Help the School for Poetic Computation
The School for Poetic Computation needs your help to get through the impact of COVID-19.
The School for Poetic Computation is an artist-run school based in New York focused on the use of code, design, hardware, and theory for artistic intervention. It was founded in 2013 with a mission to support and nurture a diverse community of artists and critical thinkers to shape more creative, humane and poetic forms of computation. We offer classes, workshops, exhibitions, and public events that explore poetic computation. Computation is poetic when we apply artistic and linguistic inquiry into code, when we view hardware as medium and material, and we think of technology as a political force that impacts different communities in uneven ways. 
(our motto: more poems, less demos)
In response to the growth and intensity of health risks due to COVID-19, we made the decision earlier in the month to cancel our Spring 2020 10-week session and all public events. Since this decision, things have escalated in NYC and now all schools and non-essential businesses open to the public are closed until further notice.
We are asking for your help. This virus outbreak presents a serious hit to our finances. We have always offered a low cost, tuition-driven program by keeping overhead low, and have been transparent with our budget publishing openly on GitHub. Canceling programming means we are in a more precarious state. We are rapidly moving to offer our courses online, as well as other events to respond to this crisis (please stay tuned). In the meantime, we ask for your help to keep SFPC afloat as we work on adapting our courses. Thanks in advance and if even if you can't give, please help by spreading this request in your channels.
Practical details: we have expenses we need to cover in the next couple of months while we retool or offerings. We have a minor amount of runway we need to raise money quickly to help keep us afloat. Your support will help us with
- Insurance
- Rent
- Administration and operations
- Software and services
We realize that this crisis has upended most of everyone's life. We wish safety, security, and love for everyone.
@sfpc ~ twitter
@sfpc_nyc ~ instagram
https://sfpc.io/
GoFundme asked me to add some notes to help clarify this story. about me (Zach Lieberman) -- I am a co-founder of the school for poetic computation and I help run it now together with Taeyoon Choi and Lauren Gardner and have taught classes at SFPC for the last 7 years. I am based in NYC. As described above, the funds will be used for SFPC costs such as Rent, Insurance, Administration and Services. 
SFPC student Katherine Diemert
SFPC Student Olivia Ross 
SFPC student Yehwan Song and SFPC community Catalina Kulczar
Handmade Computer class by Taeyoon Choi
Landing photo of SFPC teachers: American Artist, Sam Lavigne, Lauren Gardner, Nabil Hassein, Taeyoon Choi, April Soetarman
Photos by Filip Wolak and Minu Han
Read about our programs such as Code Societies , Code Ecologies , Uncomputable and student blog postings .
