Who Needs The Institution
Join Us, as we figure this out together.
Who needs the Institution? Who needs the Gallery, the Academy, Who needs Facilitation, the endless credentialing of who gets to speak and who has to stay quiet? Right now, as we watch fascism tighten its grip and try to convince us that safety only comes through hierarchy, through gatekeepers, through waiting for permission, we need each other more than we need any of that. A People's Symposium isn't about building a better institution. It's about remembering that we already hold what we need: The People ARE the Power. We build among ruins the same way we've always built, by turning toward each other, by trading knowledge instead of hoarding it, by making room instead of making rules. So instead of one door with one gatekeeper deciding who's worthy of entry, we make many doors, doors held open by folx who've been on the other side of exclusion and know exactly how heavy that door can be. This is how we practice a future after abolition, not by waiting for it, but by rehearsing it together, right now, in the rooms we're building.
Who Needs the Institution? is a day-long online and in-person people’s symposium in three parts by Crystal Mason and Jason Wyman for neighbors and comrades (near and far) questioning the relevance of our institutions and seeking experiences that abolish institutional formations that gatekeep worldview, knowledge, and participation.
Who Needs the Gallery? (Part One via Zoom) is an interactive virtual gallery and salon demonstrating the power of the Nothing New Anti-Curatorial framework in bursting open opportunities for Immigrant, Black, Brown, Queer, Trans, Non-Binary, Youth, Housing Justice Advocates, Disabled, Poor, and Sex Worker Artists of all disciplines to contribute to exhibitions, catalogs, and archiving projects across the Americas.
Who Needs the Academy? (Part Two at 465 Collective) is a participatory case-study where all gathered co-create a People’s School, drawing inspiration and citation from lived experiences, more-than-human relations, and the words and works of others who have differing (and sometimes deeper) knowledge, insight, skill, or wisdom.
Who Needs Facilitation? (Part Three at 465 Collective) is a dreaming and listening session where all gathered will experience how tending to a culture of facilitation unlocks generative possibilities and grounded actions that makes possibility possible.
Who Needs the Institution? queers our relationship to who is considered expert, reorients Us All towards collective knowledge and autonomous actions, and offers an experience of what might be possible after abolition.
Jason and Crystal look forward to seeing you online and in-person. Join us, lets see what we can build together.