The Divine Project supports, invigorates, and expands the practices of New York City-based QTBIPOC artists and creators whose work challenges the status quo and gives way to social change through community building and collaborative artmaking.
Center for Artistic Activism, Eureka! and Public Assistants developed this project with support from the Ford Foundation. The project includes 16 artist fellowships and cultivating the sustainability of Eureka! And Public Assistants, two young arts organizations in New York state. The artist fellows each participate in a three-month fellowship across two and a half years, which includes access to studio and community space in NYC, guidance in technical and artistic tools and materials, an upstate retreat, and the opportunity to present work publicly through programs and distributed material. Artist cohorts are selected through a peer-led process by which new participating artists are invited by their peers and previous fellowship participants. Fellows are chosen based on their interest in and experience with a social practice, dismantling systems of disenfranchisement, and centering stories and experiences of people impacted by racism, heterosexism, and transphobia.
Why The Divine Project?
Since the beginning of COVID-19 and its convergence with global socio-political strife, our communities of creatives have been left devastated, houseless, unemployed, and without adequate healthcare. It was estimated a loss of more than 2.3 million jobs for those in creative occupations due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with more than 15.7 billion dollars lost to art nonprofits and culture organizations. The overall unemployment rate for artists in 2021 was 7.2 percent, down from 10.3 percent in 2020 but still greater than in 2019, when the rate was 3.7 percent. This is most prevalent for Queer, Black, Brown, and trans-identifying artists and community organizers. They are maneuvering through the landscape of instability up against a system that prioritizes profit over supporting marginalized communities of color and the artists within them. More than ever, we find it necessary for the emergence and sustenance of more hyperlocal, grassroots, community-led initiatives to directly support our artists.
The Divine Project addresses these interconnected issues by creating and supporting an ecosystem of QTBIPOC artists from New York City interested in social practice art forms that engage communities and reconsider traditional systems and practices of art and art making. Performances, public radio & publishing, and skill-based workshops are examples of their art that centers on a social approach. The Divine Project’s goal is to create spaces for marginalized artists; break down barriers between disciplines and between artists and audiences; provide space, time, sustenance, resources, inspiration, community, and respite time to artists; and provide opportunities for reflection on meaning and impact, the art-making becomes extraordinary and has compounded impact.
Public Assistants and Eureka!
Public Assistants (PA) is a mutual aid hub, community design, and production lab working to counter systemic inequity and neglect with solutions guided by creativity and community. Founded on June 6, 2020, as an organizing base in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and global socio-political uprisings, PA has led and partnered with several community initiatives since its inception. Among them, a paid youth mural residency program to empower and employ young community members through public art-making, community medic training, a free bike repair and refurbish initiative, a community fridge and garden, toy and coat drives, hot meal and care package distribution events, and wellness workshops for collaborative care and resilience. In addition to community programming, their interdisciplinary team of artists, makers, organizers, and builders can design, produce, and fabricate just about anything. Capabilities include banners, signs, production sets, publishing, radio, printmaking, photo, video, garment design, and sustainable green design.
Eureka! is an artist residency, small press, and community engagement space focusing on printing, publishing, and programming. We provide access and support to artists and creatives from diverse and non-traditional backgrounds with a focus on supporting BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ communities. Ongoing programming connects residents with other local organizations and artists to collaborate, host events, and strengthen the network of creatives between upstate New York and New York City. They support participants in taking a step back from their daily grind to rest and relax in a beautiful and supportive environment.
C4AA, Eureka!, and PA have come together to pool resources, ideas, and skills in order to create the Divine Project to have an impact greater than we could achieve alone. Public Assistants and Eureka lead on the programs and artist support, and C4AA provides grant management and support with artist workshops. Our organizations have flourished largely because of our focus on connecting with so many other incredible programs and spaces. In collaboration, we have together hosted more than 40 creatives and connected them with other organizations in NYC, upstate NY and around the world.
This is one of many projects that we do with and for Artists and Arts Organizations. Get in touch if you’d like to talk with us about your arts + advocacy work.
You must be logged in to post a comment.