Falling through the Cracks: Funding integrative socially-engaged practice
Thursday January 19, 7-9 pm
Cambridge Public Library – Main Branch
449 Broadway, Cambridge, MA
Artists involved in post-studio “integrative” practice for positive social outcomes face unique questions and challenges when it comes to funding their projects and supporting themselves through their work. By nature, hybrid projects are difficult to define due to their cross-disciplinary nature and emphasis on process rather than product. Many of these artists eschew institutional support and bypass the art market–the two traditional avenues of support for most artists. Working outside existing institutions and art systems raises many new challenges including questions of metrics and assessment, authorship and creative control, financial accountability, taxation, and long term planning. Other artists choose to self-fund or to operate with little or no funding. This option offers freedom and flexibility, but can limit the scale and/or duration of a project and offers little in terms of long-term financial sustainability.
What are some other options for funding this work and supporting its practitioners? What part can crowd-funding, earned income strategies, and foundations play? What are the limitations of these approaches? What new funding models and institutions are being created or need to be created? What skills do practitioners need in order to make their projects and practices sustainable?
Please join us in exploring these questions and issues at a panel discussion featuring Cuong Hoang, Director of Programs at Mott Philanthropic, Andrew Sempere of The Awesome Foundation, and Nerissa Cooney and Alex Hage of FeastMass. The conversation will be moderated by artist Lisa Gross, founder of the Boston Tree Party and Hybrid Vigor Projects.