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.

>