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At the same time 500 artists were protesting his policy of
eliminating them from NYC Parks Mayor Bloomberg tried his
hand
at spin, deliberately mis-describing artists as "Hot Dog
Vendors"
on his radio show, 4.23.2010
Please ask the Mayor, "Don't you know the difference between
a hot dog and art?"
TO ARTIST MEMBERS:
NEXT STEP FOR ARTISTS IN PARKS
If you have read through all of the media coverage of our protest
(see
newly updated coverage below), it becomes clear that street artists
still have a serious image problem.
However, Friday’s protest has subtly changed the way the media -
and
even our opponents – now describe us. We are finally being
described
as “artists” not just as vendors selling art or expressive matter
vendors or just plain vendors.
What made the difference?
YOU making hand-made, very artistic signs and displaying
them from
your stand and in the protest.
I believe this is the key to winning our fight in the media, in the
street and in court.
If we study our enemy’s tactics rather than just reacting emotionally,
we will see a concerted effort to deny us our real identities.
Dehumanizing your opponent is a basic propaganda technique
used in all
wars. It increases the anger level and allows people to take positions
or to do things (“We must get rid of ALL those people!”) they might
not otherwise be willing to take or to do.
By denying us our real identities as artists, it makes it easier to
limit us to just a few spaces; to ban us from parks altogether; to
destroy our livelihoods; or to give us even less status than a hot dog
vendor, as the Mayor tried to do on his radio show on Friday.
He pretended (I can assure you he isn’t that stupid) that this issue
was about people selling hot dogs in parks demanding their First
Amendment rights.
eliminating them from NYC Parks Mayor Bloomberg tried his
hand
at spin, deliberately mis-describing artists as "Hot Dog
Vendors"
on his radio show, 4.23.2010
Please ask the Mayor, "Don't you know the difference between
a hot dog and art?"
TO ARTIST MEMBERS:
NEXT STEP FOR ARTISTS IN PARKS
If you have read through all of the media coverage of our protest
(see
newly updated coverage below), it becomes clear that street artists
still have a serious image problem.
However, Friday’s protest has subtly changed the way the media -
and
even our opponents – now describe us. We are finally being
described
as “artists” not just as vendors selling art or expressive matter
vendors or just plain vendors.
What made the difference?
YOU making hand-made, very artistic signs and displaying
them from
your stand and in the protest.
I believe this is the key to winning our fight in the media, in the
street and in court.
If we study our enemy’s tactics rather than just reacting emotionally,
we will see a concerted effort to deny us our real identities.
Dehumanizing your opponent is a basic propaganda technique
used in all
wars. It increases the anger level and allows people to take positions
or to do things (“We must get rid of ALL those people!”) they might
not otherwise be willing to take or to do.
By denying us our real identities as artists, it makes it easier to
limit us to just a few spaces; to ban us from parks altogether; to
destroy our livelihoods; or to give us even less status than a hot dog
vendor, as the Mayor tried to do on his radio show on Friday.
He pretended (I can assure you he isn’t that stupid) that this issue
was about people selling hot dogs in parks demanding their First
Amendment rights.
Mayor Bloomberg is a media tycoon and an expert in image
manipulation.
He understands what the First Amendment is because he is
protected by
it in his multi-billion dollar business. He also knows what art is,
being someone who has donated more than 100 million dollars to
the
arts. When he publicly pretends this is about hot dog vending rather
than artists, he is trying to spin the public’s perception against us.
This shows us something very important.
He must think that ultimately, if this issue is depicted as being
about artists, that he will lose the war for public opinion. Throw a
bunch of vendors out of the parks? Most people won’t be too
concerned
or will support such an agenda. At the very least, they will support
drastically limiting them.
Throw real artists out of the parks and most people will become very
concerned and will oppose it or will actively support the artists.
This is exactly why the Parks Commissioner, the BIDS, the Park
Conservancies and the local residents who testified against us at
the
community boards and at the hearing all describe us as “chatcke”
vendors, people selling souvenirs and the like. They are not so
stupid
or unobservant that they don’t see ANY real artists selling in parks.
They are deliberately mis-describing us as a technique of
propaganda,
in order to dehumanize and eventually eliminate us.
We can get frustrated and angry about this (not very useful as a
response) or we can understand the game and play it ourselves –
or
play it better than they do. If denying us our identity as artists
means they win, then by emphasizing our identity as artists we will
win.
How can we make it so obvious we are artists that no one will be
able
to deny that reality?
Make art at your stand everyday.
Use your art as a weapon to fight for your rights.
Make hand-made protest signs at your stand every day. You will find
that the public wants to buy those signs even more than they want
to
buy your art. Hundreds of our ARTIST POWER signs have been
sold.
Display more signs, better signs, larger signs. Let your signs talk
for you. “I’m an artist, not a vendor. I make and sell art, not junk,
not Chatckes, not souvenirs.”
Keep art supplies (palette, brushes, tubes of paint, an easel, clay or
whatever you use) on display right by your stand. If you are a
photographer, make a display sign that shows how you manipulate
images, develop film etc. Project whatever graphically sells the idea
that you are a real artist.
Do art performances in the parks, as a number of Union Sq Park
artists
did last week. When the media is at your stand, emphasize all of this
art activity and drive this message home – we are artists not
vendors.
manipulation.
He understands what the First Amendment is because he is
protected by
it in his multi-billion dollar business. He also knows what art is,
being someone who has donated more than 100 million dollars to
the
arts. When he publicly pretends this is about hot dog vending rather
than artists, he is trying to spin the public’s perception against us.
This shows us something very important.
He must think that ultimately, if this issue is depicted as being
about artists, that he will lose the war for public opinion. Throw a
bunch of vendors out of the parks? Most people won’t be too
concerned
or will support such an agenda. At the very least, they will support
drastically limiting them.
Throw real artists out of the parks and most people will become very
concerned and will oppose it or will actively support the artists.
This is exactly why the Parks Commissioner, the BIDS, the Park
Conservancies and the local residents who testified against us at
the
community boards and at the hearing all describe us as “chatcke”
vendors, people selling souvenirs and the like. They are not so
stupid
or unobservant that they don’t see ANY real artists selling in parks.
They are deliberately mis-describing us as a technique of
propaganda,
in order to dehumanize and eventually eliminate us.
We can get frustrated and angry about this (not very useful as a
response) or we can understand the game and play it ourselves –
or
play it better than they do. If denying us our identity as artists
means they win, then by emphasizing our identity as artists we will
win.
How can we make it so obvious we are artists that no one will be
able
to deny that reality?
Make art at your stand everyday.
Use your art as a weapon to fight for your rights.
Make hand-made protest signs at your stand every day. You will find
that the public wants to buy those signs even more than they want
to
buy your art. Hundreds of our ARTIST POWER signs have been
sold.
Display more signs, better signs, larger signs. Let your signs talk
for you. “I’m an artist, not a vendor. I make and sell art, not junk,
not Chatckes, not souvenirs.”
Keep art supplies (palette, brushes, tubes of paint, an easel, clay or
whatever you use) on display right by your stand. If you are a
photographer, make a display sign that shows how you manipulate
images, develop film etc. Project whatever graphically sells the idea
that you are a real artist.
Do art performances in the parks, as a number of Union Sq Park
artists
did last week. When the media is at your stand, emphasize all of this
art activity and drive this message home – we are artists not
vendors.
Look at the media coverage our cardboard signs got in the past 3
weeks.
We were in the NY Times four times, in 300 other newspapers
around the
world, on all the TV networks, on many radio stations and in
hundreds
of online blogs and journals. All the papers will soon start writing
editorials about this issue, showing that it is of the highest
priority. All of them highlighted the signs in their coverage, what
the signs said and that you made them yourselves.
And, most importantly, they described your signs as exposing Mayor
Bloomberg as the man behind the effort to get rid of you. That is
why
he was forced to talk about this publicly. You forced him to go public
with his animosity towards us.
What else did those signs accomplish?
Many of you were able to see yourselves and your art on TV and in
newspapers for the first time in your life. You were interviewed by
the mainstream media, you testified at a public hearing and you
were
heard by many people who previously thought you were just a
vendor,
possibly illiterate, and surely not someone so creative and eloquent.
YOU changed the perception of who we are with those signs. Now
we must
turn up the volume on this, do it more and better each day and not
stop doing it no matter what.
Let’s make Union Square Park be the new trendy place to see
artists’
protest signs, the new place to see artists at work making real art,
rather than just people selling art.
This will increase your business greatly and more importantly, raise
your status with both the media and the public. It will also improve
our chances of winning in court if we have to go that route.
BUT, watch out for the trap of thinking that getting rid of art
vendors is the solution to our problem. Here’s why:
ARTISTS VS. ART VENDORS
If you listened to the public testimony at the hearing or earlier at
the community boards you understand that there is a very large
percentage of the public who think selling art is of a lesser First
Amendment value than making or just displaying it. That’s exactly
why
they only want to call us art vendors or expressive matter vendors,
rather than artists. Most artists also believe this and it leads them
to think that getting rid of art vendors will solve our problem.
Here are two reasons why it won’t.
1. THE SALE OF ART IS ALSO PROTECTED
Here’s a direct quote from the ruling in our first lawsuit on the sale
of First Amendment protected materials:
“The sale of protected materials is also
protected. See Lakewood v. Plain Dealer Pub. Co., 486 U.S. 750,
756
n.5 & 768 (1988). "It is well settled that a speaker's rights are not
lost merely because compensation is received; a speaker is no less
a
speaker because he or she is paid to speak." Riley v. Nat'l Fed'n of
Blind of North Carolina, 487 U.S. 781, 801 (1988). In United States
v.
Nat'l Treasury Employees Union, ___ U.S., 115 S.Ct. 1003 (1995),
the
United States Supreme Court found that a ban on honoraria for
government employees "imposes the kind of burden that abridges
speech
under the First Amendment," in part because "the denial of
compensation for lower-paid, non-policymaking employees will
inevitably
diminish their expressive output" and will "impose a significant
burden on the public's right to read and hear what the employees
would
otherwise have written and said." Id. at 1014-15. As in the present
case, without the money, the [artist] plaintiffs would not have
engaged in the
protected expressive activity.” – Bery/Lederman et al v City of NY
1996
That’s the law in this Federal district concerning selling art as
decided by the Federal Appeals court. That is why art vendors who
sell
an artists’ work, or who sell mass produced paintings or prints, are
equally protected with artists.
To do away with art vendors requires doing away with artists’ FULL
First Amendment rights. If they set up a system where only the
actual
artist can sell, a permit is required. How else can they tell who is
an artist? I’ve been an artist for my entire life and I can’t tell by
looking at someone or at their work if they are an artist. How would
the police possibly do this? Once there is a permit, rather than us
selling solely by the First Amendment, they can limit the permit in
any way they like, limit the total number, charge any fee etc.
Eventually, they will sell all vending spots as a concession if we let
them subject us to a permit.
2. THOSE WHO OPPOSE US DO NOT REALLY CARE WHO MADE
THE ART OR IF IT IS GOOD ART
Many artists imagine that if we got rid of all those tacky art vending
stands with identical prints, that the people who want us out of the
parks would see thing differently. History tells a very different
story.
When the street artist arrest policy began in 1994 there were only
about 100 full time street artists in the entire city. 95% of them
sold their own art, and most of it was one of a kind original
paintings. I sold my paintings and woodcuts outside the Museum of
Modern Art with many of these artists who eventually became the
original members of ARTIST.
The powerful organizations that submitted legal briefs against us in
our lawsuit in 1995 - The Downtown Alliance BID, the Fifth Avenue
Association BID, the Grand Central Partnership BID, the Madison
Avenue
BID, the 34th Street Partnership BID, and the SoHo Alliance (not a
BID) had almost 100% of the art galleries and museums in the city
within their districts. You can read their amicus brief here:
http://www.mediafire.com/?mm3ozmywmm2
They denied that ANY visual art was deserving of First Amendment
protection despite their own BID members, galleries and museums
all
being at risk of losing their rights if the Federal Court accepted
this argument. That is how determined they were to eliminate a
mere
100 real artists from the streets and parks of NYC.
After we won our lawsuits, yes, many art vendors sprouted up and
yes,
they are something of an image liability for our movement. However,
that’s no different than when other First Amendment controversies
erupt about hate speech, porn, politically incorrect speech or art
that has a content someone finds offensive.
You either believe in free speech or not. If you believe in it then
you have to be willing to allow speech you think is offensive, poor
quality, boring, stupid or worthless.
At the hearing former Parks Commissioner Henry Stern went on at
length
about the vendors selling pictures of John Lennon in Central Park.
Personally, I don’t care for them and would not sell such exploitative
merchandise, but does that mean there is no First Amendment
protection
for selling a picture of John Lennon near a memorial to him?
If the city ever succeeded in getting rid of those art vendors, I
guarantee that the Central Park Conservancy would have vending
stands
selling John Lennon merchandise set up in the same location within
6
months. As crazy at that sounds, it is the reality of this
controversy. In fact, I have collected evidence that the city wants
official NYC souvenir stands to be set up on the streets and in
parks,
when and if they can ever get rid of us.
COPRIGHT INFRINGEMENT
Be careful to not confuse the issue of art vendors with copyright
infringement, which is also brought up a lot by our opponents.
The ARTIST group does not now and has never supported or
defended
those who sell copyright infringed materials, be they books,
pictures,
videos or music CDs.
Art vendors who sell such materials are a huge image liability for our
movement. They give our opponents ammunition to smear all of us
with,
be we artists or legitimate art vendors.
*****Art vendors take note*****
If you have anything to do with this practice, please stop it
immediately.
You are helping those who want all street artists eliminated. With all
the legitimate art available; with all the starving artists willing to
sell you the rights to an image, there is NO JUSTIFICATION for
anyone
to be ripping off images and selling them in this way. If you want to
be an art vendor, do it legitimately, otherwise you are undermining
this movement and your own livelihood.
At the same time, the remedy for this is not to ban artists, or limit
artists. Copyright infringement is a crime. Those whose works are
infringed can sue and get monetary damages, as a few artists’
whose
works were infringed by art vendors have already done.
THE SOLUTION FOR ALL OF THIS IS MAKE ART AT YOUR
STAND and to DISPLAY
HAND MADE PROTEST SIGNS
We cannot get rid of everyone who makes us look bad. We CAN do
everything possible to make ourselves look good. By making art at
our
stands we will change the entire issue from art vending to artists,
and THAT is the winning strategy to follow.
*****UPDATED information, new links, new video, new articles
Media Coverage and media SPIN explained 4/23/2010 ARTIST
protest
NOTE: a number of links in the previous email on the media
coverage of
our protest on Friday that did not work were fixed in this new
LINKS
ONLY version. More articles were added (and there are many more
coming), some of which have fantastic photo slideshows of the
artists,
their signs and the protest. You and your friends may be in there so
check these links to see the photos! There are also some added
links
to very good video by different ARTIST members.
Below is some of the media coverage of our protest (just the links,
no
texts) and the hearing on the Parks Rules for artists. The actual
number of artists protesting was more than 500 (see the videos).
Some
newspapers went out of their way to minimize us, claiming there
were
only 100 artists in total. Others were far more accurate. We filled
the street, the hall (300 plus seats) and there was still a long
double line of artists around the block after the hall was filled. The
protest took up both sides of 25th street and spilled out into the
street itself.
*MEDIA SPIN
Many of these media outlets covering our issue are directly
connected
to the BIDs or actually started one of the BIDs so their coverage is
sometimes VERY slanted against us.
There is also a carefully orchestrated campaign now going on with
the
Mayor, Parks Dept, the BIDs and the Park conservancies all working
overtime to twist all the facts in the story to fit their agenda.
Unfortunately for them, virtually all of their “facts” about
congestion can be proven untrue just by looking at these 4 parks.
On his radio show Friday, the Mayor said he didn’t see how hot
dogs or
their vendors are protected by the First Amendment. Talk about
spin!
(see the NY1 video below)
ANTI-ARTIST CAMPAIGN ELISTS BIG GUNS
They have enlisted Henry Stern (former Parks Commissioner), Ed
Wallace
(former City Councilmember now a lawyer and lobbyist for the BIDs)
and
David Ferguson (an elderly poet on whose behalf Stern and
Wallace
created the Written Matter Exemption in 1982) to attack us and
claim
we are not even artists let alone First Amendment protected and
that
we are destroying the Parks. That’s how it goes in a war. Both sides
use propaganda and try to influence the media as a weapon. It’s all
part of the messy reality of free speech.
You can fight back by creating art at your stand (it proves we are
artists) and always displaying signs (the more, the bigger, the
better). Ultimately, the hundreds of thousands who see you in parks
every day will understand the truth for themselves. Let your signs
disprove the media spin. The signs are our own totally independent
free speech media machine. Crank it up!
* There is also an important new development as revealed in a NY
Times article.
NY Times April 23, 2010
Plan Gives Pedestrians a Plaza at Union Square
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/24/nyregion/24union.html?
emc=eta1
The Mayor wants to close off most of the vehicular traffic around
USP
and make a big pedestrian mall out it as he has done in Midtown. I
would guess they want us limited so we cannot use all the new
space
this will create. This will increase the 14th Street BIDs power
tremendously. Read it at the link above.
* The on site commanding officers of the NYPD and the Park police
came
to me at the end of the protest and said they were very impressed
with
the members of ARTIST and with how they handled themselves.
Thanks to
everyone in the group who made signs, printed leaflets, distributed
them to artists throughout the city, wrote letters, handed in written
testimony, took photos and videos and most of all, showed up! If
you
have video and/or photos you are willing to share please email
them to
me at :
artistpres@gmail.com
OR post them to the web and send me the link.
While there were many Park conservancies and BIDS testifying
against
us there were also many people from other organizations testifying
for
us. Almost 100 artists testified and gave very moving speeches
about
their rights, why they like to sell in parks and about the unfairness
of the proposed rules. Please keep on displaying signs on your art
stands. ARTIST POWER!
* Video of ARTIST protest by Sasha Sazanov
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHZz0UPgfXw
* EK Buckley’s photostream (lots of good photos of the protest and
hearing)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/charcoll/
* *MANY VIDEO CLIPS OF PROTEST AND the HEARING by
MIRIAM WEST
*** Updated Major Media coverage ***
* Daily News
Artists fight public hearing on vendor restrictions in parks
with
freedom of expression
www.nydailynews.
* NY Times 4/24/2010
* NBC News
(Has good video of the protest)
Seeing Red: Artists Protest Changing Park Vendor Rules
* FOX NEWS
Street-artists-Protest-Limit-Plan
OR see the FOX video here:
" NY1News "
(Important: Watch video and listen to
Mayor Bloomberg pretend that
this issue is about hot dog vendors, not artists. They must be
desperate to do that much spinning!)
* WPIX Channel 11 News NY
OR, see it here:
http://www.dailymotion.com
* 1010WINS Radio News
www.1010wins.com/Hundreds-Protest-NYC-Proposal-to-Limit-
Art-Vendors
*Tribeca Trib on Battery Park art vendors and artists
Citys-proposed-rule-change-could-force-art-vendors-out-of-battery-
park.
* DNA info
Manhattan / hundreds-protest-plan-limit-vendors-selling-art-parks
(Excellent photo slideshow)
* CURBED Hundreds Protest Plan to Limit Vendors Selling Art
in Parks
Updated 2 hrs ago April 23, 2010
(Has good photos from the protest)
Artists Creatively Trash Bloomberg at Rally Against Park Rules
* NY Times
Trail Blazers Take on Limiting Vendors
April 22, 2010
Trailblazer’s Take on Limiting Vendors
(This is the article about the poet on whose behalf the Written
Matter
Exemption was created)
------------------
* DESTINATIONS EXAMINER
Hundreds of street artists protest Parks Department plan, attend
public hearing
April 24, 2010 PMNY Destinations Examiner Leslie Koch
www.examiner.com - Hundreds-of-street-artists-protest-
Parks-Department-plan-attend-public-hearing-photos
(This article has another photo slideshow with great individual
photos
of many artists you know and their signs)
There were also numerous radio news, cable news and
foreign language
TV news reports on the protest. More articles are coming out this
week, and it is likely many more reporters will be coming to your
stands to do interviews. Give them the best and most accurate
statements you can and please have them contact me for further
comment.
Robert Lederman
artistpres@gmail.com
201- 896-1686
ARTIST POWER!
weeks.
We were in the NY Times four times, in 300 other newspapers
around the
world, on all the TV networks, on many radio stations and in
hundreds
of online blogs and journals. All the papers will soon start writing
editorials about this issue, showing that it is of the highest
priority. All of them highlighted the signs in their coverage, what
the signs said and that you made them yourselves.
And, most importantly, they described your signs as exposing Mayor
Bloomberg as the man behind the effort to get rid of you. That is
why
he was forced to talk about this publicly. You forced him to go public
with his animosity towards us.
What else did those signs accomplish?
Many of you were able to see yourselves and your art on TV and in
newspapers for the first time in your life. You were interviewed by
the mainstream media, you testified at a public hearing and you
were
heard by many people who previously thought you were just a
vendor,
possibly illiterate, and surely not someone so creative and eloquent.
YOU changed the perception of who we are with those signs. Now
we must
turn up the volume on this, do it more and better each day and not
stop doing it no matter what.
Let’s make Union Square Park be the new trendy place to see
artists’
protest signs, the new place to see artists at work making real art,
rather than just people selling art.
This will increase your business greatly and more importantly, raise
your status with both the media and the public. It will also improve
our chances of winning in court if we have to go that route.
BUT, watch out for the trap of thinking that getting rid of art
vendors is the solution to our problem. Here’s why:
ARTISTS VS. ART VENDORS
If you listened to the public testimony at the hearing or earlier at
the community boards you understand that there is a very large
percentage of the public who think selling art is of a lesser First
Amendment value than making or just displaying it. That’s exactly
why
they only want to call us art vendors or expressive matter vendors,
rather than artists. Most artists also believe this and it leads them
to think that getting rid of art vendors will solve our problem.
Here are two reasons why it won’t.
1. THE SALE OF ART IS ALSO PROTECTED
Here’s a direct quote from the ruling in our first lawsuit on the sale
of First Amendment protected materials:
“The sale of protected materials is also
protected. See Lakewood v. Plain Dealer Pub. Co., 486 U.S. 750,
756
n.5 & 768 (1988). "It is well settled that a speaker's rights are not
lost merely because compensation is received; a speaker is no less
a
speaker because he or she is paid to speak." Riley v. Nat'l Fed'n of
Blind of North Carolina, 487 U.S. 781, 801 (1988). In United States
v.
Nat'l Treasury Employees Union, ___ U.S., 115 S.Ct. 1003 (1995),
the
United States Supreme Court found that a ban on honoraria for
government employees "imposes the kind of burden that abridges
speech
under the First Amendment," in part because "the denial of
compensation for lower-paid, non-policymaking employees will
inevitably
diminish their expressive output" and will "impose a significant
burden on the public's right to read and hear what the employees
would
otherwise have written and said." Id. at 1014-15. As in the present
case, without the money, the [artist] plaintiffs would not have
engaged in the
protected expressive activity.” – Bery/Lederman et al v City of NY
1996
That’s the law in this Federal district concerning selling art as
decided by the Federal Appeals court. That is why art vendors who
sell
an artists’ work, or who sell mass produced paintings or prints, are
equally protected with artists.
To do away with art vendors requires doing away with artists’ FULL
First Amendment rights. If they set up a system where only the
actual
artist can sell, a permit is required. How else can they tell who is
an artist? I’ve been an artist for my entire life and I can’t tell by
looking at someone or at their work if they are an artist. How would
the police possibly do this? Once there is a permit, rather than us
selling solely by the First Amendment, they can limit the permit in
any way they like, limit the total number, charge any fee etc.
Eventually, they will sell all vending spots as a concession if we let
them subject us to a permit.
2. THOSE WHO OPPOSE US DO NOT REALLY CARE WHO MADE
THE ART OR IF IT IS GOOD ART
Many artists imagine that if we got rid of all those tacky art vending
stands with identical prints, that the people who want us out of the
parks would see thing differently. History tells a very different
story.
When the street artist arrest policy began in 1994 there were only
about 100 full time street artists in the entire city. 95% of them
sold their own art, and most of it was one of a kind original
paintings. I sold my paintings and woodcuts outside the Museum of
Modern Art with many of these artists who eventually became the
original members of ARTIST.
The powerful organizations that submitted legal briefs against us in
our lawsuit in 1995 - The Downtown Alliance BID, the Fifth Avenue
Association BID, the Grand Central Partnership BID, the Madison
Avenue
BID, the 34th Street Partnership BID, and the SoHo Alliance (not a
BID) had almost 100% of the art galleries and museums in the city
within their districts. You can read their amicus brief here:
http://www.mediafire.com/?mm3ozmywmm2
They denied that ANY visual art was deserving of First Amendment
protection despite their own BID members, galleries and museums
all
being at risk of losing their rights if the Federal Court accepted
this argument. That is how determined they were to eliminate a
mere
100 real artists from the streets and parks of NYC.
After we won our lawsuits, yes, many art vendors sprouted up and
yes,
they are something of an image liability for our movement. However,
that’s no different than when other First Amendment controversies
erupt about hate speech, porn, politically incorrect speech or art
that has a content someone finds offensive.
You either believe in free speech or not. If you believe in it then
you have to be willing to allow speech you think is offensive, poor
quality, boring, stupid or worthless.
At the hearing former Parks Commissioner Henry Stern went on at
length
about the vendors selling pictures of John Lennon in Central Park.
Personally, I don’t care for them and would not sell such exploitative
merchandise, but does that mean there is no First Amendment
protection
for selling a picture of John Lennon near a memorial to him?
If the city ever succeeded in getting rid of those art vendors, I
guarantee that the Central Park Conservancy would have vending
stands
selling John Lennon merchandise set up in the same location within
6
months. As crazy at that sounds, it is the reality of this
controversy. In fact, I have collected evidence that the city wants
official NYC souvenir stands to be set up on the streets and in
parks,
when and if they can ever get rid of us.
COPRIGHT INFRINGEMENT
Be careful to not confuse the issue of art vendors with copyright
infringement, which is also brought up a lot by our opponents.
The ARTIST group does not now and has never supported or
defended
those who sell copyright infringed materials, be they books,
pictures,
videos or music CDs.
Art vendors who sell such materials are a huge image liability for our
movement. They give our opponents ammunition to smear all of us
with,
be we artists or legitimate art vendors.
*****Art vendors take note*****
If you have anything to do with this practice, please stop it
immediately.
You are helping those who want all street artists eliminated. With all
the legitimate art available; with all the starving artists willing to
sell you the rights to an image, there is NO JUSTIFICATION for
anyone
to be ripping off images and selling them in this way. If you want to
be an art vendor, do it legitimately, otherwise you are undermining
this movement and your own livelihood.
At the same time, the remedy for this is not to ban artists, or limit
artists. Copyright infringement is a crime. Those whose works are
infringed can sue and get monetary damages, as a few artists’
whose
works were infringed by art vendors have already done.
THE SOLUTION FOR ALL OF THIS IS MAKE ART AT YOUR
STAND and to DISPLAY
HAND MADE PROTEST SIGNS
We cannot get rid of everyone who makes us look bad. We CAN do
everything possible to make ourselves look good. By making art at
our
stands we will change the entire issue from art vending to artists,
and THAT is the winning strategy to follow.
*****UPDATED information, new links, new video, new articles
Media Coverage and media SPIN explained 4/23/2010 ARTIST
protest
NOTE: a number of links in the previous email on the media
coverage of
our protest on Friday that did not work were fixed in this new
LINKS
ONLY version. More articles were added (and there are many more
coming), some of which have fantastic photo slideshows of the
artists,
their signs and the protest. You and your friends may be in there so
check these links to see the photos! There are also some added
links
to very good video by different ARTIST members.
Below is some of the media coverage of our protest (just the links,
no
texts) and the hearing on the Parks Rules for artists. The actual
number of artists protesting was more than 500 (see the videos).
Some
newspapers went out of their way to minimize us, claiming there
were
only 100 artists in total. Others were far more accurate. We filled
the street, the hall (300 plus seats) and there was still a long
double line of artists around the block after the hall was filled. The
protest took up both sides of 25th street and spilled out into the
street itself.
*MEDIA SPIN
Many of these media outlets covering our issue are directly
connected
to the BIDs or actually started one of the BIDs so their coverage is
sometimes VERY slanted against us.
There is also a carefully orchestrated campaign now going on with
the
Mayor, Parks Dept, the BIDs and the Park conservancies all working
overtime to twist all the facts in the story to fit their agenda.
Unfortunately for them, virtually all of their “facts” about
congestion can be proven untrue just by looking at these 4 parks.
On his radio show Friday, the Mayor said he didn’t see how hot
dogs or
their vendors are protected by the First Amendment. Talk about
spin!
(see the NY1 video below)
ANTI-ARTIST CAMPAIGN ELISTS BIG GUNS
They have enlisted Henry Stern (former Parks Commissioner), Ed
Wallace
(former City Councilmember now a lawyer and lobbyist for the BIDs)
and
David Ferguson (an elderly poet on whose behalf Stern and
Wallace
created the Written Matter Exemption in 1982) to attack us and
claim
we are not even artists let alone First Amendment protected and
that
we are destroying the Parks. That’s how it goes in a war. Both sides
use propaganda and try to influence the media as a weapon. It’s all
part of the messy reality of free speech.
You can fight back by creating art at your stand (it proves we are
artists) and always displaying signs (the more, the bigger, the
better). Ultimately, the hundreds of thousands who see you in parks
every day will understand the truth for themselves. Let your signs
disprove the media spin. The signs are our own totally independent
free speech media machine. Crank it up!
* There is also an important new development as revealed in a NY
Times article.
NY Times April 23, 2010
Plan Gives Pedestrians a Plaza at Union Square
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/24/nyregion/24union.html?
emc=eta1
The Mayor wants to close off most of the vehicular traffic around
USP
and make a big pedestrian mall out it as he has done in Midtown. I
would guess they want us limited so we cannot use all the new
space
this will create. This will increase the 14th Street BIDs power
tremendously. Read it at the link above.
* The on site commanding officers of the NYPD and the Park police
came
to me at the end of the protest and said they were very impressed
with
the members of ARTIST and with how they handled themselves.
Thanks to
everyone in the group who made signs, printed leaflets, distributed
them to artists throughout the city, wrote letters, handed in written
testimony, took photos and videos and most of all, showed up! If
you
have video and/or photos you are willing to share please email
them to
me at :
artistpres@gmail.com
OR post them to the web and send me the link.
While there were many Park conservancies and BIDS testifying
against
us there were also many people from other organizations testifying
for
us. Almost 100 artists testified and gave very moving speeches
about
their rights, why they like to sell in parks and about the unfairness
of the proposed rules. Please keep on displaying signs on your art
stands. ARTIST POWER!
* Video of ARTIST protest by Sasha Sazanov
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHZz0UPgfXw
* EK Buckley’s photostream (lots of good photos of the protest and
hearing)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/charcoll/
* *MANY VIDEO CLIPS OF PROTEST AND the HEARING by
MIRIAM WEST
*** Updated Major Media coverage ***
* Daily News
Artists fight public hearing on vendor restrictions in parks
with
freedom of expression
www.nydailynews.
* NY Times 4/24/2010
* NBC News
(Has good video of the protest)
Seeing Red: Artists Protest Changing Park Vendor Rules
* FOX NEWS
Street-artists-Protest-Limit-Plan
OR see the FOX video here:
" NY1News "
(Important: Watch video and listen to
Mayor Bloomberg pretend that
this issue is about hot dog vendors, not artists. They must be
desperate to do that much spinning!)
* WPIX Channel 11 News NY
OR, see it here:
http://www.dailymotion.com
* 1010WINS Radio News
www.1010wins.com/Hundreds-Protest-NYC-Proposal-to-Limit-
Art-Vendors
*Tribeca Trib on Battery Park art vendors and artists
Citys-proposed-rule-change-could-force-art-vendors-out-of-battery-
park.
* DNA info
Manhattan / hundreds-protest-plan-limit-vendors-selling-art-parks
(Excellent photo slideshow)
* CURBED Hundreds Protest Plan to Limit Vendors Selling Art
in Parks
Updated 2 hrs ago April 23, 2010
(Has good photos from the protest)
Artists Creatively Trash Bloomberg at Rally Against Park Rules
* NY Times
Trail Blazers Take on Limiting Vendors
April 22, 2010
Trailblazer’s Take on Limiting Vendors
(This is the article about the poet on whose behalf the Written
Matter
Exemption was created)
------------------
* DESTINATIONS EXAMINER
Hundreds of street artists protest Parks Department plan, attend
public hearing
April 24, 2010 PMNY Destinations Examiner Leslie Koch
www.examiner.com - Hundreds-of-street-artists-protest-
Parks-Department-plan-attend-public-hearing-photos
(This article has another photo slideshow with great individual
photos
of many artists you know and their signs)
There were also numerous radio news, cable news and
foreign language
TV news reports on the protest. More articles are coming out this
week, and it is likely many more reporters will be coming to your
stands to do interviews. Give them the best and most accurate
statements you can and please have them contact me for further
comment.
Robert Lederman
artistpres@gmail.com
201- 896-1686
ARTIST POWER!
At 4:30 a.m. on Saturday April 10, dozens of
empty tables marked spaces reserved by the homeless
in Union Square Park. No PEP officers were in sight.
(Photo: Leslie Koch)
empty tables marked spaces reserved by the homeless
in Union Square Park. No PEP officers were in sight.
(Photo: Leslie Koch)
| "Artist's Power" Robert Lederman |