San Diego Artist Relief Fund

<<<<<<<   NOTE: We have closed this campaign as of September 30, 2020>>>>>>>>


Please join us in solidarity to support our most vulnerable artists 

More than five months of widespread closures and cancellations have devastated San Diego’s Arts & Culture Community. Nearly all artists have lost wages, gigs, and contracts as a result of COVID-19.  In addition to lost opportunities, the pandemic has amplified and laid bare systemic inequities within American society. The Arts sector is facing a long-overdue reckoning as Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) and historically marginalized creative workers are harshly impacted. 

Yet, our artists - musicians, poets, media makers, actors, dancers, painters, sculptors, teaching artists and other cultural workers - continue to create because that is how they make sense of the world, often providing their art for free for the sake of social cohesion during these fraught times.  

NOW IT IS OUR TURN TO PROVIDE HOPE AND CARE. 

At this very moment, local artists are facing food and housing insecurity, no health insurance, and depression.  The #SDArtistRelief Fund provides emergency funding to cover the most basic living costs (food, rent, medicine, childcare, etc.) of artists from marginalized and financially vulnerable cultural populations.  

While this fund prioritizes BIPOC artists, our intent is to support as many artists in need as possible. We aim to distribute one-time payments of $1,000 per artist.

Please make a donation by Wednesday, September 30 and share this campaign with your network.  Your support sends a message of solidarity to our artists and contributes to the cultural resiliency of our region.  

HOW DO ARTISTS APPLY?  

Local artists were invited to apply for relief funds between August 26 and September 15, 2020.  We received 214 submissions, which will be reviewed by a panel of local BIPOC leaders by the end of September. 

For additional information, please read through our FAQ in English  or FAQ in Spanish .  

HOW WILL FUNDS BE DISTRIBUTED?

We have partnered with Pacific Arts Movement , a local POC-led arts organization, to send payments directly to recipients and to serve as an accountability and oversight partner.  We hope to have panel decisions made by end of September and distribute relief funds by early October. Pac Arts is a 501c3, and if you are interested in making a larger tax-deductble donation to our Fund, please send a check directly to Pac Arts at 2508 Historic Decatur Road, Suite 140  San Diego, CA 92106.   Please put "Artist Fund" in the notes.  Tax ID: 33-1001523.

SPECIAL THANKS

We are incredibly grateful to the donors of San Diego Arts + Culture Challenge Fund who have seeded this campaign with $60,000.  Another $25,000 was awarded to this campaign by The San Diego Foundation and San Diego COVID-19 Response Fund.  We also received a $5,000 grant from the Jason Mraz Foundation. 

WHO ARE WE?

We are a diverse group of individual artists, organizers, arts administrators, educators, nonprofit founders, and advocates who love San Diego, and are passionate about developing a vibrant and equitable Arts & Culture sector.

With support of the San Diego Regional Arts & Culture Coalition, we launched the San Diego Arts + Culture Challenge Fund earlier this year and distributed $250,000 in emergency gap funding to 32 small arts organizations supporting an estimated 100 creative workers.  

Click here  for a list of the good folks who helped shape this San Diego Artist Relief Fund. 

This campaign was modeled and inspired by the Seattle Artist Relief Fund and The Brooklyn Museum Mutual Aid Fund.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Campaign video  with Lenin Guitierrez
Campaign video  with actor Leonardo Nam 
KUSI coverage  on 8/24 by Sasha Foo
San Diego Union Tribune Article  by Pam Kragen on 8/26
San Diego Union Tribune Op Ed  by Jonathon Glus on 8/26
San Diego Union Tribune Op Ed  by Lee Ann Kim & Alessandra Moctezuma