[Working-Class] (folk) art and class

[Debora Kodish]

Hello,

Much work done by folklorists in and outside the university (there is  
a 30+ year-old public folklore movement that moved folklorists into  
communities) documents and attends to diverse forms of art-making --  
from narrative traditions to craft on and off the job site, from  
ritual and festival traditions that are progressive and community- 
sustaining -- that come out of communities of working class people.

These are arts that often exist outside (and outside the notice of)  
galleries and conventional activist movements that have been  
discussed in these threads. For those looking to identify artists, a  
wide range of public folklife websites (links to a handful are here:  
http://folkloreproject.org/folkarts/links.cfm) provide capsule  
descriptions and histories of working class artists who have been  
significant resources for their communities. The politics and  
political consciousness of these artists are not always mentioned.  
But there are worlds of working peoples' arts out there, richly  
documented, sometimes called folklore!

It is, of course, a huge issue how various labels for peoples'  
efforts and expressions  -   "art," "outsider art",  "folk art"  are  
used both to erect and challenge boundaries, with various politics,  
and towards various ends.

Folklorist Archie Green's work on occupational folklore -- from his  
_Only a Miner_ to his most recent contributions (at age 90-something)  
to _The Big Red Songbook_ represents an important but often  
overlooked scholarly tradition of paying attention to the ways that  
ordinary working people frame experience in artful, recognizeable,  
memorable ways.

I just wanted to add one (working class born and raised) folklorist's  
perspective.

In haste.

Best to all,


Debora Kodish
Philadelphia Folklore Project
735 S. 50th St.
Philadelphia, PA 19143
215.726.1106 p
215.726.6250 f
kodish at folkloreproject.org
www.folkloreproject.org




On Jun 6, 2007, at 1:22 PM, Beverly Naidus wrote:

> After receiving Barbara's question about artists' class origins, I  
> put a query out to the activist art educators listserv that I  
> moderate and received several responses - some directed to the  
> whole list, and some sent to me individually (interesting how this  
> class discussion was seen as too personal to share with the whole  
> list).  While many of the artists were born into the working class,  
> they have become lower middle class due to their academic  
> positions.   One artist from Australia, who works for a teacher's  
> union to support her art practice, said that "the whole idea of  
> class needs to be radically revamped to be of any use in  
> understanding, undermining or even mobilising against oppression,  
> or more specifically, our terrible leaders."
>
> This echoes some of what Jesse wisely stated to the working class  
> studies listserv and I quote:
>
> "While many of my friends are born and raised in a working class  
> environment, its hard to know when and where this is reflected in  
> their art.  Is any politically conscious art made by someone from a  
> working class background automatically working class art?  Does it  
> even have to be politically conscious?  Or maybe the better  
> question is: what politics does someone's art have to be conscious  
> of in order to make it working class art?
>
> When I think about these things I try to differentiate between  
> conceptions of class as a position and class as a process (of  
> making and being made...)  For me at least, its in the latter sense  
> that thinking about working class art is interesting - and it has  
> to do less with the specific details of an individual's position  
> than with their relationship to their own artistic production and  
> the world within which they choose to produce art.  In that sense,  
> making art in working class ways can be seen as a process that you  
> can come in and out of and not an essentializing label."
>
> Many activist artists have identities that straddle classes, being  
> born into one class and becoming upward or downwardly mobile.   In  
> the end, what makes the difference to our audience here (and the  
> world) is whether the artists see their work as part of a process  
> of transforming society into one that is just, and therefore, are  
> allies to working class concerns.
>
> Barbara,  for more examples of recognized working class, women  
> artists with progressive intentions you might want to look for this  
> book by Paul Von Blum:  Other Visions, Other Voices: Women  
> Political Artists in Greater Los Angeles, University Press, 1994.   
> (Eva Cockcroft's work, who was mentioned by someone on this list,  
> is written about there, and although she identified strongly with  
> the working class, she was not).   Lucy R. Lippard, a prolific arts  
> writer and an extraordinary supporter of progressive artists was  
> middle class as well, but has written many books about contemporary  
> activist art.   Also you might want to look at the work of Sharon  
> Siskin, www.sharonsiskin.org,  a member of the activist art  
> educators listserv, a community activist, working class-born, etc.
>
> Beverly Naidus
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