Sharing is Caring: how to create systems of mutual support

collected during the workshops at the symposium Curating through Conflict with Care 2023.

  • organizing requires trust building. The first question we ask to enter work together is: WHAT DO WE NEED TO FEEL SAFE TO WORK WITH ANOTHER? We return to this question and discuss it frequently.

  • step into co-mentorship roles with one another by scheduling check-ins, sharing resources, inviting each other to share responsibilities/ roles

  • Offer to share your contract and negotiation language with others who are in your position

  • If you can’t accept an invitation, suggest others who you are in co-mentorship with to take the work

  • If you can’t honor an agreement or deadline you made with a collaborator, communicate this as soon as possible AND suggest alternatives so the work doesn’t fall on another person without their agreement. 

  • Ask institutions who want to work with you to contribute a fee to an organization or community group that your work has been supported by

  • gossip is political resistance: share warnings about institutional exploitation to protect others 

  • Show up through discomfort: if a collaborator is harmed at work, ask how you might help to hold space for private conflict mediation and accountability processes 

Related

CONTRACTS: what you can negotiate

A Recipe for Land Acknowledgements. 

How to organize and demand of institutions

Do we have to like each other to care for one another? (CCC)

Manufacturing Consent in Germany

Curating Conflict without Carewashing? (CCC)

Open Questions and Wishlist

Institutionalization of conflict

Funding Resources