After the first convening of the Brooklyn Commune certain issues rose to prominence as topics for further investigation and work. They are listed below with their self-identified coordinators. If you would like to get involved with any of these discussions, please contact the coordinators directly. If you would like to start a separate Research Group, contact us and we will add it to this page.

FOUNDATIONS, FUNDING & PHILANTHROPY
A critical analysis of existing structures for capital allocation in the non-profit sector (government & foundations) to develop recommendations for changes in structures, systems, increasing transparency, renegotiating relationships between grantor and grantee. How do we move together towards shared goals rather than in opposition?

Coordinator: Kimberly Bartosik (daelak[at]cs[dot]com)

HACKING CAPITALISM
Bitcoins? derivatives? “the market” – how does an economic and financial system that creates wealth through abstraction rather than the exchange of goods and services resonate with the creation, production and distribution of time-based art and performance? how does the performing arts ecology resonate with the dominant economy? This research group will explore issues of sustainability and precarity, interrogating the assumptions of the market and investigating how artists can play in and with the existing financial system.

Coordinator: Max Dana (mcdana[at]gmail[dot]com)

LABOR & VALUE
How do we value what we do? what does value mean? how much should we get paid? how do we ask for it? who gets paid how much and how do those decisions get made and how do we increase transparency? AT the same time – how do we aggregate ourselves in new ways that are not necessarily place-based? How do we work together outside of institutional structures to share knowledge and resources and build community in a “center out” rather than “top down” way?

Coordinator: Nick Benacerraf (nbenacerraf[at]gmail[dot]com)

CULTURAL DEMOCRACY & REPRESENTATION
Both within Brooklyn Commune and sector-wide, how do we insure that people from all points on the age, race, gender, orientation, religion and cultural spectra have a place in the conversation? How do we negotiate difference, acknowledge the unassimilable and develop shared languages for communicating across diverse perspectives and experiences?

Coordinator: Kyoung Park (kyounghpark[at]gmail[dot]com)

AESTHETICS OF PERFORMANCE
How do economic conditions, class and production processes affect aesthetics and the appreciation and valuation of the performing arts? How can we envision aesthetic frameworks and vocabularies for the 21st Century? What might they look like and how can we share them?

Coordinator: To Be Distributed Among The Research Team Coordinators

WORKING OUTSIDE THE INSTITUTION
This a group of independent creative producers developing sustainable cultural production models for working outside the institution. How do we develop frameworks for independent producers to fill the gap between institutional and artist project management & planning capacity? How do we make a case for funding this role and build a system for accountability and trust among independent producers?

Coordinator: Dorit Avganim (doritavganim[at]gmail[dot]com)