Join us for a roundtable conversation prompted by artist and educator Kerry Downey on the practice and implications of using freelance and precarious workers to execute community-based arts programs. The conversation will cover a range of topics that illuminate how and why art museums and nonprofits employ freelancers, short-term, and contingent arts workers to design and lead public programs and, in particular, programs for communities of people that institutions may label as “underserved”. Case studies will be shared and the discussion will cover areas that will support Downey in their research and upcoming essay on queering museums while exploring strategies to address the valuation of cultural work and institutional investment in the public.

This program is free and open to the public.

Have questions? Want to share an article, resource, or other material you would like to pass along to peers interested in this topic? Contact us and we’ll add your ideas to a list of resources we are compiling to share with participants and support Downey with their research. 

Kerry Downey (b.1979, Ft. Lauderdale) is an interdisciplinary artist and educator based in New York City. Downey’s work explores relationality through the many ways we inhabit our bodies and access forms of power. Downey’s practice includes video, printmaking, painting, drawing, writing, and performance. They’ve recently had solo shows at Bureau of General Services--Queer Division in New York and CAVE in Detroit. Their publication We collect together in a net was published by Wendy’s Subway in 2019. They have also exhibited at the Queens Museum, Flushing, NY; the Hessel Museum at Bard College, Annandale, NY; Danspace Project, New York, NY; Knockdown Center, Maspeth, NY; Kate Werble, NY; The Drawing Center, New York, NY; Cooper Cole, Toronto, CA, and Taylor Macklin, Zurich, CH. Downey is a recipient of the Joan Mitchell Foundation Emerging Artist Grant and Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grant. Artist-in-residencies include Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Madison, ME; Triangle Arts Association, Brooklyn, NY; SHIFT at EFA Project Space, New York, NY; the Drawing Center’s Open Sessions, New York, NY; Real Time and Space, Oakland, CA; and the Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT. Downey participated in the Queer/Art/Mentorship program in 2013. Their work has been in Artforum, The Brooklyn Rail, and The Washington Post. Downey holds a BA from Bard College and an MFA from Hunter College.

PS122 Gallery is a dynamic, cooperatively-run not-for-profit, alternative space in the East Village that provides opportunities and support services for emerging and under-recognized artists. Maintained by the members of Painting Space 122 and sustained by the generosity of artists, curators, critics, gallerists, and the public since 1979. PS122 Gallery is free and open to the public and inclusive of all people, regardless of race, ethnicity, age, LGBTQIA identity, and class. Conveniently located on the ground floor of the 122 Community Center in the East Village of Manhattan near several public transportation lines, PS122 Gallery provides wheelchair accessibility through the 122CC main entrance, as well as wheelchair accessible water fountains and all-gender restrooms.