WS2MS: Press Release [#f24]
Friday, February 24, 2012 at 08:42PM 
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
WALL STREET TO MAIN STREET
Six months after Occupy Wall Street (OWS) sparked a global 99% movement, Occupy with Art and Masters on Main Street launch "Wall Street to Main Street" (WS2MS) in historic Catskill, NY. Through a dynamic series of art exhibits, performances, screenings, happenings, public discussions, community- and family-focused activities, WS2MS will not only illuminate the amazing phenomenon of OWS, it will explore possible futures of the movement and build a creative bridge to connect the protests with the real needs and values of Main Street, USA. WS2MS opens March 17, 2012 in Catskill, NY. For additional details, see attached information.
Contact info:
FAWN POTASH, Director, Masters on Main Street project, 518-943-3400, 518-929-5764, fawn@greenearts.org
PAUL McLEAN, Co-organizer, Occupy with Art, artforhumans@gmail.com
PROGRAM: MARCH 17 - MAY 31, 2012
WS2MS OPENING DAY TOUR: MARCH 17, 2012 2-5PM
WS2MS OPENING EVENING RECEPTION: BRIK GALLERY, 5-8PM
CALENDAR OF EVENTS: [TBA]
URLs:
Occupy with Art: www.occupywithart.com
Greene County Arts Council: www.greenearts.org
ABOUT OCCUPY WITH ART:
Occupy with Art is an affinity group of the Arts & Culture working group of the NYC General Assembly for Occupy Wall Street. We are artists, writers, curators, and art professionals lending our skills to produce art, cultural events and projects, with a particular focus on OWS itself as a social art process. We work with organizations and artists that require a focused team to facilitate their projects. We produce art projects, large-scale events, and exhibitions. Our website, www.occupywithart.com, serves as an information hub for current and past art-related activities in the OWS movement. We are committed to building relationships within OWS and with outside arts organizations.
ABOUT MASTERS ON MAIN STREET: Masters on Main Street is an innovative art project and Main Street development strategy granting space to artists and educational institutions from around the country in a year-round program with an annual Film and Video Festival, performances, tours and panel discussions. www.greenearts.org/exhibitions/mastersonmain
CO-ORGANIZERS: Imani Brown, Paul McLean, Kate Menconeri, Arthur Polendo, Fawn Potash, Geno Rodriguez, Paul Smart, Sam Truitt, Boo Lynn Walsh and Jacqueline Weaver.
ABOUT CATSKILL, NY: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catskill_%28town%29,_New_York
ABOUT GREENE COUNTY, NY: www.greatnortherncatskills.com/about
PROJECT NARRATIVE:
On September 17, 2011, responding to a call to action published in the magazine Adbusters to Occupy Wall Street, a motley crew of activists, artists, and idealistic youth converged on Zuccotti Park in the financial district of Manhattan, and a movement was born. Over the next two months Occupy Wall Street focused the world's attention on the grievances of the 99%. A David versus Goliath drama unfolded, as the numbers of Occupiers swelled, occupations across the nation and around the globe formed in solidarity with OWS, and the Occupy bands encountered coordinated opposition from police, corporate media, government officials and the 1%. Since then most of the occupations, including the one in New York City, have been dispersed, sometimes peacefully, sometimes with brutal force, but OWS has proved itself to be an idea that cannot be evicted.
On the six-month anniversary of the occupation of Wall Street, in scenic and historic Catskill, New York, Occupy with Art and Masters on Main Street are working together to present a dynamic series of arts projects, events, cultural and educational programs to look back at the often stunning visuals and iconography of Occupy, to get at the grievances driving the protests, and explore ideas and solutions for improving society for the 99% - one person, one community, one Main Street at a time. In keeping with the spirit of OWS, and featuring art by OWS artists and images documenting the global movement, Wall Street to Main Street will showcase a wide range of expressive media, ideas and creative approaches. Wall Street to Main Street also will provide plenty of opportunities for people to participate in the fun and exciting activities slated throughout the exhibit run.
The artists participating in Wall Street to Main Street range from the famous, infamous, anonymous; local, regional, national and international. The media range from the latest in digital technologies, such as Augmented Reality (AR) to the conceptual, the performative and the traditional. The content ranges from in-your-face to lyric, from contemplative to witty, from the documentary to the imaginary. What unifies all the artists and artworks is situational. How does each exist in relation to a specific time and action (Occupy Wall Street)? Can creative responses to OWS such as these, like signs, be re-situated, woven into the community fabric of Catskill, a real 99% Main Street town? One thing about Wall Street to Main Street is clear. Whether redressing grievances, expressing liberty - personal and/or aesthetic - whether calling for solidarity - political and/or economic - the projects on view in Wall Street to Main Street, the performances, talks and community activities combine in a powerful proclamation that Occupation is local and global, simultaneously.
In addition to the rolling exhibits and programs Wall Street to Main Street will offer the town of Catskill, the Hudson Valley region, and destination visitors coming to see the show, several very special projects will help us re-examine art for the 99% in a fundamental way. For "The People's Collection" project, everybody who lives in Catskill and nearby will be invited to bring an object he or she loves from home to display in a designated storefront space on Main Street. Another project of note, the format of which is still being worked out, is "Suggestion Box," which will encourage the folks of Catskill to share their "two cents" about the status quo and how it can be made better. When combined with world-class exhibits like the one curated at the beautiful Brik Gallery by Geno Rodriquez, former director of the Alternative Museum in New York City, these expressions of the 99% will likely be great conversation starters, and in some important ways begin to shift what we think art is in a direction that will be more democratic and inclusive.
