Jane M. Saks knows a lot of people. As a child, she knew Studs Terkel, who was a friend of her father’s. Now, as an adult, she’s the director of Project&, an arts organization that collaborates with artists to create new work with social impact. Two years ago, she was at a meeting to discuss income inequality, and she started thinking about Terkel’s great oral history Working, compiled almost exactly 40 years before. The economy had changed a great deal since then, and Saks thought it would be a great idea to do what Terkel had done and take a good look at the people behind the employment stats. “They’re the experts of our lives and stories,” she says. “Work locates someone publicly and privately.”
Saks was interested to see how the subjects defined themselves in terms of work. “Every person in the exhibition offered their stories with generosity and authenticity in ways that surprised me,” she says.
Saks is excited about the participatory and audio components of the exhibition. “I was always a sensitive kid,” she says. “I didn’t know how to separate myself from the world. I see connections. People say, ‘No one’s ever asked me about how I feel about my work.’ But we all have a relationship to work.”
