CREATIVE RESPONSE
(PLATFORMS)
“The role of the artist is to make the revolution irresistible.”
- Toni Cade Bambara
Author, Film-maker, Social Activist
Artists and creatives produce the culture that makes the world around us. They are critical thinking, creative problem solvers who critique with authenticity and intention, who feel color, see sound and help us to find beauty in all things. They are living, breathing archetypes of vulnerability who journey through life with the responsibility of unearthing truth, reflecting the times and making life memorable. Artist support is not only critical, it is paramount.
While there would never be a welcome moment for a pandemic, the fact that this crisis comes at the beginning of festival season, when many cultural economy workers make 50-60% of their annual earnings, has hit local creators at a particularly vulnerable moment.
In response to the economic distress experienced by our city's artists and culture bearers who are currently trying to survive a now even wider gap, Ashé CAC has partnered with Antenna Gallery and Junebug Productions to launch the Creative Response Fund, repurpose programming dollars to address our community’s dire need. Funds that were intended as grants for the creation of artwork will now be distributed as emergency funds for creative workers in the cultural economy.
We are activating resources The Weavers Fellowship, Andy Warhol Foundation, Family Independence Initiative, and United Way of Southeast Louisiana to help meet the needs of folks that, due to their non-traditional routes to employment, have a high likelihood of not qualifying for traditional routes of emergency support.
We are proud to provide relief in support of the region’s greatest natural resource – the artists, performers, writers, and culture bearers that make our city one of the most creatively expressive places in the world. These workers form the cornerstone of our cultural economy which shapes every aspect of our city and the current COVID-19 crisis has ground to a halt both gig work and the tourist industry that many of them rely on.
The Platforms Fund is a collaborative effort of Antenna and Ashé Cultural Arts Center to provide support for the development and presentation of self-organized artistic projects in and around New Orleans.
Black Film Festival of New Orleans, a Platforms-funded project (Photo by Marrero Photography)
The Platforms Fund seeks to emphasize New Orleans’ historical characteristics of creativity, collaboration, and resiliency, while pushing the boundaries of where community engagement and the dissemination of creative ideas can intersect.