Skip to main content

Take the Money and Run: Power, Money and Counter-Power

A film of this event by Claire Nolan and a written response by Lewis Church can be found here.

 

“They get a lot of stick for the Exxon Valdez oil spill, but then they sponsor a prize for animal photos and you think ‘mm, maybe it’s time to take a fresh look at Shell,’” cried Alan Partridge in delight at news of Shell’s sponsorship of the BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition.

The light recently shone on the sources of money that supports arts organisations – from fossil fuels to deadly pharmaceuticals – has illuminated some corners of the ‘hidden abode of production” (Marx) to valuable effect.

Taking a moment to reflect upon some real successes achieved by campaigns such as Liberate Tate, we invite artists, activists, curators, producers, researchers and anyone engaged with these issues to share ideas about how we might build for future struggles to free art and artists from their dependency on the proceeds of toxic capitalism. What might a politically and environmentally responsible approach to money in the arts look like today and tomorrow?

The power of capital to “cover” its tracks has increased with the financialization of everyday life: derivates, dark pools, and privatized debt hide networks of corruption and money laundering the world over. In parallel, the power of arts organisations to rehabilitate these agents of disaster capitalism through little and big acts of ‘arts washing’ has also increased and come under sustained criticism and sporadic disruption in the radical organizing of arts activists. In these globalized contexts of power and corruption, who is able today to ‘take the money and run’?

With contributions from Jess Worth of Culture Unstained, Jane Trowell of Platform, Elona Hoover of The Common House, Natasha Nkonde of Edge Fund and Morgan Quaintance.

This public conversation builds on Take the Money and Run, a 2015 event on ethics, funding and art organised by LADA, Artsadmin and Home Live Art as part of their Catalyst-supported research into ethical fundraising, and produced in collaboration with Platform.

This is the third in a series of Gatherings around the topic of ‘Managing the Radical’ (MtR) organised in part by the MtR Action Research Group in collaboration with LADA’s Restock, Rethink, Reflect Five project on Managing the Radical.

Take the Money and Run: Power, Money and Counter-Power is supported through Catalyst and the Collaborations Fund of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at Queen Mary University of London.

 

Banner image credit:

Liberate Tate, Sunflower (detail), 2010, Photo: Jeffrey Blackler

We are looking for a better quality image for this page or to replace it if it's missing.

Latest events

All Flesh is Good: Madinah Farhannah Thompson in conversation with Valerie Uchechukwu Ebuwa

11 Oct 2024

Please join us on Friday 11th October 2024 at 7pm for a conversation about Madinah’s Black Artist in Residence research and the experience of performing at the Abramović exhibition

Read more

Poppy Jackson – Tower

25 Sep 2024

Please join us on Wednesday 25th September 2024 at 5.30pm for a performance by Poppy Jackson in Wattisfield, Suffolk

Read more

LADA x Fringe! Uncensored Pleasures & Closeted Desires

14 Sep 2024 - 22 Sep 2024

Please join us on Saturday 14th, Saturday 21st and Sunday 22nd of September 2024 for a series of events by Fringe! Queer Film & Arts Fest 

Read more

Dangerous Border Crossers: performingborders x La Pocha Nostra

02 Aug 2024

performingborders invites you to delve with them into LADA Study Room’s resources around borders and performances

Read more

Amy Kingsmill – Light Source

26 Jul 2024

Please join us on Friday 26 July 2024 at 7pm for an event performed, hosted and curated by artist Amy Kingsmill.

Read more

La Pocha Nostra in London: 100 Ways to Cross the Border

09 Jul 2024

Join us for the film screening with a special performative introduction from Guillermo Gómez-Peña and Balitrónica, followed by drinks.

Read more

La Pocha Nostra’s Live Art Laboratory: An artistic reflection on radical pedagogy

02 Jul 2024

An online event presenting Ria Righteous’s reflections on La Pocha Nostra’s 2015 12-day intensive cross-cultural workshop in Athens.

Read more

Donation

£