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The Occupy with Art blog provides updates on projects in progress, opinion articles about art-related issues and OWS, useful tools built by artists for the movement, new features on the website, and requests for assistance. To submit a post, contact us at occupationalartschool(at)gmail(dot)com .

Entries in fundraising (8)

Tuesday
May082012

URGENT CALL TO ACTION IN SUPPORT OF LIVING THEATER

[From Aaron Burr Society]:

Donate to the Living Theater

Please forward this message to others who can help.

The Living Theatre is currently in danger of losing their space in a dispute with their landlord.


The Living Theatre is the legendary radical theatrical group founded in 1947. The theater has experimented with different theatrical forms, but it was founded on the principles of a circular integration moving street protests > into the theater > back into the streets.

In 1970 the theater went to Brazil, where they were detained by the government. During the detention, Judith Malina's cell mate was disappeared. The theater company was released after an international campaign by artists, political and cultural figures, including Yoko Ono and John Lennon, Marlon Brando, and Jean Paul Sartre, as well as New York City's Mayor Lindsey.  In 2008, President Lula presented Judith the Ordem de Merito, the highest Brazilian cultural honor. The theater has recently participated in Dilma with the current Brazilian president Rousseff's efforts to locate the bodies of the torture victims from the former regime. The Living Theater efforts include helping to organize street performances, in solidarity with OWS, as part of a national campaign for the families of torture victims.



WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT TO OCCUPY WALL STREET

The Threatre's history resonates with themes that are directly related to Occupy Wall Street. In April the Living Theatre offered OWS's art groups a residency. The residency involves Occupy art groups creating videos and live performances at the theater. We were working to develop the process when the the issue with the landlord surfaced. While we continue to work together in planning the collaboration, saving the theater is the key to moving forward.

There have been many interviews and articles about OWS, both internally and externally. However, the ability to develop and refine our collective voice on video and on stage would be powerful and has great potential. Once this process has been developed and refined, we will invite other non-artistic working groups to participate.

We realize that many cannot afford to contribute, but please forward this call for help to those who can.

Living Theatre history:

Founded in 1947 as an imaginative alternative to the commercial theater by Judith Malina, the German-born student of Erwin Piscator, and Julian Beck, an abstract expressionist painter of the New York School, The Living Theatre has staged nearly a hundred productions performed in eight languages in 28 countries on five continents – a unique body of work that has influenced theater the world over.

During the 1950′s and early 1960′s in New York, The Living Theatre pioneered the unconventional staging of poetic drama – the plays of American writers like Gertrude Stein, William Carlos Williams, Paul Goodman, Kenneth Rexroth and John Ashbery, as well as European writers rarely produced in America, including Cocteau, Lorca, Brecht and Pirandello. Best remembered among these productions, which marked the start of the Off-Broadway movement, were Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights, Tonight We Improvise, Many Loves, The Connection and The Brig.

for more information go to  http://www.livingtheatre.org/

Sunday
May062012

OCCUPY THE LANDSCAPE

[CLICK IMAGE ABOVE FOR MORE INFO ON OCCUPY THE LANDSCAPE]

"People have only as much liberty as they have the intelligence to want and the courage to take. - Emma Goldman

Twenty-One Days until OCCUPY THE LANDSCAPE

EVERY STEP WE TAKE TOGETHER COUNTS!

Register Today! [CLICK IMAGE BELOW]

"It takes some strength of soul—and not just individual strength, but collective understanding—to resist this void, this non-being, into which you are thrust, and to stand up, demanding to be seen and heard" - Adrienne Rich

Sunday
Feb052012

People's Puppets of OWS: "Another World Is Possible" [Indiegogo]

   The People's Puppets of Occupy Wall Street is a collection of puppeteers, performers, musicians, visual artists and other creatives who believe in the revolutionary powers of the Puppet Arts.  They have gleefully created numerous puppets and performances in solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street movement, protesting the inequalities of today and promoting a radically better tomorrow. 

   The most recent project of the People's Puppets is a toy theater subway series, based around the theme "Another World is Possible".  These shows will tell tales of the future through re-written fairy tales, rhyme and song and stories about fantastical places such as the Possible Hospital and the University of Opportunity.   This toy theater world will be able to transform a tiny corner of a subway car or span the whole length, welcoming all to join in and consider the possibilities of the future. 


http://www.indiegogo.com/The-Peoples-Puppets-1 

Tuesday
Jan172012

OWS Photos by Vanessa Bahmani

My name is Vanessa Bahmani, and I'm a Brooklyn based artist and photographer. I've been working on an Occupy portrait series since early October. I want to share this work with your group and be part of larger occupy arts collaborations.

My work is a compilation of over 1,000 black and white film Occupy Wall Street Portraits taken at the various occupy NYC and occupy Oakland, locations. I simply set up a photo booth on-site, hand people a dry erase board and marker, and ask them to write their reasons for being at OWS. Since early October I have photographed over 200 veterans, pilots, families, children, students, doctors, investment bankers, and even wall street employees and members of the 1% that seek change for our country. The thoughtfulness and sincerity that people have shown has inspired me to pursue this work and expand it. One of the unique things about my work is that I've grouped images into collages for example families, children, students, teachers and graduates. I did this to show that despite the various ethnic, financial or demographic differences, they all share the same concerns and values for the future of this country.

My work has been featured at the RUSH Arts gallery in Chelsea (Dec. 2011), and on the CURATE NYC on-line exhibit. This project is important because it is documenting a moment in history when thousands came together with the common goal to create a more just and fair society for everyone.  I believe that by giving this work exposure, I can amplify the volume of the voices of the 99%.

This work has been featured in the Huffington Post, Global Grind, and Turnstyle.

Thank you for your time and consideration. Happy New Year, may 2012 be occupied by your dreams and aspirations!

Here is a link to my Kickstarter to put it all into context: http://bit.ly/occupyportraits

- Vanessa

http://vanessabahmani.com/OWS/OWS.html

Saturday
Dec102011

OWS Puppet Guild Kickstarter

Help our puppeteers meet their fundraising goal of $999! They're almost there, with only a couple of days left in the campaign!

Click HERE to go to the Kickstarter page... for Occupy the Holidays!

Wednesday
Dec072011

#OccuParty Benefit Concert: Dangerous Muse & Eva and Her Virgins; Dec 11th 

OccuParty

On Sunday, December 11th we're throwing a benefit concert featuring Dangerous Muse & Eva and Her Virgins. The event will also feature two floors of art, DJs, and burlesque performances in a 700+ person venue. We invite all to join us in this night of fun & celebration to benefit the Occupy Movement!

*** Please RSVP on the Facebook Event ***

Sunday, December 11th – 7:30 p.m. until 2:00 a.m.

Sullivan Hall (Map)
214 Sullivan St.
New York, NY 10012

Tickets will cost $15 at the door. Proceeds will go directly to supporting the Occupy Movement. Tickets will also be available online shortly.

Performers

Exhibits

  • Art showing on display by Hulbert Waldroup & Occuprint.org
  • Members of the Occuprint collective will be onsite with silkscreens.



Tuesday
Dec062011

Occupy Painting Kickstarter!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1930846724/liberty-plaza-painting

Hi all,

I have begun a kickstarter campaign to make a large (at least
48″ by 72″) painting of Liberty Plaza pre eviction. It will be set
around mid October, when all the working groups were in full swing and
the infrastructure was at its peak. I will be doing this in A&C common
space that we are establishing. I also will be depending on input,
ideas and criticism from all of you to make it the best possible
painting it can be. I have only got a few backers so far, but this may
be because I have no idea how to really publicize it. I put it on my
facebook page and will re post it there. I could use OWS help though.
If anyone else would mind re posting this for me, or if you can make a
donation, I would sure appreciate it. I know times are tough though.
If they weren’t so tough I wouldn’t even need to do this, I would be
able to buy the supplies and reproduce the prints myself.


Thank you,

James

Thursday
Nov242011

OCCUPY THE HOLIDAYS KICKSTARTER

To visit the Kickstarter for OCCUPY THE HOLIDAYS, click HERE.

About this project

Occupy the Holidays: The Occupy Wall Street Arts & Culture Working Group along with the OWS Puppet Guild are bringing a giant puppet & performance spectacle to the streets of New York City.

Occupy the Holidays will showcase many different performance groups (masked performers, dancers, puppeteers, stilt walkers, musicians...) in a travelling piece of street theater as we tell the tale of Mayor Michael Scroogeberg and his quest to find the best (and moste expensive!) gift this Holiday season.

The OWS puppet guild has had an overwhelming amount of support for our unique artistic contribution to the movement.  As has been show for hundreds of years, puppets are a very special and potent tool in the battle for a new consciousness.  They help us educate ourselves and others, and they help us celebrate what we've accomplished so far.  They will help us tell our story and continue to grow this movement and re-inspire our faling democracy.

But making giant puppets in nyc is expensive!  We learned a lot in Occupy Halloween about the cost of storing, transporting, feeding volunteers and this new ambitious budget will help us create a revolutionary theatrical event like no other. Any size contribution will help!  

And if you can't donate, please repost/retweet/share this link widely!

THANK YOU!!!!