The Dreamweavers: A Survivor Art Exhibition

Who am I?

Hi, my name is Lachlan and I am a self-taught multimedia creatrix and intuitive healing arts practitioner. I am also a queer & trans survivor of sexual and relationship violence. At the beginning of 2020, I launched my healing arts project Astral Cherry Art and through Astral Cherry Art I am working to build community-led care networks & seeking to help multiply marginalized people have deeper, more fulfilling, authentic relationships with themselves and their communities. This work has been deeply shaped by my involvement with Survivor Arts Collective, a peer-led community for empowerment and activism.

As a survivor, creating artwork has been integral to my personal healing journey. Creating art has taught me how to cultivate my imagination and transform my dreams of a more nurturing world into a reality. Through my work with Survivor Arts Collective, I have seen firsthand how art can alchemize trauma into personal and collective power. And through Astral Cherry Art, I hope to continue to deepen that practice.

So why am I fundraising?

Last year, I was given the opportunity to make a dream come to life. The Bloomery Art Gallery & Meeting Place is hosting my first-ever solo art exhibition in June of 2023: Dreamweavers' Tales.

Dreamweavers' Tales is a collection of personalized tarot cards, made to represent the lives and stories of 10+ queer and trans survivors of sexual and relationship violence. These stories will be shared through mixed media collage art, which are collaboratively created with the survivors themselves. Accompanying the art will be reflection prompts for community members to engage more deeply with the stories shared, and consider calls to action to generate survivor support resources.

Since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, a report from the Human Rights Campaign Foundation found that LGBTQ+ people are twice as likely to have experienced intimate partner violence (IPV) as their cis, straight peers. The American Journal of Emergency Medicine found that IPV cases increased 25-35% globally as a result of the pandemic. Now, more than ever, survivors' stories are being heard. However, the conversations often focus solely on cis, straight women's experiences. This project shares the stories of survivors whose experiences are overshadowed in a time of increased violence and can serve as an invitation for our community to deepen systems of care by using storytelling to connect across experience.

And, as a small independent artist, the cost of creating such an ambitious exhibition is daunting. Creating each card takes countless hours of care, and

it felt vital to me to make sure that all of the survivors involved in this project would be able to participate free of charge and receive their personalized tarot cards at the end of the project.

How will the funds be used?

I want to be transparent about how the funds received will be used.

Generally speaking, I charge $520 for a personalized tarot card transformed into a canvas print. That means, at the lowest level of participation in this project, the artwork I am creating is worth around $5200. Some of the funds I am seeking are to provide me with a salary that covers this base cost and to ensure that the survivors involved get to take their art home free of charge.

Additional funds go toward advertising/promoting the exhibition, creating printed guidebooks to accompany the exhibition, website maintenance for the project, and providing myself a salary for facilitating an associated peer support group (free of charge for participants).

Any funds raised over this limit will go toward expanding this project. I dream of being able to travel to different regions and create cards for survivors, displaying their stories and nourishing local survivor support networks.

Thank you for supporting me and this dream of creating care networks for survivors through my art. If you would prefer to donate to me directly and not through this Gofundme, you can do so on my website. If you cannot donate, it would mean the world to me if you shared this fundraiser in your networks.