You're pledging to donate if the project hits its minimum goal and gets approved. If not, your funds will be returned.
The Sky Island region of Southeastern Arizona is being decimated by border wall construction. Ancient cottonwoods full of actively nesting migratory birds are being bulldozed, indigenous sacred sites are being erased in defiance of tribal sovereignty, and migratory pathways for mountain lions, bears, deer, and the recently recovered jaguar are being destroyed forever. I'm inviting a group of artists to travel to the border, witness this devastation, and document it in real time with the goal of bringing national awareness to what's happening and helping preserve what land remains.
This project aims to galvanize public opinion against border wall construction that endangers sensitive land with the specific goal of preventing construction along Quitobaquito Springs, a spring sacred to the Tohono O'Odham, home to species found nowhere else on earth. As an artist and public figure who spent much of my adult life in New York, I have an extraordinary network with the reach not only to create powerful work, but to broadcast it to a wide audience. This project will engage 10 high-visibility artists with large followings to create and document art alongside border wall construction in real time, sharing it with their audiences on social media.
I'm requesting $61,000 to support the work of 10 artists and 2 administrators for this program. I will only engage artists if I can properly support and compensate them, therefore the budget for each artist is as follows: flights, $1000; accommodation, $1000; materials fee, $1000; stipend, $1000; honorarium $1000. The $5000 for each administrator is living expenses for one month to focus exclusively on this project, $500 is for high-bandwidth satellite internet hardware and subscription to broadcast the project live and $500 is contingency.
Currently I am the only person on my team, though I have many people interested in collaborating should I secure funding. A year ago I successfully completed a short film that I wrote, directed, produced, and raised the money for through Kickstarter. When I worked for the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council as an artist residency manager, I worked with multiple important stakeholders (including the Department of Cultural Affairs and the Department of the Aging) to create, facilitate, and manage multiple artist residencies. This kind of one-off heavy lift project is something I'm intimately familiar with and uniquely suited to do.
Halting border wall construction along Quitobaquito Springs entirely is, realistically, very unlikely. Legal and organizational efforts to stop it have so far been unsuccessful. But failure on that front would not mean the project itself has failed. The narrative, a small group of people working to protect a sacred land and its inhabitants, broadcast to a wide audience, would justify the work. It might even set the stage for a movement to, eventually, reverse this act of ecocide. The more meaningful risks are these:
The artists don't produce work. In my experience this happens because resource expectations weren't managed at the outset or because the artist lacked the experience to execute their ideas. Neither concerns me here, given my background in arts management and the caliber of the artists I would invite to participate.
The work doesn't reach a national audience. Because this is unfolding in real time the artists will likely want to share their work as they go, and the problem here is that broadcasting live from the border is difficult as cell service is inconsistent. I'm addressing this upfront by budgeting for satellite service. Beyond that I'd work with the artists early on to build a publicity strategy with the widest possible reach, from local news outreach to coordinated release across our own social media channels.
I haven't yet raised any money. This is one of the first avenues I have pursued for funding.