Mediating

Art, Engagement, Economy: The Working Practice of Caroline Woolard
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Mediating
For both OurGoods.org and TradeSchool.coop, collaborators Louise Ma and Rich Watts made exceptionally beautiful print material (business cards, posters, fliers) as well as well-designed websites. Or Zubalsky wrote the code for TradeSchool.coop twice, taking months on end to make sure that the website worked in multiple languages (for text going right to left as well as left to right) around the world.
Rich Watts made sure that we took high quality photographs of every event we held, as well as at many of the classes we organized (when students were open to it). In other collectives, such as BFAMFAPhD, see chapter 5, we have not prioritized documentation of events, exhibitions, or workshops, and I think that the lack of great photographs hurts our grant-writing and exhibitions, and makes presentations more difficult.
... education has to do as much with economic justice and self-governance as it has to do with pedagogy
We were approached by documentary filmmakers Alex Mallis and David Felix Sutcliffe who offered to make videos about our work. Thousands of people learned about our work by watching these videos on our website. From that moment on, I knew that I would commission a video for every multi-year project, as it was one of the best ways to communicate with a wide range of people.
In 2009, when OurGoods and TradeSchool were starting, I did not think it was important that we were based in New York City. Looking back, I can see that the press we got was directly related to the people who attended our events from art, design, and technology fields and who lived in New York City and worked in the media. We would not have been written up in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Nation, Hyperallergic, Fast Company, or The Wall Street Journal if we were not based in a cultural-center with so many media outlets. We continue to be asked to re-open both barter networks, but we do not have the capacity to run them. Before closing TradeSchool.coop, I compiled stories from people around the world to share what we learned in the book TRADE SCHOOL: 2009–2019.
Additional thanks to: Katherine Pradt (Writer), Carl Tashian (Developer), Lauren Voswinkel (Developer), Meerkat Media Co- operative (Video Editor), Ann Chen (Event Facilitator), Saul Melman (Producer, Organizer), Alex Mallis (Videographer), Daniel Dordelly (Event Facili- tator), Pritha RaySicar (Event Facilitator).
Making
Chapter 4: Exchange Café
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