Public Work: Art, Labor, and the City
Tuesday, October 27, 2026
6:30 PM
The James Gallery
The Graduate Center, CUNY
365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10016
[bottom] Civic Views by Emilio Martínez Poppe (installation view), Philadelphia City Hall Courtyard, June 2025. Courtesy of Mural Arts Philadelphia. Photo: Zach Hill.
How can sustained collaborations between artists and city workers strengthen civic agency? Within the context of ART/WORK: The Practice and Politics of CETA and the Arts, 1974–1981 at the CUNY Graduate Center’s James Gallery, artists Emilio Martínez Poppe and Alex Strada join curators Molly Garfinkel and Jodi Waynberg in conversation about contemporary approaches to artists working within and alongside the public sector. Countering the mystification of artistic production, these collaborations carry the potential to make the labor of artists more visible while bringing them into sustained contact with the structures, conditions, and workers of public institutions. By understanding artistic labor in relation to the broader labor force, socially engaged artists join and generate cultural movements that contribute to struggles for dignified employment and economic democracy.
About the artists
Emilio Martinez Poppe is a New York City-based interdisciplinary artist. His current work explores the potentials of cultural organizing within the public sector as in his public art project “Civic Views” in Philadelphia and his role managing the Public Artists in Residence program in New York. Recent exhibitions and commissions include the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of the City of New York, Queens Museum, Abrons Art Center, and Mural Arts Philadelphia.
emiliomartinezpoppe.com
@emiliomartinezpoppe
Alex Strada is a New York City-based interdisciplinary artist whose socially engaged work examines civic systems and structures of power. Since 2022, she has served as the Public Artist in Residence with the New York City Department of Homeless Services and Department of Cultural Affairs. Recent exhibitions and commissions include Storefront for Art and Architecture, the Bronx Museum of Art, Queens Museum, and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.
alexstrada.com
@_alex_strada