School of the Future at the Statue of Liberty.
Cassie Thornton
SCHOOL OF THE FUTURE,Hi! We've been asked to come up with a project for a show at the Statue of Liberty this May. I'll be writing you with some proposals for how we might deal with that, but if you have any ideas, or if you have ever been to the site, let me know. Could you send a message if you are still on this list, just so I know if this is still a good way to contact everyone?I would like to do something about publicizing the growing amount of student debt, emphasizing the cost of education in relation to the disproportionate cost, and education's precarious relationship to 'jobs'. Could we print a huge billboard and dress the Statue of Liberty in it? Who knows. I think I can come to the event and a little before to prepare, which would be an amazing time to reconvene in some form. I really hope we can use this as an opportunity to catch up on our mutual freeness.I am very excited to see what comes of this, and what has come of you in the last year and a half. I'm excited that I may see you soon!LOVE,Cassie
Hello everyone,
I am writing to give you all the latest updates regarding the May 4 event; the TRUST ART Triennial!
Take a look at the 'introduction' document we created (attached) to get an idea of what is manifesting. Keep in mind that this is still very much open, and your ideas will make it stronger.
The budget
We are beginning to reach out for sponsorship. We will have a better idea in the next few weeks about the response. But we also wanted to let you know that we are beginning to prepare ourselves to self-fund the event through ticket sales: At 99 dollars a ticket, selling 500 tickets, that would mean roughly a 50k budget. That is about the minimum for which we can do this event at a site like this. Though we are getting a lot of generosity coming our way from the folks at the Statue of Liberty (eg: they just offered us their freight barge so we don't have to spend another 15k!) we still have about 35,000 in raw costs associated with the site (check out the budget). That leaves us with only about 15,000 to put into the art and performances.
And that is assuming we essentially borrow a geo-dome, borrow AV equipment, get a grant from BRAF to fund a light show, get a lot of food and beverage donated, and install and transport everything ourselves. And that we collectively do a great job marketing and documenting the event. But this is all realistic.
From conversations will all of you, and much thinking on our end about how to best use that 15k, we have crafted a plan that allocates 10k to 3 projects (3333 each) that are especially key for this event (Blitz/BambooBike musical performance, Propel-her dance performance, and printing the large-format Dreamers photos) and give a stipend of 333 to every artist involved in the other projects for the raw costs of framing and other materials/incidentals associated with the pieces they wish to submit to the event/auction.
We are going to reach out to some of our past supporters to see if they can help us with the cash-flow situation. Our goal would be get the money coming in from them by end of feb, beginning of March, and pay it back from the ticket sales in March and April.
We hope this makes sense to you all. Please do let me know how you are feeling about this plan. And, of course, please let me know what questions you have and what can be clarified further.
The art/auction
-Please see the document titled "Trust Art Triennial - Art/Auction". We've started to create a checklist (by project/artist) of the works and ideas that have been discussed with us to date (and some that we are inserting there suggestively). As you will see, there are still many artists working out what their contribution to the event/auction will be. It is our hope to get this checklist finalized by March 15. This means that we want you guys to start narrowing in on your contribution to the auction in the next few days/weeks, and if you are making something new, start artworking!
As you will see in the checklist, there are three categories of work that every project can participate in: the live auction, the artnet auction, and 'not for sale'. We are expecting to have about 30 works total for the two auctions combined. That means up to 2 works for every project, unless the project worked with collaborators, in which case we can admit up to 4 works (two in live auction, two in artnet auction).
-IMPORTANT: We need to photograph the works by March 15. This is to make sure everything runs smooth with the Artnet partnership and so we can put the images up on the site and start promoting the event in earnest. For those in NYC, we will help with the photography.
The most important thing is that we be in touch over the next few days (I will call you all) to make sure all this makes sense in your particular situation (and if not, for us to figure it out together).
Let us know if you have any questions or ideas! And we probably don't say this enough, but thank you for your wonderful collaborative spirit.
with infinite gratitude,
Jose and Seth
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Cassie T.
Whatever it takes.
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social-craft.tumblr
Cassie T.
Whatever it takes.
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social-craft.tumblr