Art, Beer, and Social Commentary
/By Dani Babineau
If you’re unfamiliar with our crowler art program, we hire different local artists to create new labels for us on a rotating basis, with each one running for two months. The artists are given very little direction as to the subject matter or medium. We want it to be about the artist, their passions, and their talent. We hire artists because we think what they’re doing is dope, and we want their work to be part of what we’re doing over here at Redemption Rock.
Joshua Croke is an artist and activist in the Worcester community who we’ve frequently collaborated with in other areas of the brewery; their organization, Love Your Labels, runs our Drag Queen Story Time events. We’re a big fan of their striking and dynamic collage work, and eagerly engaged them earlier this summer to do a piece for our August/September crowler.
Given Josh’s blending of social justice and design as the founder of Action! by Design and Love Your Labels, it came as no surprise that they’d use this platform to speak about a cause that they’re so passionate about, or that they brought in Matt Wright, a local photojournalist who has been actively involved in documenting the BLM movement in Worcester, as a collaborator. Be sure to check out their blog post to learn more about how the piece came together.
We also recognize that putting this particular piece of art on a crowler label is more complicated than the labels we’ve previously published. We know that, as a for-profit organization owned by white folx in a white-dominated industry, our role in racial equity and justice needs to be bigger than one label. And while we’ve been vocal about our support of Black Lives Matter and our efforts in increasing diversity and inclusion in craft beer, it’s important for us to make tangible improvements beyond statements and gestures.
When we first saw the label, our first reaction was that it was an absolutely beautiful piece. It also immediately felt weird for us to have a white artist create this work that a white-owned brewery would subsequently profit off of, in one way or another.
Ultimately, we decided to move forward with it for a few reasons, with the understanding that there’s no real right or easy answer. First, the documentation style of the collage medium is focused on celebrating and amplifying the voices of the BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People-of-Color) community in Worcester - all of the images were taken by Matt, either at the BLM mural painting or at racial justice protests in Worcester. Second, we engaged Josh to do a piece of art and did not want to censor their self-expression. Third, we have the support of the organizers of the mural project, which we would not have proceeded without. Finally, racism is created and upheld by white people, and we have a responsibility to not only call out racism but to be anti-racist, and this is a powerful image for a craft brewery to publish and promote.
Harm is done every time a BIPOC is made to feel that craft beer is not a place where they are welcome and valued, and it happens all the time, and it happens everywhere - on production floors, in taprooms, on a package store shelf, or on Instagram. The type of work required to self-correct ourselves as an industry doesn’t happen overnight. It doesn’t come out of one conversation or one single initiative.
Our approach to effecting change usually focuses on removing barriers, having consistent and open conversations in-house about diversity and inclusion, and building relationships within our local community. We try to walk-the-walk more than talk-the-talk, but we felt publishing this label required us to say something, and share some of the next steps we’ve identified to do better for the BIPOC in our communities.
From now until the end of 2021, we’re only going to be hiring BIPOC as artists for the crowler label program. We started the program last summer as a collaborative project with POW! WOW! Worcester and kept it going because it was so awesome, but in selecting artists we’ve relied on people within our immediate circle, and have not done as well as we should have in searching out artists of color in our community. This commitment forces us to look outside the people directly in front of us and include more diverse voices. We’ve already lined up the first couple of artists, and are very excited to see the work they produce in the coming months.
As we expand our distribution program, we are also making it a priority to reach diverse communities, especially here in Worcester, by identifying liquor stores and restaurants that traditionally serve BIPOC neighborhoods, and not only selling to them but doing regular tastings and other events that help us get to know people in these communities (obviously, COVID complicates things right now). We are also working on developing a paid internship for next summer aimed at getting people from underrepresented groups experience in a production brewery job, which can make all the difference for someone trying to break into the industry.
We’re also donating a portion of the proceeds from crowler sales for this label’s run in August and September to a fund of the artists’ choice that supports BIPOC in Worcester. Frankly, it wouldn’t be right for us to profit off of these movements when there are folks dedicating their time and energy to these causes. It’s our responsibility to uplift and support them.
These things are obviously just a start. We’ll continue to have conversations internally and with people in our local community and the craft beer community to find ways to do better. This is complicated and messy. We are open to being called out, anytime you think we mess up, please let us know. This does exclude any racist bullshit, however, and that kind of thing will be removed from our page. We are open for conversations, but not hate.
This label is, at its root, a platform for an artist to speak their truth (again, make sure to peep the artists’ blog post). It’s also something that will ultimately represent our organization as well, and we’re hella proud that it does, but we hope that long-term it represents a moment where we stood with our community and recommitted to finding solutions and breaking down barriers.
