Nato Thompson

Curator with Sally Szwed, Josh Hueman and Gaetane Verna.

The 10th Creative Time Summit, Of Homelands and Revolution took place in Toronto, Canada from September 28th – 30th, 2017, co-produced with The Power Plant and in collaboration with the Art Gallery of Ontario.

Of Homelands and Revolution explored the concept of ‘home’ in its intimate and immense dimensions: we considered urgent struggles for sovereign homelands, the violent borders that produce exile, displacement, and refugeeism, and the threats of virulent nationalism(s). At the same time we kept in sight ‘home’s’ relation to the heart, and the everyday and extraordinary realms of domestic life and hospitality. Our consideration of ‘revolution,’ the Summit’s second thematic axis, took as its point of departure the Centennial of the Russian Revolution. While certainly the legacy of this historic moment can be contested, the Bolshevik Revolution was a remarkable event that, in the words of Trotsky, one of its principal architects, allowed for the “direct interference of the masses in historic events.” 100 years later we looked back at the Marxist tradition and at the many forms of radical sociality, aesthetics and anti-capitalist organizing that it has inspired, particularly in light of the resurgence of neoliberalism and the global turn to the right today.

The 2017 Summit invited participants to consider the many-layered political and aesthetic understandings of home alongside social movements—revolutionary ones at that—which have sought to summon a broader dream of social justice. Present in both of the Summit’s main thematic threads were ongoing movements led by indigenous peoples across continents and the multiple relations between home, land, culture, and community that they bring to bear.

The first day of the Summit featured dynamic talks and presentations from an international roster of artists and activists to a live audience at Koerner Hall. The following day there was opportunity for further engagement via roundtables and breakout sessions at the AGO led by day-one speakers and Toronto area artists and organizers who were invited to participate or selected via an open call.

The Creative Time Summit “Of Homelands and Revolution” was curated by Nato Thompson, Sally Szwed, Gaëtane Verna, and Josh Heuman.

Summit Toronto Advisory Council: Indu Vashist, Luis Jacob, Gerald McMaster, Anique Jordan, Syrus Marcus Ware, Umbereen Inayet, Naomi Johnson, Julia Paoli, and Sean O’Neill.

DAY ONE

KOERNER HALL
273 BLOOR ST W, TORONTO, CANADA

PARTICIPANTS

GAYATRI CHAKRAVORTY SPIVAK (KEYNOTE)

BOUCHRA KHALILI

CANNUPA HANSKA LUGER

CARLOS MARENTES

CAROLE CONDÉ AND KARL BEVERIDGE

CHTO DELAT

COCO FUSCO

CRACK RODRIGUEZ

DR. HUHANA SMITH

ELVIRA DYANGANI OSE

KENT MONKMAN

KINANA ISSA

MÁRET ÁNNE SARA

NABIL AL-RAEE

POSTCOMMODITY

SRECKO HORVAT

SYLVIA MCADAM

SYRUS MARCUS WARE

TINGS CHAK

VASIF KORTUN

WAEL SHAWKY

WANDA NANIBUSH

DAY TWO

ART GALLERY OF ONTARIO
317 DUNDAS STREET WEST, TORONTO, CANADA

PARTICIPANTS

The second day of the Summit, held at the Art Gallery of Ontario, featured over 30 conversations, workshops, and interactive walks held at the Art Gallery of Ontario. Sessions were selected via an open call to the Greater Toronto Area and Summit advisors. Sessions were led by:

Ala’ Al-Thibeh and Zahra Komeylian; Alexa Hatanaka, Patrick Thompson, and Parr Josephee; Amy Wong (Angry Asian Feminist Gang); Ana Serrano, Victor Willis, Heather Mathis, Douglas Rushkoff, and Justin Stephenson; Cheryl L’Hirondelle, Camille Turner, and Leah Snyder; Chris Cavanagh; Diane Borsato; Emelie Chhangur; Golboo Amani; Henry Heng Lu, Morris Lum, Shellie Zhang, and Alvis Parsley; Honor Ford-Smith, Andil Gosine, and Lisa Myers; Jon Olbey and Dr. Bryant Greenbaum; MICE MAGAZINE; Maria Hupfield, Siku Allooloo, and Jaskiran Dhillon; Mark V. Campbell, Pamela Edmonds, Yaniya Lee, Chiedza Pasipanodya, and Genevieve Wallen (We Curate, We Critique Collective); Pamila Matharu and Lisa Deanne Smith; Phillip Dwight Morgan; Public Studio; Saada El-Akhrass, Eliza Chandler, Lindsay Fisher, Kim Fullerton, Katie McMillan, and Anne Zbitnew; South Asian Visual Arts Centre; The Feminist Art Museum (Xenia Benivolski & Su-Ying Lee) presenting Christine Migwans; Wael Shawky; Whippersnapper Gallery; Woodlands Cultural Centre; and more.

Curators Katia Arfara and Nato Thompson

Producer/Curator: Sally Szwed

Creative Time and Fast Forward Festival came together in Athens to co-present On Homelands and the Stateless as the World Tilts Right, an international symposium investigating the challenges facing artists and activist communities under our prevailing economic and political conditions.

The symposium brought together representatives from cultural organizations across the globe and working locally (North America, South-East Asia, Middle East, Latin America, Europe, South Asia, Southern Africa, Greece), who each invited artists, activists, social workers, and scholars from the same geography, to share critical, practice-based perspectives on art and politics as experienced from their specific regions.

SCHEDULE

Click here to see the full schedule.
 

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

Tania Bruguera
Patrick D. Flores

PANELISTS

Katia Arfara from the Onassis Cultural Centre in Athens, Greece, with Michael Afolayan (ANASA Cultural Center), Anna Apostolidou & Inaam Alibrahim(Project Press, Hellenic Open University), Nadina Christopoulou (Melissa Network), Angela Dimitrakaki (University of Edinburgh), iLiana Fokianaki(State of Concept), Yonous Muhammadi (Greek Forum of Refugees), artist and filmmaker Theo Prodromidis, Nikos Agapakis (Piraeus Open School of Immigrants) and UNHCR Greece.

Nato Thompson from Creative Time in New York City, US, with artist Simone Leigh (US) and legal activist and playwright Mary Kathryn Nagle (US)

Brigitta Isabella from the KUNCI Cultural Studies Center in Yogyakarta, Indonesia with singer and cultural geographer Anjeline de Dios (Philippines) and artist Tintin Wulia (Australia)

Beth Stryker from the Cairo Lab for Urban Studies, Training and Environmental Research (CLUSTER) in Cairo, Egypt, with artist Nida Sinnokrot(Palestine) and researcher Shela Sheikh (London)

Miguel A. López from TEOR/éTica in San Jose, Costa Rica, with Maya K’iche’ sociologist and Amaq’ Institute researcher Gladys Tzul Tzul (Guatemala) and multimedia artist Benvenuto Chavajay (Guatemala)

Defne Ayas and Adam Kleinman from Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, with author and pundit Natalia Antonova(Russia/Ukraine/USA) and curator and researcher Antonia Majaca(Croatia/Germany)

Radha Mahendru from Khoj International Artists’ Association in New Delhi, India with theatre director Zuleikha Chaudhari (India) and environmental lawyer Norma Alvares (India)

Athi Mongezeleli Joja from Gugulective in Cape Town, South Africa, with activist and journalist Zimasa Mpemnyama (South Africa) and researcher and activist Ziyana Lategan (South Africa)

Curator Nato Thompson

Producer/Curator: Sally Szwed

The Creative Time Summit-the world’s largest international conference on art and social change-found its way to Washington, D.C.! Creative Time Summit DC: Occupy the Future was held at D.C.’s historic Lincoln Theatre on October 14 – 16, 2016.

Occurring in the nation’s capital just weeks before the 2016 Presidential Election, the Creative Time Summit DC took this important moment to collectively consider what it might mean to radically transform the current state of democracy. Around the world both the left and the right are making their dissatisfaction with the center known, setting the stage for a virulent electoral season. Shaking up the political landscape, worldwide social movements — from Arab Spring to #BlackLivesMatter — are now ingrained in popular discourse. The 2016 Summit offered a platform for citizen-led strategies and grassroots movements working within, as well as disrupting, electoral politics. As we work to push forward the ideals of human rights in practice, what does it mean to actually occupy power in a future as yet unwritten?

SPEAKERS

JUN YANG

KENNETH TIN-KIN HUNG

KEYTI & XUMAN (JOURNAL RAPPÉ)

@KHALIDALBAIH (CULTURUNNERS)

LIBERATE TATE

MAY BOEVE (350.ORG), KEYNOTE

MARY KATHRYN NAGLE

MELISSA MAYS (WATER YOU FIGHTING FOR?)

NEWTON HARRISON

NUT BROTHER

PATRICIA ARIZA

PEDRO REYES

PETER SVARZBEIN

RYAN HAMMOND

SHEILA PREE BRIGHT

SHELDON SCOTT

SHUDDHABRATA SENGUPTA (RAQS MEDIA COLLECTIVE)

TERIKE HAAPOJA

THOMAS FRANK, KEYNOTE

VAGINAL DAVIS, KEYNOTE

WARIS AHLUWALIA

Curator Nato Thompson

Curator/Producer: Sally Szwed

After two years, the Creative Time Summit-the world’s largest international conference on art and social change-headed home to New York City! Creative Time Summit: The Curriculum NYC took place at the Boys and Girls High School campus in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn on November 14 and 15, 2015.

BOYS AND GIRLS HIGH SCHOOL CAMPUS
1700 FULTON ST, BROOKLYN NY

Continuing the dialogue started at the Summit held at the Venice Biennale in August, the New York Summit was dedicated to education and other ways knowledge is disseminated and obtained. The Curriculum NYC focused on the effects of specific education policies in the United States. We explored the relationship between knowledge and geopolitics, pedagogical art practices, omissions in contemporary curricula, and political issues such as the re-segregation of public schools and student debt.

In addition to hosting presentations by a distinguished roster of over 50 participants, the Creative Time Summit: The Curriculum NYC invited attendees to join in our afternoon sessions, which comprised break-out sessions held in the school’s classrooms. Taking the form of workshops and open discussions, they provided opportunities for more intimate exchanges among attendees, special guests, Summit presenters, and students and teachers from the Boys and Girls High School campus, which includes the Nelson Mandela School for Social Justice, and Research and Service High School. While diving deeper into urgent pedagogical issues, the breakout sessions addressed topics specific to the field of socially engaged art.

MESSAGE FROM NATO THOMPSON

What should we learn? How should we learn? Under what conditions should we learn? These questions act as a through line in both of Creative Time’s 2015 Summits. The Creative Time Summit: The Curriculum NYC follows the Creative Time Summit: The Curriculum, which took place at La Biennale di Venezia as part of Okwui Enwezor’s exhibition All the World’s Futures. That iteration took a broad and even abstract approach to thinking about curriculum, while the New York Summit focuses on issues that are particularly germane to the United States.

 The crisis in American education is far-reaching. Public schools have trouble maintaining good teachers. It has been estimated that 80 percent of students from low-income backgrounds read below their grade level. According to Editorial Projects for Education (EPE), some 1.1 million American students drop out of school every year, and that for African-American and Hispanic students across the country, dropout rates are close to 40 percent, compared to the national average of 27 percent. The repercussions of this are drastic. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development has found that American public schools no longer serve as the great, democratic equalizer. They are no longer vehicles of social mobility and instead reinforce class strata.

Higher education is also at a breaking point. The U.S. Department of Labor predicts that in order to earn a living wage in today’s economy, employees need at least some postsecondary education. Yet almost three-quarters of college graduates have nearly $30,000 of student loan debt, one-fifth of which derives from predatory private loans with unforgiving repayment options. The administrative solution to this crisis has been to defund liberal arts programs, rely on underpaid adjunct faculty, and refashion education as a relationship between student- customers and teachers whose role it is to provide job-training services.

American public schools no longer serve as the great, democratic equalizer. They are no longer vehicles of social mobility.

Meanwhile, approximately 20 percent of college women will have been sexually assaulted on campus by the time they graduate and public schools average one deadly school shooting per week. Physically, economically, and intellectually, our students are in danger.

The Creative Time Summit serves as a gathering place for the growing community of those interested in discussing art in conjunction with social issues such as these. Art historian Grant Kester has used the term “dialogic” to describe artworks that emphasize dialogue and discussion. Such art seems to create a pedagogic space that, while not always utilitarian, can serve as an alternative form of knowledge-making, one that produces an engaged relationship with the viewer. This quality is ubiquitous in socially engaged art today.

Thus, the dialogic is the underlying principle of the Summit’s presentations on curriculum, testing, debt, infrastructure, and privatization. It will also be the foundation of the afternoon classroom sessions, which focus more squarely on issues within socially engaged art such as cultural equity, techniques of criticism, and how this field manifests in graduate programs.

As with previous Creative Time Summits dedicated to the intersection of art and politics, The Curriculum NYC has a radical leaning. We keep in mind a statement by Paulo Freire, the radical educator who considered education
to be a confrontation with power and a source of agency for the powerless. Freire believed that education was not a passive act, but a radical practice.

He believed that beyond transforming individuals, education carries the revolutionary potential to transform the world. “Liberation is a praxis,” he wrote, “the action and reflection of men and women upon their world in order to transform it.”

And so we continue a relationship between Creative Time and the Boys and Girls High School (BGHS) that was initiated when artist Xenobia Bailey collaborated with the school in our 2014 exhibition Funk, God, Jazz, and Medicine: Black Radical Brooklyn. We are excited to have now forged relationships with the other incredible high schools on the BGHS campus: the Research and Service High School and the Nelson Mandela School for Social Justice. With its impressive collection of African American art and commitment to making the world a better place, this dynamic campus is the ideal setting for our learning praxis. From within the very rooms where pedagogical structures are being rethought and young scholars practice good citizenship, we welcome you to The Curriculum NYC.

KEYNOTES

NIKOLE HANNAH-JONES

BOOTS RILEY

SPEAKERS

EMILY BARNETT

BILL AYERS

PRINCIPAL TABARI ZAID BOMANI

RASHIDA BUMBRAY

LUIS CAMNITZER

NEIL AND AYANDA CLARKE

THE DEBT COLLECTIVE

COUNCILMAN ROBERT E. CORNEGY JR.

PRINCIPAL ALLISON M. FARRINGTON

HOPE GINSBURG

HANS HAACKE

TAHIR HEMPHILL

KEMI ILESANMI

SANDRA JACKSON-DUMONT

ATHI MONGEZELELI JOJA

SARAH KENDZIOR

STANLEY KINARD

PEDRO LASCH

SIMONE LEIGH

LEONARD LOPATE

MFA NO MFA

NAEEM MOHAIEMEN

PEPÓN OSORIO

TIA POWELL HARRIS

JOLENE RICKARD

ANDREW ROSS

JENNIFER A. SCOTT

EMMA SULKOWICZ

WORKSHOPS, ROUNDTABLES, AND OPEN DISCUSSIONS

RAS KENDALL ALBERT

BETTY’S DAUGHTER ARTS COLLABORATIVE

THE BLACK LUNCH TABLE

BFAMFAPHD

TANIA BRUGUERA

NICOLE CARUTH

CENTER FOR ARTISTIC ACTIVISM

CHLOË BASS AND ERICA MAPP

BREAKTHROUGH

CHTO DELAT

ELIZABETH CORR

AIMEE MEREDITH COX

ALLISON DAVIS

BEN DAVIS

LISA DENT

ADEOLA ENIGBOKAN AND TRACEE WORLEY

FLUX FACTORY

DEBORAH FISHER

NOAH FISCHER

FOKUS

JANISHA GABRIEL

GAN GOLAN

JANE GOLDEN

ALICIA GRULLON

INGRID HAFTEL

HEATHER HART AND JINA VALENTINE

DAONNE HUFF

RACHEL LAFOREST

PETRUSHKA BAZIN LARSEN

THE LAUNDROMAT PROJECT

MATTEO LUCCHETTI AND JUDITH WIELANDER

ANN MESSNER

VALERIA MOGILEVICH

SILVIA JULIANA MANTILLA ORTIZ

DOUGLAS PAULSON

CHANEL L. PORCHIA

SHEETAL PRAJAPATI

MARLÈNE RAMÍREZ-CANCIO

KAMEELAH JANAN RASHEED

JENNIFER REID

MARINELLA SENATORE AND THE SCHOOL OF 
  NARRATIVE DANCE

NOT AN ALTERNATIVE

SARAH SCHULTZ

GREGORY SHOLETTE

DANIEL TUCKER

SHAY WAFER

JASMINE WAHI

RISË WILSON

SUE BELL YANK

Curator: Nato Thompson

Curator/Producer: Sally Szwed

KEYNOTES

ASHRAF GHANI & MARIAM GHANI

ANTONIO NEGRI

SPEAKERS

KUNLÉ ADEYEMI

MARWA ARSANIOS

MARCO BARAVALLE, S.a.L.E DOCKS

BEATRICE CATANZARO

VUK ĆOSIĆ

TEJU COLE

MUJERES CREANDO

SOFÍA HERNÁNDEZ CHONG CUY

EDWIDGE DANTICAT

HOPE GINSBURG

CHARLES GAINES

MICHAEL GERACE, RELOCATE KIVALINA

EMILY JACIR

SHANNON JACKSON

PAUL RAMÍREZ JONAS

ATHI MONGEZELELI JOJA, GUGULECTIVE

SIMONE LEIGH

SARAT MAHARAJ

NAEEM MOHAIEMEN

CESARE PIETROIUSTI

FARID RAKUN, RUANGRUPA

PAOLO ROSSO

GREGORY SHOLETTE, GULF LABOR

MARINELLA SENATORE

MINA SETRA

TINA SHERWELL, ACADEMY OF ART PALESTINE

ANDE SOMBY

NOMEDA AND GEDIMINAS URBONAS

JOSHUA WONG

AKRAM ZAATARI

Over the course of three days in August 2015, the 7th Creative Time Summit, devoted to expanded notions of “curriculum,” will take place within the 56th International Art Exhibition of la Biennale di Venezia, All the World’s Futures, curated by Okwui Enwezor. Since 2009, the annual Creative Time Summit has operated as a convening, a discussion, and a platform for the intersection of art and politics. The Venice Art Biennale offers a unique opportunity to gather an international, interdisciplinary community to consider how knowledge is produced and how it comes into contact with civil society. In its original Latin, curriculum signified a course, like the path that one ran around or traversed in a racing chariot. When the term began appearing in seventeenth-century Scottish universities, it was used figuratively to mean “a course of study.” Eventually, it signaled that which prepares a person for working, thinking, and participating as a fully developed member of society. When understood as a network of lived experiences, learned actions, and known facts, curriculum speaks of all that this Summit hopes to address.

How is knowledge formed within a person and transmitted through time, space, and social relationships? What learning practices reinforce colonialist views, leave out essential narratives of history, or otherwise support dominant power structures? How do new technologies effect the way information is controlled and disseminated? By asking questions such as these, we ultimately reiterate questions that arose from the tremendous hope, passion, and ambition that accompanied many of the key populist movements in the last few years, from the Arab Spring to the revolts in Greece, from Occupy Wall Street to Occupy Hong Kong: Who do we—as a world community—want to be, and what forces shape who we are?

More people have access to education than ever before. Yet being a student often requires facing brutal geopolitical realities. While many Western colleges and universities boast historically high enrollment, low-income students are graduating at rates far lower than their wealthy classmates and many students leave university to enter a nearly jobless economy with crippling debt. In response, initiatives such as the Bologna Process and the U.S. Common Core State Standards attempt to reposition education as vocational training for low-wage jobs or power-brokering for the one percent. Across the globe, students are also targets of violent attacks and we see them mobilize against injustice with methods that are as savvy as they are courageous.

Outside traditional institutions of education, alternative schools, on-line courses, and open-source information sites foreshadow more decentralized and anarchic spaces for acquiring knowledge. Meanwhile, marginalized knowledge systems are being reactivated through the exploration of indigenous, decolonized, experimental, or radicalized curricula. Indeed, our collective future is determined by what is learned, how it is learned, and the conditions under which learning takes place.

Throughout the Summit, conversations on curriculum will examine the social, infrastructural, administrative, and private conditions under which knowledge is produced and intertwined with social contracts. Following Michel Foucault’s assertion that “in its function, the power to punish is not necessarily different from that of curing or educating,” we organize our Summit around the suggestion that curriculum is integral to power. We see it operating within neo-liberal education standards as well as in the Zapatistas’ ongoing struggle for autonomy, the Indigenous Peoples’ Alliance of the Archipelago in Indonesia, and the “government of learning” that is transforming Medellin, Colombia. We also see it resisting traditional knowledge structures through art and forms of radical pedagogy. As Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak reminds us, “when we seem to have won or lost in terms of certainties,” art can teach us “that there are no certainties, that the process is open, and that it may be altogether salutary that it is so.” Fully integrating art and politics, the Summit thus highlights practitioners whose work addresses a wide array of open-ended concerns. Our sections include: “Curriculum’s Content,” “Educational Institution as Form,” “The Geography of Learning,” “The Art of Pedagogy,” and “Knowledge as a Collective Experience.”

The 2015 Creative Time Summit is our biggest Summit to date. Spanning three full days of panel discussions, artist projects, short presentations, keynote addresses, and events, the program provides continuous opportunities for conversation, networking, shared learning, entertainment, and debate. As in past years, audience members outside of Venice will be able to contribute to the discourse through Livestream screening sites around the world. Online and onsite, the Summit will engage participants in new and unexpected forms of curricular activity.

Curators: Nato Thompson and Magdalena Malm

Curator/Producer: Sally Szwed

KEYNOTES: EDI RAMA,  ALBANIA, SASKIA SASSEN,  UNITED STATES

ANNENBERG PRIZE: AMAR KANWAR, INDIA

PRESENTERS

MIRIAM ANDERSSON BLECHER, SWEDEN

TANIA BRUGUERA, CUBA & UNITED STATES

JONAS DAHLBERG, SWEDEN

JEREMY DELLER, ENGLAND

NATALYA ERYOMENKO, RUSSIA

DORA GARCÍA, SPAIN

GHANA THINKTANK, UNITED STATES

MARIAM GHANI, UNITED STATES

NÚRIA GÜELL, SPAIN

OLGA JITLINA & ANDREY YAKIMOV, RUSSIA

BIRGITTA JÓNSDÓTTIR, ICELAND

JONAS HASSEN KHEMIRI, SWEDEN

MYRIAM LEFKOWITZ, FRANCE

MARIA LIND, SWEDEN

MATT LUCERO & TUAN ANDREW NGUYEN, VIETNAM

JILL MAGID, UNITED STATES

MAGDALENA MALM, SWEDEN

RAM MANIKKALINGAM, NETHERLANDS

METAHAVEN, NETHERLANDS

NINA MÖNTMANN, GERMANY

NÁSTIO MOSQUITO, ANGOLA

TONE OLAF NIELSEN, DENMARK

AHMET ÖGÜT, TURKEY

ANDREA PHILLIPS, UNITED KINGDOM

SORAYA POST, SWEDEN

POSTE RESTANTE, SWEDEN

TOMÁŠ RAFA, SLOVAKIA

FAVIANNA RODRIGUEZ, UNITED STATES

ELISA SANTOS, PORTUGAL

JONAS STAAL, NETHERLANDS

ROBERTA UNO, UNITED STATES

JOANNA WARSZA,  POLAND

WORK GROUP REP. KONSTHALL C, SWEDEN

 PERFORMERS

MALIN ARNELL, SWEDEN

SILVANA IMAM, SWEDEN

In a collaboration between the New York City-based Creative Time and Public Art Agency Sweden, the 2014 Creative Time Summit took place in Stockholm. Summit: Stockholm—the first iteration of the annual conference to take place outside of New York—focused on expanded public practice, investigating uses and potentialities of art in the public sphere, with a focus on practices with social and political implications.

The previous year’s 2013 Creative Time Summit focused on questions of gentrification and the role of the arts, both good and bad, in the making of the new city. It galvanized difficult, complex, and intense discussion and debate on the issue of race in the creation of the contemporary city. Transpiring in Stockholm and reflecting the larger context of Europe, the 2014 Summit investigated the challenges of migration, the growth of extreme nationalism and xenophobia, the uses of the public sphere, the fluid line between surveillance and our interpersonal selves, and, finally, how these challenges are met by artists who are re-imagining the public realm.

Summit: Stockholm posed such questions as: Who is art in the public sphere for and what is it supposed to do? How does art produce debate, contribute to a sense of the civic, or perhaps, more cynically, merely perpetuate the status quo? And more generally, who is the city for and how can our public spheres and its arts work across a heterogeneous space?

With declining economies all over the continent, nationalism and xenophobia are increasingly a public reality. In recent years riots have broke out in the suburbs of large European cities including Husby outside of Stockholm– yet another indication of the growing divides in society and within the cityscape. To say the arts are effected by these conditions is obvious. The Summit discussed the role that artists can play in producing more equitable and thoughtful responses to these conditions.

In considering these concerns, Summit: Stockholm investigated the role of surveillance, not only from the scale of the inter-connected globe, but also the conflation of public and private. With whistleblower Edward Snowden’s revelations of spying by the NSA through its prism operating system, the concerns of privacy and the internet are more prominent than ever. The global impact of this kind of surveillance certainly brushes up against a simultaneous global fascination with self-surveillance. While in the 1990s surveillance issues focused on cameras in public spaces, the conditions of today are that of a society of people obsessed with broadcasting themselves. What are the consequences of this, with telephones and cameras both surveilling and surveilled?

Expanded public practice has the potential to re-activate the city, to suggest alternative readings of its history and context, and to add new experiences and relations to urban life. Summit: Stockholm brought together artists who perform new interpretations of the city, reclaiming and reformulating the ways we interact and experience each other and the built environment.

And finally, as always, the Summit offered an invaluable opportunity for artists from a variety of disciplines who are interested in the role of art in public life to gather, meet, discuss, debate, and make connections.

–Magdalena Malm and Nato Thompson, Co-Curators

Curator: Nato Thompson

Curator/Producer: Sally Szwed

In 2013 the Creative Time Summit set its sights on the fact that culture, for good or bad, is an active ingredient in the construction and shaping of the contemporary city. Tapping into widespread debate on this issue, it provided a global platform for consideration of the trials, tribulations, artistic practices, campaigns, theories, and practicalities that accompany this phenomenon.

Artists today must wrestle with the myriad implications of their increasingly expansive role in urban development, including the gentrification that is now a familiar part of cities across the globe. The Summit asked such questions as: How can equity be achieved in an economic and political environment of vast inequity? What new forms of civic participation and engagement are artists integrating into the built environment? What instructive models are being deployed by today’s city planners and mayors? How can foundations and governments support a kind of cultural production that makes cities economically sustainable for all of their inhabitants? How can culture contribute to the city beyond the economic realm? How does culture contend with the impact of the environmental crisis on the city, as we recently experienced in New York following Superstorm Sandy?

In exploring these and other questions, the 2013 Summit hosted a range of voices, from legendary artist Vito Acconci, to Chen Shaoxiong and the Xijing Men’s Xijing Olympics, iconic art critic and feminist Lucy Lippard, and activist Chido Govera, who has enabled women across the globe to achieve financial independence by teaching them how to grow and trade mushrooms.

The 2013 Summit also offered specially created places and events intended to expand the conversation initiated on the stage. At nearby Judson Church, a special lunch, created by Stefani Bardin and Mihir Desai, featured some culinary traditions and cultures from the five boroughs, while a space created by artist-collaborative Works Progress enabled audience members to host their own Summit discussions among tables of build-your-own Lego cities, a project by artist Paul Ramirez Jonas. The conversation continued into the evening at Summit dinners hosted by nearly 25 local members of the Creative Time family.

Highlights of the 2013 Summit including a moving performance on day two by two survivors and a mother of a former inmate of Tamms Supermax Prison who silently stood on stage for a minute for each year that they or a loved one remained in the inhumane conditions of the prison. Every member of the audience rose to their feet to stand in solidarity with the individuals on stage. The performance poignantly brought the issues of inequality and human rights discussed throughout the weekend to the forefront of our hearts and minds.

At the end of day two, performance artist and activist Invincible asked the audience to rise again, with their fingers pointed to the sky, and to shout “let it burn!” and “let it grow!”. Taken together, these narratives point to something profound consideration: art is an integral part of the viability of contemporary cities, and its implications are as complex as
the cities themselves.

Curator: Nato Thompson

Curator/Producer: Sally Szwed

Presenters

 BIJARI
JEFF CHANG
CAROLYN CHRISTOV-BAKARGIEV
MALKIA CYRIL
MIKE DAISEY
EDELO
JODIE EVANS
FERNANDO GARCÍA-DORY
TOM FINKELPEARL
PABLO HELGUERA
INVISIBLE BORDERS
SUZANNE LACY
STEVE LAMBERT
JOSH MACPHEE
LOS ANGELES POVERTY DEPARTMENT
JOIA MUKHERJEE
LEÓNIDAS MARTÍN
ODA PROJESI
OTOLITH GROUP
LAURA POITRAS
MICHAEL RAKOWITZ
MARTHA ROSLER
A.L. STEINER
ŠKART
HITO STEYERL
TARING PADI
TIDAL JOURNAL
SLAVOJ ŽIŽEK

The 2012 Creative Time Summit–held near the one-year anniversary of the birth of the Occupy movement–addressed the extreme wealth disparity that continues to define the global economy and politics. Presenters at the 2012 Creative Time Summit, which was titled “Confronting Inequity,” reflected upon recent upheavals in the international political and economic climate, focusing specifically on wealth inequity and the ways in which it erodes democracy.

The spirit of open exchange and free expression that is a core value of Creative Time was perhaps most vividly embodied at the Summit when two presenters withdrew from the event in protest over the inclusion of the Israeli Center for Digital Art (ICDA) as one of the Summit’s “in-depth partners,” Creative Time’s name for an organization that both streams the Summit and undertakes its own programming. What ensued was an animated conversation about the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions movement, with some presenters scrapping their original presentation in favor of addressing this issue. It was both a challenging and exciting experience–a superb example of the importance of free expression. For more information, click here.

Slavoj Žižek, one of the most polemical and entertaining theorists of our time, headlined the roster of speakers at the conference, along with artist Martha Rosler. Other presenters included artist Michael Rakowitz and curator Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev and, from the social justice field, Malkia Cyril of the Center for Media Justice and Joia Mukerjee, Chief Medical Officer of Partners in Health, among many others. Additionally, in an effort to acknowledge the impressive scope of past Summit attendees, the lineup included a special presentation by a member of our community who was selected through the first-ever open call for a Summit presenter.

Curator: Nato Thompson

Curator/Producer: Sally Szwed

ALTERNATE ROOTS 
LAURIE ANDERSON 
APPALSHOP 
COMMON ROOM 
CYBERMOHALLA ENSEMBLE
DECOLONIZING ARCHITECTURE
DARREN O’DONNELL 
LAURA FLANDERS 
THEASTER GATES 
HOU HANRU 
JEANNE VAN HEESWIJK 
LONG MARCH PROJECT 
ALAN W. MOORE 
MY BARBARIAN 
NEUE SLOWENISCHE KUNST (NSK) 
TED PURVES 
GERALD RAUNIG 
NAVIN RAWANCHAIKUL 
KATERINA ŠEDÁ 
CHEMI ROSADO SEIJO 
TAHRIR DOCUMENTS 
MIERLE LADERMAN UKELES 
ULTRA–RED 
UNITED INDIAN HEALTH SERVICES 
URBAN BUSH WOMEN 
VOINA 
DAN S. WANG 
WOCHENKLAUSUR 
WOMEN ON WAVES

The third annual Creative Time Summit launched the exhibition Living as Form, the first-ever survey of socially engaged art, which was itself informed by the range of work presented at previous Summits. With more than 100 projects on display, selected by an international team of twenty curatorial advisors, eight newly commissioned works, and a web archive of more than 350 projects, the exhibition-was conceived as a broad attempt to take stock of socially engaged art. It was first presented at the historic Essex Street Market and, in a partnership with International Curators International, continues to travel to venues across the globe.

The 2011 Creative Time Summit expanded from previous iterations to include not only curators, scholars, and visual artists, but also those working in theater, architecture, and dance, as well as in social justice. It included the Summit’s signature 8-minute presentations, as well as intimate panel discussions that unfolded over the weekend following the Summit. The final such discussion culminated in a march to Zucotti Park, where the Occupy Wall Street movement had been born barely a week prior. Summit keynote speakers were philosopher and theorist Gerald Raunig, journalist and best-selling author Laura Flanders, and musician and performance artist Laurie Anderson. My Barbarian kicked off the day with a participatory performance during which dozens of attendees joined them on stage.

Finally, this Creative Time Summit occurred during a time of unrest and revolution, sparked in large part by the Arab Spring, which ignited the streets of cities including Madrid, Athens, Madison, and New York, where diverse publics mobilized as governments withdrew public funding from crucial programs and services and continued their efforts to crush unions. Where these efforts to make systemic change would go, however, was not–and is not–clear. The Summit nonetheless provided a bit of clarity as to possible tools and practices that can be employed by culture producers and others as these movements grow.

Curator: Nato Thompson 

DANIELLE ABRAMS 
SASKIA BOS 
THE BRUCE HIGH QUALITY FOUNDATION 
JULIA BRYAN-WILSON 
CHEN CHIEH-JEN 
CHTO DELAT/WHAT IS TO BE DONE? 
PHIL COLLINS 
AGNES DENES 
CLAIRE DOHERTY 
EATING IN PUBLIC 
FEAST 
AMY FRANCESCHINI 
REGINA JOSÉ GALINDO 
GRIDTHIYA GAWEEWONG 
SHAUN GLADWELL 
SOFÍA HERNANDEZ CHONG CUY 
INCUBATE 
THE INTERNATIONAL ERRORIST 
LAURA KURGAN 
SURASI KUSOLWONG 
DINH Q. LÊ 
LEARNING SITE 
AARON LEVY 
CHUS MARTÍNEZ 
OTABENGA JONES & ASSOCIATES 
TREVOR PAGLEN 
CLAIRE PENTECOST 
PLATFORM 
J. MORGAN PUETT 
OLIVER RESSLER 
LAURIE JO REYNOLDS 
BISI SILVA 
SUPERFLEX 
ANTON VIDOKLE 
WAGE 
JAKOB JAKOBSEN 
EYAL WEIZMAN 
WENDELL PIERCE 
TIRDAD ZOLGHADR 
RICK LOWE 
KICKSTARTER

At “Revolutions in Practice 2,” the 2010 Creative Time Summit, a diverse international group of socially engaged artists presented specific projects to the general public and discussed a critical issue raised at the previous year’s conference: the idea that socially engaged art “preaches to the choir.” If this is true, then how do we assess the success of socially engaged art? How do we define the purpose of the work? What, in fact, is the “choir,” and is it bound by the racial, geographic, gender, economic, and post-colonial lines that continue to haunt the field itself? As the passionate dialogue unfolded, it became eminently clear that issues of audience are a critical element of any discussion of this work.

Keynote speaker at the Summit was actor Wendell Pierce (who in 2007 played Vladimir in Paul Chan’s Waiting for Godot in New Orleans, a Creative Time project). Curators from Mexico, England, Spain, Lebanon, Nigeria, and Thailand reported on local forms of socially engaged art. Many of the presenters represented the vast community of artists who not only demure the spotlight, but may in fact view financial success as inconsistent with their activist aspirations.

Held at Cooper Union’s Great Hall over two days, with presentations, panel discussions, and conversations with the audience, the 2010 Summit provided a platform from which to call a critical community to action. Moreover, Creative Time invited audiences to participate in discussions during the event and afterwards, on an online, post-event discussion moderated by Gregory Sholette. Finally, we also live streamed this event, enabling viewers from around the globe to contribute their thoughts and ask questions.

Curator: Nato Thompson

Artists:

AYREEN ANASTAS & RENE GABRI 
JULIETA ARANDA 
EDGAR ARCENEAUX 
YAEL BARTANA 
BALTIMORE DEVELOPMENT COOPERATIVE 
BIK VAN DER POL 
TANIA BRUGUERA 
CAROLINA CAYCEDO 
MEL CHIN 
MINERVA CUEVAS 
MORRIS DICKSTEIN 
OKWUI ENWEZOR 
PETER FEND 
TEMPORARY SERVICES 
HARRELL FLETCHER 
ANDREA GEYER 
LIAM GILLICK 
DARA GREENWALD 
IGOR GRUBIC 
SHARON HAYES 
THOMAS HIRSCHHORN 
MULTIPLICITY 
ALFREDO JAAR 
CARIN KUONI 
SUZANNE LACY 
LARS BANG LARSEN 
MARIA LIND 
RICK LOWE 
EVE S. MOSHER 
VIK MUNIZ 
KRISTINA NORMAN 
GREG SHOLETTE 
DAVID LEVI STRAUSS 
WHAT, HOW AND FOR WHOM

The first of what would be the annual Creative Time Summit took place at the New York Public Library. Titled “Revolutions in Public Practice,” it was devoted to exploring a growing but still difficult-to-define artistic practice. Called variously socially engaged art, social aesthetics, participatory art, dialogic art, political art, and other names, the practice had been growing for some two decades and had produced some of the most exciting work to be experienced anywhere, despite existing outside of museums and galleries. The Summit was intended to fill the need for practitioners of this art to meet with others, share ideas, and learn–to create a community. to discover the methodologies and strategies behind this work, which addresses social injustice and oppression, and touches people, places, homes, and daily routines.

While the growth of this practice has certainly been noticeable, its histories remain divergent, complicated, and under-investigated. The Summit wanted to answer–or at least to raise–some questions: How does this practice affect and reflect the world today? What does it do? What are the forms of analysis appropriate to understanding what the work is?

The most critical outcome for this weekend was the collective production of a sense of community. And although this Summit was to some degree relentless, we encouraged visitors to escape at times to our Conversation Room, where more intimate conversations could take place between audience and presenter. The active engagement of the audience with the questions and practices being presented increased the potential for exploration far after the Summit ended.

As an organization that works solely in the public sphere, Creative Time considers a major part of its mission to be the expansion of the consideration of public-based work. The Summit is now an annual event–the only regularly scheduled conference on the intersection of art and social justice–and a critical element among Creative Time’s rich constellation of programs and projects.