Fillip

Andrea Fraser: Museums, Money and Politics
October 21st, 2018

Reception and book launch to follow at READ Books.

In collaboration with Fillip and the Libby Leshgold Gallery, the Vancouver Art Book Fair presents a keynote lecture by artist Andrea Fraser.

Two years after the 2016 US election, the ramifications are still being felt. It was the most expensive election in US history, with over $6.4 billion raised for presidential and congressional races combined. More than half of this money came from just a few hundred people—many of whom also support cultural institutions and serve on their boards.

In her book 2016 in Museums, Money, and Politics, Los Angeles–based artist Andrea Fraser examines the intersection of electoral politics and private-nonprofit art institutions in the United States at a pivotal historical moment.

Fraser’s keynote lecture for the Vancouver Art/Book Fair introduces her research for 2016, presenting a powerful argument that supporting the arts must involve more than giving donations to museums; it must also include defending the values, social structures, and political institutions of an open, tolerant, just, and equitable society.

Organized like a telephone book, this 900-page artist’s book is at once institutional critique and reference work—documenting the reported political contributions made by trustees of more than 125 art museums. Contribution data is laid out alphabetically by name of donor. With this and other data, the book offers a material representation of scale of the interface between cultural philanthropy and campaign finance in America. It also provides an unparalleled resource for exploring the politics of the US museum world.

Emily Carr University is situated on the unceded Coast Salish territories of the Squamish, Musqueam, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations.