Doomed to be Tiny

The Art Students League and The Resistance

As the proposal stands now, the ASL is turned into an artifact.   It is being readied for placement in nothing more than photographs of where it once was. I have three ideas for addressing the problem faced by the membership of the ASL. Each one recognizes the status of the existing conditions.  Each has an outside chance of keeping ASL a part of the New York City artist community.  All three would be a slam dunk.

PART I

A concern of every institution of learning is to reflect effectively on its experience. This responsibility now remains posited firmly before the entire membership of the ASL. At present, to “not vote” or to vote “NO” has been predefined as an act of futility, if not the essence of an”absurd vote.” This has made the ASL part of a radically changed society, but more importantly, it is now required to assess this new condition’s terror fully, but look on the bright side. The coalitions of those who resist “the project” have an opportunity to establish new principles for adoption by a more innovative, possibly energized ASL board and membership. These principles arose from the three new realities embedded in the project and revealed in its proposals’ ongoing evaluation.

Without a doubt, the ASL members are not investors. They are plaintiffs (here). Therefore, the ASL will re-dedicate its aesthetic vision, art, and talent to recognizing social inequality and the best of its ability, take the steps needed to move toward its eradication as a social pathology in this city and this nation.

• Never has the seriousness of this issue been more clearly revealed than in the value of residential and commercial floor area defined by this project.   Over one-third of all renters (2/3 of all residents) in NYC now pay over half of their income in rent payments.  Rent has increased by 8.6% from 2007 to 2011, while the cities median income decreased by 6.8% in the same period.¹  The income gap in Manhattan is comparable to areas of great social distress, such as Sierra Leone.  None can present the beauty and dignity of being poor with greater clarity than the artist.  This truth must remain in the heart of ASL.

PART II

The second fact revealed by “the project” is equally disturbing to any rational observer not blinded by the ways gold can darken our future. The nature of membership in the ASL society has been revealed as a token, each participant a mere actor on a stage of their choosing but damned by their will to lead.  In the face of this great change, the ASL society’s value is strained by clouds of tradeoffs, exchanges, and quid pro quo rationalizations.  If there is to be art, the artist must see the truth. Unfortunately, the ASL leaders have delivered nothing more than a sense of hopelessness. For this, the members of the resistance should be saddened yet resolved to move forward with new leadership.

• The resistance to “the project” recognizes the capacity of great wealth to overwhelm the old and weak with its power.   With this knowledge, the resistance to “the project” will pledge their unyielding energy to a new purpose.  The resistance to the project and membership of the ASL, therefore, call for the resignation of the board, not in distrust, but with common recognition that new leadership is the only chance the members might have to recover from the overwhelming sense of worthlessness bestowed upon the history and legacy of the ASL by the current board.

PART III

The third strategy has value in two ways. First, if heard by the developers and deemed reasonable, it offers an overwhelming motive to maximize the project’s potential and, therefore, pause to re-evaluate.   This may yield the time to assess the ability of “the resistance” to move the following proposal forward. Second, it offers the possibility to acquire a briefly postponed vote to obtain a serious review of a wholly new future for the ASL.

An innovative proposal has yet to be fully considered.  It is equally controversial, but it suggests a vision for art in our society is now required to leap into the future instead of being “bought out” of it.   In reviewing the literature and the law, the only way to assure that the ASL will survive as an institution is to reinvent itself completely.

• Therefore, the resistance offers to yield to “the project” all of the land held by the ASL in trade for a doubling of the equivalent floor area in perpetuity and in a manner that will meet the needs of artists for the next millennia.   Charge the developers responsible for providing for the ASL a superior space, dedicated to the future of fairness and the truth that art brings to life and society.  The ASL has the opportunity to weave its belief in this unique part of human energy into the mission of urban development.  The opportunity for rebirth is the rarest of all gifts.  This is the true offer; it is not in the few coins now tossed on the table.

A personal note:

In reviewing the literature and the law, it is doubtful this option could inject the ASL into the future. The reason for the “unlikely success” of this option is that half of the resistance to the proposal as it stands is resistance to change itself.  It is therefore challenging to establish a majority view toward inclusive forms of change.

Nevertheless, it is imperative to retell and remind all who can hear that New York City’s history is filled with institutions’ energy in buildings that are no longer here.  Far too many of them remain lost to a hope that parts of the human spirit cannot be crushed forever. Like MAS, the ASL should be an institution capable of recognizing its fate and therefore return to the challenge of art.

[1] See report released by New York University’s Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy, the “State of New York City’s Housing and Neighborhoods 2012”

Here is a 2016 NYT Article on the chaos that since (here)