now?

Tarin (responding to Aurora’s previous message “I’ve been reflecting on spaces like Gordan Oakes”): I love that space so much it feels so open and natural. I think we had some of that feeling when we were feeding people through the Locals Only Project, and we were doing it both in and out of the gallery space. Food generated kitchen table sharing and connecting. Awhile back I think Jelly offered that they would like to see “unproductive” drop ins through the new community studios. Maybe that’s a time for play? Many have mentioned a desire for the space to feel like you don’t need an event to go there.

Gabby:
Image: Screen capture of a quote, “You have to articulate the world you want to live in.” by Ocean Vuong

Tarin (in response to Jordan’s previous message “But that’s just me – many of us references art in our responses to the utopia prompt”): I’m uncomfortable with the term art bc it conjures up western and white art histories. Has anyone seen Conceptions of White at the MacKenzie?! I’d like to think we can redefine the word but its so full. When I think of how we support artists/makers I don’t restrict it to the visual, and at times I’ve received negative feedback from the more traditional artist crowd here, Over the past few years I’ve felt really fulfilled supporting makes who work in theatre, feed people, form partnerships between AKA and JinJin, musicians, composers, writers, people who make without thinking they are makers.

I feel like my job is to get money to help people dream.

I hope we can keep this space open for continuous sharing.

I watched this this morning. Just thinking about food and joy.

Image: Video of child sitting in highchair licking a bowl of berries

Felicia: Made my first americano

I try to remind myself to live with intention because if how chaotic my life can be. One way I try do that is by having a mentor, being a mentor and having a sister walk next to me.

There is accountability, sharing your gifts and having support throughout…

Image: Coffee cup under espresso machine

Tarin (responding to Felicia’s previous message “I try to remind myself to live with intention”): Felicia I feel like this should be and in many ways already is part of the core of the collective. We should make this a priority.

Felicia: Yes, it’s very circular and balanced, I feel that’s why it works for me at least. Something my mom taught me.

Gabby (responding to Jordan’s previous message “But that’s just me – many of us references art in our responses to the utopia prompt”): I feel like the term “art” sounds very substance based, as if those who experience “art” need to physically take away something from the event. Art also sounds wealthy like you need money to experience “good art”. But for myself, aka is more about the space, the people, coming together, sharing; all of us here in this collective could sit together in silence and still feel heard, till feel respected and valued because that is the kind of safe space we have created for ourselves, and want to continuee creating for our community. Not an elitist production based art space, but a welcoming extension of home

Alexa: I have never considered the term Art as elitist. Mostly because I have been asked so many times “what is it I really do for work.” I stand up for art because I know that it is not is not meant to confuse people but it’s just a process that an artist is compelled to explore. I hate math, but if someone explains it to me in a way I can relate to it, I might hate it less. Anything that challenges you should be worth examining and educating to us/others that aren’t sure how to relate to it. Art is not one thing, and may not even be see. It can safe or edgy, entertaining or educational, beautiful or repulsive, you don’t even have to like it. I don’t like a lot of art, but it means I’m considering it. Also I’m not afraid of the word production mostly because I have been looking at 100 different videos on production craft and I understand more and more why a person would want to make the same bowl for example again and again. There is a meditative skill there, that actually has a lot of unknowns and experimentation in each step than what you might expect when you see it in its finished state. Part of welcoming it breaking down the assumptions that art is one big terrifying thing, that can’t be understood and that it’s actually many little terrifying things that you just need to wade through until you find your comfort spot.

Alexa: Even this crow can enjoy being within the art.

Image: Video of crow standing on top of a metal  sculpture.

Tarin (responding to Alexa’s previous message “I have never considered the term Art as elitist”: I agree and then I also want to ask myself if terms I use freely mean other things to other people. One of the big reasons that came up for me with “art” and “artist” is that we began working with folks in communities here who wouldn’t use those terms to describe themselves or their work and I started thinking further around what I was taught in Art History in academia as far as what was part of seen histories and what was ignored. From what I was taught, importance was given to white artist histories and movements. So, the word has to carry some of that embedded meaning, perhaps even that violence.

Alexa: Well, I do understand that Aka artist run is not a meaningful title in anyway. In my job I try to burden makers with what they call themselves. Titles are tricky and everyone comes form different learning spaces. I try to get to the heart of why they show up, I ask them what they want to achieve by getting involved and how I can help them by successful. What does success look like to you?

Tarin: Alexa I think this is a great question. I’m aware that we’re wrapping up our time commitment for our chat today and I’m wondering if there’s a way we can round out this week? If there are some questions or thoughts we want to end with?

Sunday, September 4, 2022

Kaeten: Hey everyone! Very sorry to be chiming in past our time commitment for this conversation. I moved into a new apartment this week and have found myself utterly consumed by the process of unpacking and *world building in this new space. I’ve been attentively following the convo and have some closing thoughts:

I feel myself coming back to this dilemma often: does the term ‘art’ conjure more of a feeling of inclusivity or elitism? Though claiming the identity of “artist” has always felt empowering, somehow identifying what I create as ‘art’ has felt like a contrived posture that belongs to those of privilege.

I also echo some of what Alexa brought up in that in my experience, art tends to be a contentious term particularly for those who work in it, as if participating in the art world affords one the authority to decide that the term is contrived, or those educated about art history get to decide that its colonial origins render it elitist and problematic. Frankly I agree with these criticisms of the term, but wonder how we can shift the conversation towards a more reparative goal. Because for most other people who don’t work in the art world but who seek out art to better their lives, I think the term can act as a beacon that one is entering a space of empowerment, critical thinking, inclusivity, and beauty. This brings me back to thinking about how our intention with reimagining AKA might need to involve considering how the space functions more from the perspective of the community members it serves, rather than that of art world insiders.

Jordan (responding to video sent by Tarin of child licking bowl of berries): I love that expression at the end! Food and joy are synonyms for sure

Jordan (responding to Felicia’s previous message “I try to remind myself to live with intention”): I agree, especially how you describe the unique relational qualities mentorships offer. What I would add is that mentorships are a beautiful antidote to the rote hierarchical colonial education we get, offering reciprocal curiosity and a community.

Jordan (responding to Kaeten’s previous message “I also echo some of what Alexa brought up in that in my experience, art tends to be a contentious term”): I love that we’re starting to directly confront the reality that art has become a site of power navigation, just like all of the other conversations around our basic human rights, which I believe art and creativity are. In fact we wouldn’t be applying anti-racist and anti-oppressive lenses to art-making and the structures built around them if inequitable systems of power were not in play. As Tarin says, the questions around how we feel about art bear different stakes for different people. For example, coming from the perspective of my practice and the people I try to center in it, the power stakes seem to have really highlighted one way of thinking about art, which is the power to tell our own stories and wield our own agency in how we make meaning. One of the values that emerges naturally from this definition is community – stories are shared.

Where art becomes truly alive for me is when it starts to tell the stories of how we imagine our futures, and how that telling also inscribes a circle back through our histories and the dreams of our ancestors.

Lastly, I want to say think Alexa’s prompt around how we define success is super helpful and another way to think of futurist storytelling. When I hear Tarin define her job as “getting money to help people dream” I hear her make a link between a grounded sens of where she sits in the current system and how she can build a bridge to our utopian dreams. So taking inspiration from both Alexa and Tarin, and also all of the incredible and generous offerings everyone has made in this space, how do each of us imagine our best offerings to the future we want to manifest? I think it would be rich and helpful to be really specific (for example, for Tarin, what are the skills/experiences/perspectives you want to reclaim in alignment to your values and vision that will allow you to get that money?). And also as much as it’s helpful to think about what we know we have now, we can also think about what we don’t know or skills/experiences/perspectives we would like to learn to achieve our goals.

This type of brainstorming can really help you form a basis for your board and staff strategy and support-system building, as well as allow you to articulate who you are as a very clear invitation to community 🙂

Alexa: Thank you all.

Tarin (responding to Jordan’s previous message “Lastly, I want to say think Alexa’s prompt around how we define success”): Yes I love this reminder to think about what we don’t know. One of the things I care so much about is how often I am learning from communities and artists and makers. It is such a privilege in this role to sit and listen to people and hear their stories and ideas.