Don't Forget the Money! was a half-day forum organized by the Blackwood Gallery to facilitate conversations around the presentation of dance, choreography, and live performance in various contemporary art contexts. The gallery invited artists, curators, dancers, choreographers, and activists to each make short presentations that addressed challenges inherent to interdisciplinary projects, including compensation, resources, funding, advocacy, and structural and systemic inequity. Respondents offered comments on possible models of engagement that might be usefully deployed in various contexts. The round table conversation that followed addressed many of the questions framed at the outset: What is the role of an art gallery in supporting the work of artists and dancers? What are the challenges specific to the presentation of dance or choreography within a contemporary art environment? And how can we ensure, across disciplines, that all artists are equitably compensated?

Writer Fabien Maltais-Bayda was commissioned by the Blackwood Gallery to produce a report that captured some of the concepts and organizing strategies put forward by the group.

The presenters were Michael Caldwell, Emelie Chhangur, Francesco Gagliardi, kumari giles, Jenn Goodwin, sandra Henderson, Johanna Householder, Brandy Leary, Jessica Patricia Kichoncho Karuhanga, Bee Pallomina, Kim Simon, Bojana Stancic, and Bojana Videkanic.

The respondents were Karl Beveridge, Greig de Peuter, Catalina Fellay-Dunbar, Molly Johnson, and Sally Lee.

Working with Concepts is a series of professional development workshops and events that position concepts as useful tools for fostering advocacy, dialogue, and resource-sharing across disciplines and sectors. Organized and hosted by the Blackwood Gallery, each iteration is accompanied by an essay that reports on the key terms, ideas, and strategies—in short, the concepts—that come to the fore through presentations and discussions.

Don’t Forget the Money! Working with Dancers in Contemporary Art Spaces was held on March 4, 2017, and was the first event in this series.