Roz Crews
Benefits Package: Shareholder Handbook 2020 

HOLDING Contemporary is proud to present Benefits Package, a recent project and publication by artist Roz Crews that examines privilege, power distribution, and exchange within the art world. Using HOLDING Contemporary as the subject, Crews acts as “auditor” of HOLDING Contemporary, collecting information from gallery Shareholders in interviews, surveys, digitally-aided conversations, and mailed correspondence. Crews specifically investigates the commercial art gallery and who it serves, and more broadly poses questions surrounding community desires and what an ideal art space could be.

The publication, Shareholder Handbook 2020, will have its book launch on July 16 at 5pm PT / 8pm ET on Zoom. Conversations and questions will consider bigger issues around power, privilege, and transparency in the art world. The book was compiled by external auditor, Roz Crews, in collaboration with the Shareholder Participation Committee consisting of four shareholders: Leslie Hickey, Paula Wilson, Heather Watkins, and Raul J. Mendez, and early project conversations with gallery Directors Tiff Harker and Iris Williamson. The publication was designed by Roz Crews, using Nasdaq’s brand guidelines for their shareholder handbook. Special thanks to The Ford Family Foundation, PICA, and PSU for financial support. Roz Crews, HOLDING Contemporary, and the Shareholder Participation Committee hope that this book can be a valuable tool/approach to a changing arts ecosystem in Oregon and beyond.

Shareholder Handbook 2020, publication available for purchase here. 

Roz Crews (b. 1990 Gainesville, FL) is an artist who makes work about education, friendship, and community-formation. Her projects often ask institutions (and the people who uphold them) to examine their own protocols for relating to and supporting artists. She designs relational and ephemeral experiences, sometimes ending in the form of an exhibition, a book, an essay, or a video intended to document a process or encourage further discussion. She’s also an avid drawer and archivist.