CONSIDERING THAT:

Art is not culture
Millions of dollars are being slashed from our already deficient infrastructures
The fat that we should be cutting has long since dissolved
Criteria multiply and funds contract
We are consulted with bogus surveys
As artists, cultural workers and technicians we make art together
We have many faces
We are in need of many voices
We are more than a lever for the economy of others
Cultural policies should support and not dictate creation
Industry is profiting from our “creativity” but withdraws from our precarity
The “economic returns” of art do not trickle down into our pockets
Incomes are stagnant
Passion is not a wage
Visibility is not a wage
We are offered an nth subsidized position, another unpaid internship
Precarity begets exploitation
Carriers are withering
Projects flounder
The search for funding takes us further from the completion of our own projects
Our autonomy is underhandedly eroded
Unbeknownst to us, we have become “service providers” and “actors in the value chain”
These words are not ours
Others speak in our place
Unmasking is necessary
Millionaires are managing us from afar
Maybe we should be managing the mining industry
We could dodge disasters
Philanthropists are becoming here and there the new gatekeepers of judgement and taste
We have given the time that we have and the time that we don’t
We are not a “good cause” for charitable gestures
The awards for THE best artist more often serve business rather than the community
Our careers are determined more than ever by the metric of visibility
We are asked for competitiveness where we should be seeking an ecology
We gain from allying with one another
We do not live in anyone’s grip
We are not maudlin
We are the makers of our horizon
Biting is an act that must be learned
Economic issues are not beyond our understanding
Our precarity does not justify drinking from every well
Works are destroyed
Self-examination is in order
If we must fight, it will not be against one another
We can apply pressure
We have every skill
The commons are to be reclaimed
Of it we must make our situation and our history
***
You each have your own considerations
Make them heard
Considering all of the above, we call for a standstill, a day of reflection and of action.