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Interview :: Protest Activity

Criminalizing Giving Art Away

Artist C. Drew is threatened with arrest for giving his art away on Michigan Avenue. This is typical of Chicago police actions relating to art in public. We interview C. Drew, the artist screen printing his way to freedom and inviting other Chicago citizens to help.
Click on image for a larger version

081110-6128-michigan-avenue-police-beat05.jpg
Policemen on Michigan Avenue confront artist C. Drew on 11/10/08 at 4:45pm and tell him he can not put his art-patches on the public way. They refuse to tell him what law he is braking and to stay only if he wants to visit "lockup."
Interviewer: What is the "Free Speech Artists' Movement?"

C Drew:
"Artists are organizing to gain back their speech rights. Specifically, their right to sell their speech - their art - because art is speech - on the sidewalks and in the parks of our freedom loving nation based on our First Amendment rights."

Interviewer: What is the event the photo you provided us picturing?

C. Drew:
It is of the officers who told me I could not give my art away on Michigan Avenue in Chicago. Michigan Avenue is the swanky part of the Loop (downtown Chicago). He would not tell me what law I was violating. This is typical treatment by police in Chicago. It is all on my blog at www.c-drew.com/blog "

Interviewer: Where did you get the idea for the Free speech Artists' Movement?

C Drew:
"I learned about Robert Lederman and New York City street artists who were challenging the City for violating their speech rights. This began in the mid-1990's. Their fight had just begun. It continues today.

I understood then that there were no public art scenes in Chicago and that this gap in the latter of opportunity for artists meant the difference between surviving by their talents or working a low paying gig for far too many. For many it contributed to the slow death of their arts careers, choked by no easy way to build an audience in public, pressed by other obligations, they went sadly on to other ways of making a living.

There are few artists who survive on Chicago's streets, especially after the present Peddlers License came into being in 1994 - the year Chicago's most successful street artist, Lee Godie, died. Those that do are considered criminals by the City. Today, Lee Godie would be labeled a criminal and arrested for setting her paintings on the sidewalk in front of the Arts Institute and trying to sell them. It would be illegal today for her to sell her work in at the same spot she made her career at in front of the Arts Institute. Is Lee Godie free? Are we?

Two years before Chicago passed its present law, Giuliani in 1992 had successfully pushed through a vending license scheme in New York City. Artists like Lederman, lost their livelihoods. They got organized.

In Chicago the artists on the street previous to 1994 were made newly illegal and police let them know one by one that they would go to jail. There was no artist led movement to protect their speech rights when this happened in Chicago. The first lawsuit to this overly broad Peddler's License law that violates the First Amendment is Ayres v Chicago, 1997. This lawsuit was won in the same year as Bery v New York City. In both cases the First Amendment vendors triumphed. The Ayres was over the sale of medical marijuana t-shirts at the Taste of Chicago. The Bery case was the Lederman led artists case in support of selling art on the streets of NYC.

New York City artists have their full rights to sell their art on the streets and in the parks of NYC because they followed up their win in court by organizing massive support from NYC artists and citizens for their cause. They proved they were ready to go to jail for their rights. In 1998 they went to jail again and again until the City gave up on their attempt to limit the artists from selling in the parks on New York. In doing so they have paved the way for you to fight for your rights here in Chicago. This is a national issue!"

Interviewer: How can the audience find out more about New York's A.R.T.I.S.T. activities?

C Drew:
Check out these videos to understand this struggle better.

Presently A.R.T.I.S.T. continue organizing to fight all attempts by NYC to sneak their rights away. This is why NYC artists still enjoy their rights. This video covers the ongoing fight at the moment.
www.youtube.com/watch

Speech rights are a national issue because the First Amendment is a national law. But it demands a local solution because the process is bottom up. We have to organize and fight to demand our speech rights here in Chicago."

Interviewer: Can you give us a local example to help Chicago citizens understand?

C Drew
"Let me give you a graphic example. My last adventure printing in the Loop was six days after the election. By then the crowds were gone. I was printing alone. The two cops came to order me gone - even though I was just giving my art away. They were happy to promise me I would go to jail before they would tell me what law I was breaking. What choice did I have? I could stay and call their bluff. It might be a bluff! I have called it before and not been arrested. To call their bluff you must be fully ready to be arrested. This is not an atmosphere conducive to art scene development. Is there little wonder there are no open-air art scenes in Chicago?

In New York, in 1998, artists defended their right won in Bery v NYC to sell art in the City's parks.  They staged visual protests and documented the action exposing the injustice of arresting art to the public. During those days the police emphasized arresting artist protesters when no one was watching. Without video cameras or the press to prevent them, they arrested artists with a vengeance.

Visit my blog below to look at the guys who would enjoy arresting me for giving away art (political art - Obama patches).
www.c-drew.com/blog "

Interviewer: What can citizens do to help you change Chicago and make it more artist friendly?

C Drew:
"Printout a paper copy of the petition to Expand Creative Chicago.
art-teez.org/free-speech-movement/petition-to-sue-chicago.pdf

Or send this link (below) to friends and other artists so they can sign-up
for this newsletter at   art-teez.org/free-speech.htm

Send e-mail volunteering to photograph or video tape artists printing art and giving it away on the streets in Chicago this spring and summer (2009).

Send e-mail volunteering to learn screen-printing to be on a two person crew printing art and giving it away on the streets in Chicago this spring and summer (2009).

Send e-mail volunteering to help give away art on the streets in Chicago this spring and summer (2009).

Design and submit to umcac (at) art-teez.org (UMCAC, 1630 W. Wilson Avenue, Chic. IL 60640) the sidewalk before the Arts Institute as a creative forum for speech vendors.

Act now for artists' jobs and freedom. Link your site to our on-line
petition.*
www.art-teez.org/free-speech-movement/expand-creative-chicago-petition.htm "

Interviewer: What last thoughts would you like to leave with the readers?

C. Drew:
We need volunteers with still cameras and video cameras to help artists protect their rights. With enough volunteers no one would need to contribute more then 2-3 hours a month to this "Project to Illustrate Arts Suppression"

I can't tell you how grateful I am for anybody who volunteers to protect me and everyone's freedom with their cameras. I can't tell you how excited I am to challenge this violation of our rights. Its been a long time coming Chicago. Thanks in advance to any who respond. Simply reply with "Project to Illustrate Arts Suppression" in the subject or just reply and say 'Count me in!' The full list of how you can help is above. "
 
 

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