CBS News Channel 5 News Television News piece--
Press Coverage of Press Conference / Art Intervention/ Institutional Critique at YBCA $4.2 Million Silicon Valley Dreamhouse in Menlo Park. Jan 12, 2013
Press Conference / Art Intervention/ Institutional Critique produced by Cheryl Meeker in collaboration with the Dreamhouse Collective, ACCE (Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment), OccupyBernal, Occupy Pete's Harbor, and OccupySF. Video footage includes CBS newscast documentation.
Occupy the Dream House is a social sculpture taking the form of a press conference/action created collaboratively with the Dreamhouse Collective and Foreclosure and Evictions Fighters. This event was held in front of the actual “$4.1 million Silicon Valley Dream House” in Menlo Park the day before the mansion was awarded to the raffle winner chosen in YBCA’s (Yerba Buena Center for the Arts) important annual fundraiser. Featured press conference speakers were Ian Haddow, Ross Rhodes and Jackie Wright of Foreclosure Fighters of ACCE (Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment) and members of Occupy Bernal and the Occupy the Auctions and Evictions campaign.
In a time of unprecedented foreclosures and evictions of our friends and neighbors by banks and financial institutions, this manner of funding our premier community arts venue does not contribute to the well-being of Bay Area residents and creates a lottery mentality that blinds people to the economic nightmare. The foreclosure and fiscal crises are quickly transforming San Francisco and the Bay Area for the benefit of landlords, developers and financial speculators while ignoring the people who actually live here. This press conference/action allowed our hardworking neighbors to tell their own stories of trying to save their homes from billion-dollar corporations and the “Let them eat cake” mentality of the 1 Percent financial institutions.
To emerge from these crises requires a radical revision of mores and values. We must seek out and build economies steeped in humanism, not the market. We need institutions capable of seeing homes where there are houses; that build communities instead of condos.
All sectors of civil society, including arts organizations, must become proactive in defending the communities for whom they exist to serve. In the face of scantly available funding and a future of tightening austerities, these tasks may seem impossible. But in looking towards a world free of corporate and legal injustices, it is all that can be done.
When: 10 a.m., Thursday January 10, 2013
Where: "$4.1 million Silicon Valley Dream House"
3 Patricia Place, Menlo Park, CA 94025
The Dreamhouse Collective: Artists Cheryl Meeker, Stardust of Occupy Bernal and the Occupy the Auctions and Evictions campaign, and Eric of Occupy.
Endorsed by ACCE Foreclosure and Evictions Fighters, Occupy SF Action Spokes Council and Occupy Bernal
http://www.acceaction.org/
www.occupytheauctions.org/dreamhouse/
http://occupysf.org/
Occupy Bernal
PRESS:
Fair Housing Advocates Argue Against Gambling on Dream Houses, Rutherford Grindle, Jan 10th, 2013, IndyBay
Art Practical Event Pick, Occupy the Dream House Press Conference/Action/Art
Intervention, Art Practical
Protesters Say "Dream House" Raffle a Distraction from Real Housing Woes, Rutherford Grindle, IndyBay
Occupy Moves Its Cause Indoors, Coburn Palmer, SF Weekly
Occupy the Dream House Action at YBCA Occupy Art Exhibit, Occupy the Auctions/ Evictions
Occupy the Dreamhouse Press Conference/Art Intervention/Institutional Critique, CBS News Channel 5 News Television News segment, Menlo Park, CA