Open Hearing

Open Hearing is a monumental collection of statements originally published in the wake of the first public meeting of the Art Workers’ Coalition (AWC), at the School of Visual Arts in New York on April 10, 1969. The meeting was billed as “an open public hearing […] regarding museum reform” and the establishment of a program for the AWC, in which any and all art workers were invited to “testify.” It was a consummation of the group’s inception that January, in which the urgency of its foundational concerns and its potency as a rallying point for diverse critical voices were made manifest. Open Hearing is both a document and an extension of that watershed event, consisting of texts collected from a number of the participants as well as transcriptions of the proceedings. The publication was to “be freely circulated and is intended to form a solid basis for a permanent organization designed to represent the best interests of all art workers.” Its topics, as broadly outlined in the publication itself, range from black and Puerto Rican artists’ rights, to the reform and renunciation of “museums and art institutions,” to the structure of the AWC itself. Open Hearing preserves a sweeping, manifold collective declamation, whose tangible resonance is a testament to its own continuing importance. Participating artists are Carl Andre, Architects’ Resistance, Robert Barry, Gregory Battcock, Jon Bauch, Ernst Benkert, Don Bernshouse, Gloria Greenberg Bressler, Selma Brody, Bruce Brown, Bob Carter, Frederick Castle, Rosemarie Castoro, Michael Chapman, Iris Crump, John Denmark, Joseph Di Donato, Mark Di Suvero, George Dworzan, Farman, Hollis Frampton, Dan Graham, Chuck Ginnever, Bill Gordy, Alex Gross, Hans Haacke, Clarence Hagin, Harvey, Gerry Herman, Frank Hewitt, D. Holmes, Robert Huot, Ken Jacobs, Joseph Kosuth, David Lee, Naomi Levine, Sol LeWitt, Lucy Lippard, Tom Lloyd, Lee Lozano, Len Lye, James McDonald, Edwin Mieczkowski, Minority A, Vernita Nemec, Barnett Newman, John Perreault, Stephen Phillips, Lil Picard, Peter Pinchbeck, Joanna Pousette-Dart, Barbara Reise, Faith Ringgold, Steve Rosenthal, Theresa Schwarz, Seth Siegelaub, Gary Smith, Michael Snow, Anita Steckel, Carl Strueckland, Gene Swenson, Julius Tobias, Jean Toche, Ruth Vollmer, Iain Whitecross, Jay Wholly, Ann Wilson, and Wilbur Woods. Founded in January 1969, the Art Workers’ Coalition was a loose association of artists, writers, and cultural workers organized around shared commitments to social action