Beacon Arts Building, a commercial gallery newly located in Inglewood, is accepting submissions for a site-specific, self-reflexive exhibition and publication on the topic of art and its role in gentrification. With this show and catalogue, we will foster an open, dialogical exchange on this difficult subject, to shed light on all perspectives and to facilitate critical reflection. The work may take the form of pre-existing projects and artworks, new proposals, and articles for the
publication.
The artist has been identified as an important agent in the initiation of gentrification in old working-class neighborhoods. As artists bring cultural capital into these localities, economic capital follows. Some argue that this process of gentrification ultimately displaces low income, often long-time residents (including artists) by increasing real-estate prices and living expenses, while others argue that this process facilitates upward mobility. Recently, culture has been instrumentalized through public policy arguments in which various social and economic benefits of the arts are used to attain public funding.
Questions to consider, include (but are not limited to): Who benefits from gentrification? Does gentrification help to reduce crime, or does it simply relocate it? Does gentrification facilitate upward mobility for a new middle class, or does it displace the initial agents of gentrification through escalating real-estate prices?  Is gentrification the equivalent of modern Colonialism or is it economic progress? Is race a variable in gentrification, or does diversity enrich the culture of a neighborhood? Who has the right to call a community their own: the people who developed the personality of a neighborhood, or the people who have the capital to purchase it? Should the arts be used as a vehicle for economic development, or should the relative autonomy of artistic expression be safeguarded against economic interests? Do art galleries provide a cultural resource, or are they just another mode of conspicuous consumption that is both inaccessible and alienating to local neighborhood residents?
The show is co-curated by Reneé Fox and Jennifer Gradecki.
Reneé Fox is a contemporary artist working in mixed media painting and drawing, who directs and promotes the Beacon Arts Building and functions as consultant to the property management. The Beacon Arts Building houses artist’s studios and a contemporary commercial gallery. Beacon Arts Building is owned by Highwood Properties Inc. a private commercial real estate company located in Santa Monica, California. Fox was tapped to run the Beacon Arts gallery space based on her success organizing Inglewood Open Studios. The Open Studios project grew quickly from 7 to 39 participating artists, attracted large crowds, and garnered great press in just a few short years under Fox’s leadership, providing a nexus for the blossoming art community in the area.
Jennifer Gradecki is an international artist and curator whose work aims to reveal how power structures help or inhibit the creation and dissemination of democratic knowledge. Through interventions, amateur experiments and tactical media, she explores the impact of interdisciplinary research in academia and the dissemination of knowledge into the public from specialized fields or classified information.
All perspectives are welcome.
Submissions should be sent to bab.submissions@gmail.com by July 25, 2012. Please include the following in your email:
 
- A short description of the work you are proposing and how it fits the theme of the show with images (if 
possible). If the submission is an article, please provide an abstract or (even better) the full article.
- Your standard CV and contact information.
- Links to your website or other sites where materials could be viewed, if possible.