Artist Displacement in the Creative Capital!

My name is Arielle Jennings and I am starting this GoFundMe on behalf of the studio residents who are being displaced by Central Contemporary Arts' closure in Providence, RI.

The artists who are being affected by this displacement are:

Learn more about the artists below:

k. funmilayo aileru (xi/xem/xyrz) is a Black-Indigenous, Trans genderqueer artist who is a partner and a parent, a family and community member, as well as a friend and a foe. xyr multimedia work is speculative and specifically animated by their Yoruba and Narragansett-Niantic cultural traditions. aileru is a Rhode Island native from the South Side of Providence and resides in the city with xyr family. xi is a member of the Narragansett Nation and a co-founding member of blackearth collective + lab.

Edwige Charlot is a French-born immigrant artist-printmaker, based in Providence, RI. Within their Haitian lineage and tradition, they borrow and meld installation, collage, textile and printmaking into a visual, experiential creole. Using matrix-based techniques and technology, Charlot employs multi-layered, lexical works as meditations on identity and belonging, and the enmeshment of diaspora, memory and migration.

Photo Credit: J. Levesque

Samuel Nehila is a museum person with a passion for inclusive art history, with an emphasis on supporting/uplifting queer identities in art spaces. Nehila’s research interests include nineteenth- and twentieth century social constructions of masculinity, the male nude body in art, medical history, the history and representation of queer and transgender identities, and printmakers from the United States. He also co-organizes @PVDPrintmakers on Instagram, a growing community supporting printmakers in Rhode Island.

Nafis M. White is an interdisciplinary, multihyphenate artist whose recent body of works are created from objects commonly found in beauty supply stores, industrial sites and the seemingly limitless horizons of our global and political landscapes. Community engagement, beauty and the political root deep in White’s work. White’s work is in the permanent collection of the RISD Museum and University of New Mexico Art Museum, and has been exhibited at The de Young Museum, The RISD Museum, National Queer Arts Festival, The List Gallery at Brown University, New Museum, Goldsmiths University, Autograph ABP, OXO Tower in London, Overture Center for the Arts Madison and the Rhode Island School of Design, among many others. White holds an MFA and BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. She lives and works in Providence, Rhode Island.

The studio residents at Central Contemporary Arts learned abruptly on Thursday, March 16th, 2023 that the organization was closing indefinitely. They unfortunately learned about their fate through this Boston Art Review article, which documents the battle that fellow studiomate Nafis is undergoing with CCA's Director and Board. CCA's Director states that the decision to close is resolute, as all of the studio residents "decided to leave of their own accord". No timeline or details regarding the closure have been shared with the artists.

Two out of the four residents did not express intent to leave their studios. On Tuesday, March 14th, 2023 Sam Nehila spoke with CCA’s Director about the discomfort he felt given the recent events on CCA’s social media, and shared that he was planning on leaving his studio immediately. While this conversation was originally meant to focus only on Sam’s calls for transparency regarding CCA’s conflict with Nafis M. White, emails from CCA sent that morning stating that locks would suddenly be changed and studio access would be denied that week had prompted Sam to make the decision to move out. On Wednesday, March 15th, 2023 Edwige Charlot shared with CCA's Director that they were planning to leave their studio. This decision was prompted after CCA changed the locks to the studio without providing advance notice. Edwige spoke to CCA's Director over the phone and stated that they would be providing a timeline regarding their moving out and requested direct and clear communication from CCA's Director moving forward. The opaque climate has created instability for the residents. While CCA provided them with affordable studio space in an area where the average studio rent costs are astronomical ($$$), the unsafe environment did not provide them with the safety and security that all artists deserve.

With the ensuing conflict surrounding Nafis' "Freedom Is My Favorite Position" show, CCA's Director made the decision for them.

As Nafis M. White posted to her Instagram:

All of the studio residents need to move their artwork and vacate the CCA premise as soon as possible. They need all the help they can get and this is where donors can be powerful allies!

We are looking to raise 25K ($25,000 USD) for all four CCA studio residents to split amongst themselves. This 25K will be utilized to cover GoFundMe's transaction fee, with the remainder being split equally among the CCA studio artists named above.

The donations should cover:

We are hoping to raise enough funds by March 31st to facilitate these studio moves. Any donation or fundraiser share is appreciated!