Please register below for the next IN PERSON Artist Caregivers Forum on April 23rd at 11am, hosted by the Sunview Luncheonette.

This forum is part of Sustainable Care in the Arts, a support symposium for artist caregivers of all kinds and genders. This forum will include discussion of texts and the politics and theory of being an artist parent, as well as group critique of participants’ work.

Please note that there will be free childcare available for the duration of this forum, from 11am - 1pm. Childcare and kids’ programming will be held outdoors in McGolrick Park, across the street from the Sunview Luncheonette. We will keep track of the weather, and provide a small tent/canopy.

THE ARTIST CAREGIVERS SYMPOSIUM EQUITY VALUES

The Artist Caregivers Symposium operates on the understanding that caregiving is unevenly distributed, primarily falling on BIPOC women and low income communities. Equity in the arts must include a culture of care that spreads the responsibility of caregiving across people of all economic situations, with an awareness of systemic inequities caused by the social constructs of gender and race.

The Artist Caregivers Symposium aims to take its lead from the work of Carolyn Lazard, specifically their guide Accessibility in the Arts: A Promise and a Practice. Lazard recognizes that "The ideal arts space is simple: it’s one in which art and culture are not sequestered from the lived experience of artists and their communities." To that end, they address childcare in their Accessibility in the Arts guide. "In an ideal world, cultural organizations wouldn’t have to provide childcare because it would already be covered by the state. Unfortunately that’s not the case, but there are some critical things that arts spaces can provide to facilitate access for parents, caregivers, and children."

We also look to Hettie Judah’s guidelines, How Not to Exclude Artist Parents, which suggests that institutions and programs “make it standard practice to establish an artist’s family circumstances at the outset of a project, and have structures in place to accommodate their parenting responsibilities.”

Childcare and youth art programming will be available for free at all in-person meetings, and led by Child-care Specialist Sydney Barton. Sydney is a graduate of Pratt Institute, where she earned a BFA in Art and Design Education as well as her New York State teaching license for Visual Arts. She is a trained Montessori educator, has taught Visual Art for grades Pre-K through 12, managed summer art camps, and worked as a private art tutor, as well as a behavioral therapist for students with disabilities. Sydney is currently an educator at the Montessori Schools of Flatiron & Soho.