Shamsud-Din Studio
Donation protected
Isaka Shamsud-Din is a studio artist, educator, and activist in Portland, Oregon. He's worked most of his life to learn about, understand, and celebrate through his art and my scholarship the lives, achievements, and cultures of African American and African diaspora people. He's 77 years old. He's seen a lot that we now call history and he's developed knowledge that's both deep and wide.
Detail from Mary Wells, Motown's First Queen of Soul (2009), acrylic on wood. Commissioned by Mike McMenamin.
His main goal now as an artist and educator is to share his knowledge and experience with the widest possible audience. He's working on some fabulous projects: the Juneteenth Calendar (check out https://igg.me/at/juneteenthcal), video and oral history projects, collaborations with Pacific Northwest College of Art, restorations of his public art murals, and of course new work in his studio. He could use your help.
In addition to the Indiegogo campaign to fund the calendar and related projects, he need operating funds to pay himself a living wage and cover the overhead costs of the studio and his collaborations with other people and groups. Up to now, he's done so much work on the Juneteenth Calendar, all of it uncompensated. His work has such incredible value and those of us who have seen that value can thank him for his decades of work and his continuing work today.
Do you remember the Ghost Ship fire? It was a fire at a warehouse that had been converted into an artist collective, where some of the artists were living against regulations. Isaka's studio is in St Johns, in a space that was designed for both living and working. But because of the Ghost Ship fire, the management changed their policies and he was forced to move out. This was after a lot of family and health expenses, and at the same time that he had experienced losses on a public art installation in Dawson Park in Portland called Honey in the Bee Ball, losses that he made up personally when he couldn't get extended funding. His expenses unexpectedly went way up, supporting both a studio and a separate residence.
In addition, Portland seems to be on a path of ceaseless development and gentrification of areas that were historically affordable and often home to African American and other oppressed and undervalued communities, like artists. The building his studio is in is on the market, and who knows what might happen after it's sold. He wants to hope for the best but prepare for less.
Your support would mean so much. It would mean that Isaka can focus on developing the idea of the Juneteenth Calendar into a non-profit organization dedicated to using art as a means to communicate about and to the African American community, the Portland community, and everyone else who encounters his work. It would mean he could build his own community of supporters to carry forward that vision so that he can do what he does so amazingly well—create beautiful, vibrant, moving artworks that make black lives visible and tell their stories.
Detail from Mary Wells, Motown's First Queen of Soul (2009), acrylic on wood. Commissioned by Mike McMenamin.His main goal now as an artist and educator is to share his knowledge and experience with the widest possible audience. He's working on some fabulous projects: the Juneteenth Calendar (check out https://igg.me/at/juneteenthcal), video and oral history projects, collaborations with Pacific Northwest College of Art, restorations of his public art murals, and of course new work in his studio. He could use your help.
In addition to the Indiegogo campaign to fund the calendar and related projects, he need operating funds to pay himself a living wage and cover the overhead costs of the studio and his collaborations with other people and groups. Up to now, he's done so much work on the Juneteenth Calendar, all of it uncompensated. His work has such incredible value and those of us who have seen that value can thank him for his decades of work and his continuing work today.
Do you remember the Ghost Ship fire? It was a fire at a warehouse that had been converted into an artist collective, where some of the artists were living against regulations. Isaka's studio is in St Johns, in a space that was designed for both living and working. But because of the Ghost Ship fire, the management changed their policies and he was forced to move out. This was after a lot of family and health expenses, and at the same time that he had experienced losses on a public art installation in Dawson Park in Portland called Honey in the Bee Ball, losses that he made up personally when he couldn't get extended funding. His expenses unexpectedly went way up, supporting both a studio and a separate residence.
In addition, Portland seems to be on a path of ceaseless development and gentrification of areas that were historically affordable and often home to African American and other oppressed and undervalued communities, like artists. The building his studio is in is on the market, and who knows what might happen after it's sold. He wants to hope for the best but prepare for less.
Your support would mean so much. It would mean that Isaka can focus on developing the idea of the Juneteenth Calendar into a non-profit organization dedicated to using art as a means to communicate about and to the African American community, the Portland community, and everyone else who encounters his work. It would mean he could build his own community of supporters to carry forward that vision so that he can do what he does so amazingly well—create beautiful, vibrant, moving artworks that make black lives visible and tell their stories.
Organizer
Isaka Shamsud-Din
Organizer
Portland, OR
