Level Up! Fund: Studio 400 & PF Studios
Donation protected
We are raising $20,000 (goal above reflects offline donations, so $19K to raise here) to sustain Studio 400 and expand PF Studios: the next phase for PF’s emerging artist studio program centering BIPOC and historically under resourced artists.
We know that creative space and supportive community is imperative to an artistic practice, yet 2020 further exposed and escalated the disparities for BIPOC artists and makers in the Twin Cities (and elsewhere). Two years ago, Public Functionary launched a brave new project with Leslie Barlow, a 9-artist cohort program called Studio 400. Our goal: to create an affordable, collaborative work space for emerging artists, a program where artists contribute to a productive and inspiring environment to reach their artistic goals. Our key priority: address disparities locally for young artists and historically marginalized artists of color to have access to their own creative space for work, conversation, collaboration and personal growth.
_____________________
Studio 400 and PF Studios are subsidized studio spaces + programming for emerging artists in the Northrup King Building. In 2019, we launched a GoFundMe and invited community to help fund the early development of the program in a 2-phase plan. You all showed up! Your generous support, feedback, and trust gave us the confidence to move forward, and with gratitude we have completed both Phase 1 & 2.
Read more about our work here
Despite intense crisis in 2020, we’ve pushed through to respond to growing needs…evolving our program from working with 9 artists to 15 artists. We’ve curated group exhibitions, painted murals (see: Creatives After Curfew) and helped artists secure their first-ever individual grant funding. In many ways, as a POC and Black-led platform this work has been imperative to our collective health and wellbeing through this time. Collaborating in this work has been our joy, our resistance. And your donations have helped make this possible.
PF Studios is the level up!
PF Studios is our Phase 3. While Studio 400 is, and will continue as, an early career incubator for artists embarking on their very first studio space, PF Studios is a larger continuation space for self-determination and a way to stay connected to the PF community. This program is not transactional and success is rooted in relationship-building and space-making––this is the long-term work! The vision: Multiple studio spaces to form an expanded, connected community of emerging artists and amenities within the Northrup King Building. A studio network that artists can grow through. Aspirational studios that are well-equipped, beautiful and most of all, reflective of the artists that occupy them.
__________________
Funding investment plans:
+ Safety: efficient use of our spaces, Covid safety + PPE, installing better ventilation
+ Capital improvements: upgrading electric + lighting in Studio 400
+ Sustainability and infrastructure development: for PF team to keep building the program
+ More artist benefits: a critique program, an online shop platform for studio artists to sell work
+ Economic vitality of our artists: flexible rent support and paid opportunities
+ More studio spaces to serve more artists!
Why we ask for your support:
It's an incredibly tough time right now to ask for money––when the need is so great for many of us, injustice is rampant, and the pandemic has stretched us thin. We invite you into this work of resourcing emerging artists with us, by contributing if you can, what you can. You can also support by sharing this Go Fund Me with your networks, and following our artists on social media. If we can appreciate anything from 2020, we’ve learned that when support is mutual, anything is possible. Through collaboration, community and imagination, PF Studios & Studio 400 has come to fruition. Collectively, we can ensure the forever impact of this platform.
Thank you so much.
We know that creative space and supportive community is imperative to an artistic practice, yet 2020 further exposed and escalated the disparities for BIPOC artists and makers in the Twin Cities (and elsewhere). Two years ago, Public Functionary launched a brave new project with Leslie Barlow, a 9-artist cohort program called Studio 400. Our goal: to create an affordable, collaborative work space for emerging artists, a program where artists contribute to a productive and inspiring environment to reach their artistic goals. Our key priority: address disparities locally for young artists and historically marginalized artists of color to have access to their own creative space for work, conversation, collaboration and personal growth.
_____________________
Studio 400 and PF Studios are subsidized studio spaces + programming for emerging artists in the Northrup King Building. In 2019, we launched a GoFundMe and invited community to help fund the early development of the program in a 2-phase plan. You all showed up! Your generous support, feedback, and trust gave us the confidence to move forward, and with gratitude we have completed both Phase 1 & 2.
Read more about our work here
Despite intense crisis in 2020, we’ve pushed through to respond to growing needs…evolving our program from working with 9 artists to 15 artists. We’ve curated group exhibitions, painted murals (see: Creatives After Curfew) and helped artists secure their first-ever individual grant funding. In many ways, as a POC and Black-led platform this work has been imperative to our collective health and wellbeing through this time. Collaborating in this work has been our joy, our resistance. And your donations have helped make this possible.
PF Studios is the level up!
PF Studios is our Phase 3. While Studio 400 is, and will continue as, an early career incubator for artists embarking on their very first studio space, PF Studios is a larger continuation space for self-determination and a way to stay connected to the PF community. This program is not transactional and success is rooted in relationship-building and space-making––this is the long-term work! The vision: Multiple studio spaces to form an expanded, connected community of emerging artists and amenities within the Northrup King Building. A studio network that artists can grow through. Aspirational studios that are well-equipped, beautiful and most of all, reflective of the artists that occupy them.
__________________
Funding investment plans:
+ Safety: efficient use of our spaces, Covid safety + PPE, installing better ventilation
+ Capital improvements: upgrading electric + lighting in Studio 400
+ Sustainability and infrastructure development: for PF team to keep building the program
+ More artist benefits: a critique program, an online shop platform for studio artists to sell work
+ Economic vitality of our artists: flexible rent support and paid opportunities
+ More studio spaces to serve more artists!
Why we ask for your support:
It's an incredibly tough time right now to ask for money––when the need is so great for many of us, injustice is rampant, and the pandemic has stretched us thin. We invite you into this work of resourcing emerging artists with us, by contributing if you can, what you can. You can also support by sharing this Go Fund Me with your networks, and following our artists on social media. If we can appreciate anything from 2020, we’ve learned that when support is mutual, anything is possible. Through collaboration, community and imagination, PF Studios & Studio 400 has come to fruition. Collectively, we can ensure the forever impact of this platform.
Thank you so much.
Organizer
Public Functionary (PF)
Organizer
Minneapolis, MN