Artist-Supported & Artist-Supporting
It's no secret we're passionate about affordable arts education. This is our movement, our collective action, the space, place, and community we're building for a better tomorrow. And with any movement, we must understand funding to fortify SotA. We got dreams. A day when SotA can be 100% free, walk on our own campus and pay competitive wages to our staff and facilitators. Ain't that exciting?! Well, we are taking the first step towards those dreams with our 2022 season fundraiser. Members of our Board and Advisory Committee are meeting once a week to build fundraising, outreach, and engagement muscles. We're determined to double down on what "affordable" means at SotA. We're learning and understanding our own relationship to money. Our mantra: tiny steps as long as we are moving forward. We're eager to take SotA to the next level making it safer and accessible for all.
Read our article in Art and Education and see all the progress we've made in the last five years. The experience at the school “just flattens and deflates all of the things that the art world tells you you’re supposed to be: self-involved, an individual, totally not reliant on any help from anyone, wealthy. It pops all of those ideas. They’re not necessary in the culture that we’re trying to create,” Board Member Luan Joy Sherman explains. With collective movement and action, we can build SotA to become more affordable by offering more scholarships, higher wages for staff and facilitators, and an overall safer and more accessible experience. Now we need you to help us materialize the next five years at SotA.
- Maria Judice
SotA Board member
Calling on SotA Ambassadors
What's a SotA Ambassador?
A SotA ambassador is you! We have set a high goal for our fundraising campaign so that we can extend and open our SotA community to those who haven't previously been able to participate because of financial barriers. SotA ambassadors help us reach our goals. We will only reach our mountainous goal with a collective effort. SotA ambassadors work as our core street team uplifting the campaign and spreading the word to all the corners of the world.
What do I have to do as a SotA Ambassador?
You can engage at any level giving your energy, skills, networks, and influence to spread the word about SotA. We need folks to light those candles with those incantations too. 🕯️ We know everyone is under pandemic pressure so we hope you can find a way to integrate our campaign into your daily flow. Are you good at events, DJing, Tik Tok, or Bingo? Are you a blogger or writer? Do you work at a coffee shop? Do you have a parent group or an art circle? Here's the secret to fundraising –
You never focus on your dollars you always focus on your people.
The more people that know about the campaign the more money we raise - that's the simple secret. It works every time.
When you fill out the form below you will be asked to opt into an area as an Ambassador. Choose your area and we will reach out with suggestions and action items. Ultimately, a SotA ambassador is autonomous and basically can engage in any way they deemed fit, eager, and motivated. You can do one action on social, you can host an event, or a nice conversation with an Angel Funder to donate those necessary dollars to the campaign. Also, this is a great way to learn how to fund your movement.
Emergent Utopias:
Three Experiments in Alternative Art Education: The Black School, 2727 California Street, and School of the Alternative
Lauren Stroh, Art & Education
April 2021
Because the relationship between alternative schools and the communities they exist in are so tight-knit, they are organized with an ethic of care not found in most institutional settings. Alternative schools are meant to empower individuals: they disrupt the power dynamic between students and teachers, who take on roles more like that of coconspirators than followers and leaders. Outcomes are measured by community feedback and are often assessed according to principles such as pleasure, growth, and joy instead of the pass-fail binary. These schools account for the prospect that growth might be forthcoming, a possibility usually precluded by schools’ and universities’ standardized tests and degree requirements. Here, education operates as a system of mutual aid, which is a radical departure from present colonial and carceral models. Read More.
