Art Is My Occupation Launches!

ABOUT [From the AMO website (click image to visit)]

WHAT WE DO
Artismyoccupation.org (AMO) offers direct support to artists and cultural workers dedicated to advancing the stories, struggles and ideas of the 99%. Directly engaged with occupy and other grassroots movements, AMO provides support to cultural workers who seek to impact the national conversation on the Economy, including production grants, distribution, and PR support. AMO aims to support artists across a diverse spectrum of artforms, from visual art to music to public interventions to videos to street theatre and more, while creating a national network of artists focused on exposing the real costs of the current crisis and envisioning a future that puts people before profits.


 

WHY WE DO IT

• Artists - be they poster-makers, musicians, or storytellers of all kinds - have been central to all movements for social change. Why? Because artists are contribute unique and crucial ingredients to social change that political parties, non-profits, think tanks and other more 'conventional' insitutions cannot:
• VISION - Artists can create a compelling vision of the world we desire to live in that can motivate people to take bold action.
• SOLIDARITY - Artists can construct new shared identities that unite diverse people to act in solidarity with each other towards collective interests.
• CLARITY - Artists can take complex ideas and policies normally discussed in elite meetings behind closed doors, and make them clear and accessible to everyday people.
• PARTICIPATION - Culture is the gateway to mass participation. It is the artwork, music, stories and videos that make movements irresistible, and make change seem not only possible, but inevitable.
• Despite this crucial role, conventional social change organizations have not always valued or respected the important role of artists. So, we have created AMO - a support organization of artists, by artists and for artists - in order to help do it right.

WHO WE ARE
AMO is an occupy-allied, autonomous organization that seeks to provide support infrastructure for artists within occupy and other economic justice movements. We do not solicit funding through the General Assemblies but instead through individual donations intended to support the arts, to ensure that funds go specifically for that purpose. 100% of the funds we recieve through our WePay account go to the artists we support. Currently AMO is being incubated by Citizen Engagement Laboratory and is a pilot project of The Culture Group. The Culture Group is a network of artists and activists who have come together on the belief that cultural change precedes political change, so it is artists who must lead the way. AMO continues to evolve our decision-making process, but we are currently using an affinity group model in order to achieve our goal of serving artists in the fastest, most efficient way.

Our current grant-making panel is composed of:

• Gan Golan - Visual Artist and Author
• Favianna Rodriguez - Printmaker, Digital Artist
• Erin Potts - Music Organizer, Air Traffic Control
• Ian Inaba - Filmmaker, Citizen Engagement Laboratory
• Elizabeth Richards - Theater artist, arts & social justice advocate, and the instigator behind the creation of the Native Arts & Cultures Foundation. 

CONTACT

• To send materials related to your application: apply@artismyoccupation.org
• Questions about your application: support@artismyoccupation.org
• Media Inquiries: media@artismyoccupation.org