Artist Employment Agency—The Work Office (TWO)—Hires 34 Employees to Participate in the Dumbo Arts Festival, September 24th–26th

Location: 45 Main Street, Suite 830, Brooklyn, NY
Office/Exhibition Open Hours: September 24th–26th: Fri. 24th, 6–9 pm, Sat. 25th & Sun. 26th, 12–6 pm
Payday Party: Saturday, September 25th, 6–8 pm

New York, NY—Artists Katarina Jerinic and Naomi Miller, Brooklyn Arts Council Regrant recipients, are pleased to announce the third run of their project The Work Office (TWO) during the Dumbo Arts Festival from September 24th–26th, 2010.

TWO‘s current employees are: Michael Berens, Rebecca Blakley, Tess Elliot Catalano, Jano Cortijo,Carrie Crow, Andy Dayton, Carey Denniston, Cat Del Buono, Carloyn Dinshaw & Marget Long, JeanAnn Douglass, Emilie Esders, Meg Franklin, Harvey Loves Harvey, Raquel Hecker, Alexa Hoyer, Carey Kirkella & Pete Riesett, Justine Lee-Mills, Becca Lofchie, Mark Lozier, Alicia Mountain, Elsbeth Pancrazi, Sarah Nicole Phillips, Ari Richter, Diana Santiago, Eliza Stamps, Robin Wachsberger, Justice Whitaker, Julia Wilson, and Work Progress Collective. Their work will be celebrated during a Payday Party on Saturday, September 25th from 6–8 pm. At the Payday Party, a paycheck will be distributed to each employee for $23.50, once the weekly wage for an artist in the Federal One Project, the arts division of the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The event is free and open to the public.

Selected from a pool of applicants in the New York City area, the artists were hired for one week, from September 13th–20th, to complete their response to a TWO assignment. The artist/employees’ assignments, such as documenting a need for repairs, making a regional travel guide for a block or neighborhood, reinterpreting a newspaper photograph, or giving a concert for a houseplant, will be on view at the TWO office during the Dumbo Arts Festival from September 24th–26th, and on the TWO website thereafter.

TWO is based on the idea of “making work” (WPA terminology) for artists to “make work” (artist terminology). The project was born of an appreciation for the WPA and recurring comparisons in the news media between that era and today. With the current economic recession in mind, TWO revisits the approach the 1930s federal government took to alleviate the effects of the Depression on daily life. Artists were employed to make art—alongside infrastructure and other projects to rebuild the country—and were seen as a valuable labor force. Despite recent wistful references to the WPA, it seems implausible in contemporary US culture that artists would be remunerated for their work in this way. TWO is a wry, contemporary realization of this model.

The TWO process requires artists to apply, interview, sign contracts, and work a full week to complete their assignment. Payday Parties are the culmination of the work week, where employees are paid for their labor and the public is invited to view the works and learn about the project. Payday Parties are inspired by the socializing that occurred between artists as they waited in line to collect their wages at their local WPA office. They also provide a forum for TWO artists and the general public to interact and exchange ideas. All completed assignments will be on view throughout the Dumbo Arts Festival and on the project’s website: www.theworkoffice.com.

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05 August 2010: SHOW