Come and explore Working Artist Board Game, a multiplayer board game about being a working artist under capitalism—about the beauty and joy of making art, contrasted with having to leverage your creative practice as a commodity to survive. Players have to balance creating art, gaining recognition, tending to their community, paying rent, and determining their own definition of success as an artist. This participatory art piece highlights and challenges the system of capitalism, and raises the question of how, perhaps, we can ultimately move beyond it.
In this shorter workshop session, you’re invited to help explore, test, and brainstorm more game mechanics on art-making and capitalism. I’ll introduce the existing game frameworks, from the inner track focusing on art creation (“Everything is beautiful. It all makes sense: You’re in creative flow. Move ahead another 5 spaces.”) to the outer track challenges of publicizing and promoting your work (“Comparison is the Thief of Joy: For every other player that has higher Prestige than you, lose one Morale.”), and all the fun parts in-between. What are your dreams of success as an artist? What is the joy that keeps you going, or the doubt you had to work through? Let’s put it all in the game!
From the Artist
As a multidisciplinary artist who has had to balance making art with earning a living throughout my entire career, this project is both a reflection of my experience and an aspirational coping mechanism.
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