CALL FOR ARTISTS

The We Shall Not Be Moved Project:

Posters, Gentrification, and Resistance in the Figueroa Corridor

As major developers have rediscovered America s inner cities, poor and
working class people are increasingly pushed out of their neighborhoods by
demolitions and rising rents. This process, commonly known as
>"gentrification," is being met with resistance from the grassroots
>community, including cultural workers. Around the country and the world,
>this resistance has been chronicled in poster art.
>
>Nowhere are gentrification issues more sharply drawn and contested than in
>the Figueroa Corridor of Los Angeles, where some of the richest investors
>in the world are planning to develop a "Sports and Entertainment Corridor"
>through the City s poorest neighborhoods. Three Los Angeles community
>organizations -- Strategic Actions for a Just Economy (SAJE), the Center
>for the Study of Political Graphics (CSPG), and Self-Help Graphics and Art
>(SHG) -- are joining forces to challenge gentrification in this community
>through the We Shall Not Be Moved Project. We are looking for six artists
>from Southern California to create new poster images that reflect
>gentrification in the Figueroa Corridor and the community s determination
>to stay in their neighborhoods.
>
>REQUIREMENTS:
> * Artists must be available to meet with residents and members of the
>Figueroa Corridor Coalition for Economic Justice at a series of poster
>exhibitions, anti-gentrification and printmaking workshops on June 15, June
>23, October 12-13, 2002, and additional times to be determined.
> * Artists must be available every day for one week (5 days) between
>July 9 August 16, 2002.
> * No experience in printmaking necessary we are looking for artists
>from a wide range of mediums (graffiti, paint, graphic design).
> * Background in art for social movements preferred.
>OPPORTUNITIES:
>
>Artists will have the opportunity to create meaningful art that will have a
>powerful impact on the Figueroa Corridor community and all who pass through
>it. In addition:
> * Artists will receive training in making high-quality silkscreen
>prints at Self-Help Graphics, a nationally acclaimed visual arts
>institution serving the Chicano community of Los Angeles.
> * Artists new work will be posted in public places throughout the
>Figueroa Corridor, included in an exhibition curated by Center for the
>Study of Political Graphics, (the largest collection of political posters
>in the country), and will be published in a catalog that will be
>distributed nationally.
> * Selected artists will receive a $500 honorarium.
> * Artists will receive a portfolio of each of the other prints and a
>1/3 of their edition.
>TO APPLY:
> * Please submit cover letter (including your background as an artist,
>your interest in the project, and anything else you think we should know
>about you), resume, and 6-10 slides or photographs of original artwork by
>Tuesday, May 28, 2002. Photographs must be 3 x 5 or larger and may also be
>submitted on disk.
> * Send application to "We Shall Not Be Moved" Project, c/o SAJE, 2636
>Kenwood Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90007.
> * For more information, call Denise Duffield at (323) 732-9961, ext.
>204. Applicants will be notified on June 5, 2002.
>The We Shall Not Be Moved project is funded through the PACT (Partnerships
>Assisting Community Transformation) program of the Rockefeller Foundation.
>