Framework Panel #13

Built to Last?: Truths & Myths of Sustainable Cultural Production

June 3, 2010, 6:30 - 8pm

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
1779 Massachusetts Avenue NW
In the “Choate Room” on the 1st Floor

Presented in tandem with Sustainability Lab & Cornfield, this panel looked back and ahead at the ever-evolving Do-It-Yourself ethic and inherent aesthetics as it relates to cultural production. Timed with the 30th anniversary of Washington DC's Dischord Records - an internationally recognized independent record label supporting punk rock music that has been artist run since its inception - this panel examined the DIY organizing model that grew out of punk rock subculture and is tied to punk ideology and anti-consumerism.

How is DIY being redefined as aspects of that culture shift from being an underground mantra to a cable TV station slogan and Urban Outfitters commodity? What can cultural producers learn from sustainable food producers? How can a volunteer-run operation be sustainable?

Panelists: Nancy Bannon, artist, DC & NYC; Bryce Dwyer, InCUBATE, Chicago; Ian MacKaye, co-founder of Dischord Records, DC; Eve Mosher, Seeding the City, NYC; Abigail Satinsky, InCUBATE, Chicago

Moderator: Jeff Hnilicka, cultural worker, Member of Hit Factorie and organizer of FEAST, Brooklyn