Brooklyn blogger Paddy Johnson, who heads up ArtFCity, is outraged by President Donald Trump’s new policies, including his threats of trade wars and his executive order temporarily halting immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries.
If you’re an artist or writer who is in some way affected by these policies, proposals, threats, or executive orders, ArtFCity aims to help.
The organization will direct $4,000 from its commissions budget toward supporting cultural workers, including curators, artists, and writers, whose lives are impacted. That could include, the organization explains as an example in a blog post, people living in Mexico who have been hurt by the dip in the peso’s value resulting from fears of a trade war.
Stuck in an airport? Make something creative in the terminal and send it our way. Are you and a friend stranded in a strange city? If you’re in the mood, hit up some galleries and write up a We Went To. Basically, we’re open.
The initiative emerged, Johnson said in a phone call, from the same kind of “What can we do?” conversations that have been roiling the art world. While the amount is admittedly small, Johnson said, they’re working on raising more, and in any event, she said, “It was something that we can do immediately that felt significant.” A new project will be chosen each month.
Protestors rally during a demonstration against the new immigration ban issued by President Donald Trump at John F. Kennedy International Airport on January 28, 2017 in New York City. President Trump signed the controversial executive order that halted refugees and residents from predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United States. Courtesy of Stephanie Keith/Getty Images.
In its existing IMG MGMT series, ArtFCity has previously commissioned projects from artists Jon Rafman, Dynasty Handbag, Carolyn Salas, Peter Burr, and many others.
The new commissions initiative joins a host of ways that progressive people in the art world have sought ways to grapple with the Trump presidency. Artists and curators signed on to a so-called Inauguration Day art strike, while the Outsider Art Fair marked the occasion by inviting visitors to read from outgoing president Barack Obama’s speeches and interviews and New York’s Whitney Museum of American Art hosted Occupy Museums, which invited various culture workers and activists to speak out. Artists Christo and Richard Prince have, respectively, abandoned a major project and disowned an artwork.
To submit a proposal, email submissions@artfcity.com, with the subject line “Fuck Donald Trump.” The deadline for the first round of funding is February 15th.