Last Day - Art21 Online Fundraising Drive

Art21’s first ever online fundraising drive ends at midnight tonight!

If you haven’t yet donated, there are still several hours left to support Art21’s many projects including the ongoing initiatives:

• – Production of Art:21, Season Five for national broadcast in Fall 2009;
• – Free education materials and programs distributed to teachers nationwide;
• – Public screenings and screening-based programs in selected cities, and at regional and national art education conferences.

And new projects too:

• – Filming and editing for short-format online videos
• – New dynamic website with more video, artists projects, and interactive features.

Some examples of what specific donation levels support see Wednesday’s post here.

Those who donate $10 or more through Art21.org/donate or through the Art21 Facebook Cause by 11:59 PM, Friday, June 20, 2008 will be eligible to win Art21 DVDs and Books:

RAFFLE
Art21 DVDs: Complete Set (4 Seasons)
Art21 Books: Complete Set (4 Seasons)
GRAND PRIZE: Complete Set (4 Seasons) of Art21 DVDs and Books.

Art21 FACEBOOK CHALLENGE
Use the Art21 Facebook Cause to help spread the word. The #1 Fundraiser in the Art21 “Hall of Fame,” raising at least $100 by June 20, 2008, will automatically receive a complete set of Art21 DVDs.

Winners will be contacted next week.

One last time, we’d like to express our appreciation to everyone who has donated to our first online campaign, or helped spread the word through the Art21 Facebook Cause.

Many, many thanks from all of us at Art21!

Day 9 - Art21 Online Fundraising Drive

We’d like to welcome the 58 first-time donors who have donated to Art21 during the last 9 days! Thank you for offering your support of Art21.

There are still 30 hours left to join this group of new supporters during Art21’s first online fundraising drive.

Donations to the Art21 are 100% tax deductible and help our small, independent organization produce a variety of media-based programs and educational resources: from our Peabody-award winning TV series Art:21–Art in the Twenty-First Century and the Art21 Educators’ Guide that accompanies each season, to new exclusive online videos, such as today’s feature with Season 1 artist Mel Chin.

We hope you will join in helping to sustain our programs. Donate $10 or more at Art21.org/donate or via the Art21 Facebook Cause by 11:59 pm on June 20, 2008 and be entered in the raffle to win Art21 DVDs and books. Read the original post for details.

Thank you.

Day 8 - Art21 Online Fundraising Drive

We are heartened by the many donations received during the first Art21 Online Fundraising Drive via Art21.org/donate and the Art21 Facebook Cause. Individuals in 13 U.S. states and 1 foreign country (Austraila!) have donated so far. Your generosity means a great deal to all of us at Art21.

There are three days left to donate and be entered to win Art21 DVDs and books. Here is what your donation will provide for the Art21 community:

$10 - 5 Art21 Educators’ Guides provided free of charge to 5 teachers;

$25 – Tape stock to film 1 hour with a Season Five artist in high definition;

$50 – Weekly lunch stipend for a summer intern in our public programs department;

$100 – 1 hour transcription of an artist interview for Art21’s books, Educators’ Guides, and website;

$250 – Art21 editor for a short-format video created for viewing on this blog;

Every 100% tax deductible donation helps us introduce contemporary art and artists to additional viewers – including thousands of students each year.

All those who donate $10 or more to Art21 by this Friday, June 20, 2008 will be entered to win Art21 DVDs and books. Read here for details.

Thank you so much for your support!

Day 6 - Art21 Online Fundraising Drive

As I write, Art21’s founder and executive director, Susan Sollins, is attending the 37th Annual George Foster Peabody Award ceremony to accept the award being given to the Protest episode from Season 4 of Art:21–Art in the Twenty-First Century. What a way to start the week!

We hope you will consider making a gift today in honor of this momentous occasion. Donations can be made via Art21.org/donate or the Art21 Facebook Cause.

As filmmakers we are very deeply honored to receive the Peabody Award. One of 35 programs selected as “the best in electronic media,” our fellow awardees, include producers for major news organizations (CNN, ABC, CBS, BBC) and established PBS programs (Nature, Frontline, Independent Lens), as well as those of The Colbert Report and 30 Rock – a testament to the importance of artists’ voices to our national conversation and to the Art21 series that allows their voices to be heard.

Our winning episode features Nancy Spero, Alfredo Jarr, Jenny Holzer, and An-My Lê sharing their processes of making artworks that grapple with the complexities of global politics and activism, and exemplifies Art21’s approach of showcasing artists’ deep engagement with the world around them.

If you haven’t seen the full program yet, consider entering to win your very own copy! Donate $10 or more to Art21 by Friday, June 20, 2008 to be entered to win Art21 DVDs and books, including our Peabody-Award winning episode. Read here for details.Thanks so much to all of you who have already made a donation, or helped to spread the word on Facebook. As of this post, 118 people have joined our cause! We greatly appreciate everyone’s support during our first-ever online fundraiser.

Day 3 - Art21 Online Fundraising Drive

There is one more week to donate to Art21’s first-ever Online Fundraising Drive and be entered to win Art21 DVDs and books! Donate today at Art21.org/donate or the Art21 Facebook Cause to support the production of our TV series, education materials, and extensive Public Programs.

As an organization without a physical exhibition space, Art21 welcomes the opportunity to collaborate with museums, schools, libraries, and other community organizations on public screenings of Art:21. Wherever possible, we like to pair screenings with discussions, and thanks to our new blog, we have been able to share several of these with you during the past few months.

We hope you’ve enjoyed reading excerpts from our series of events at the New York Public Library this winter, most recently the interview with video artist and Art21 Consulting Director, Charles Atlas.

Charles Atlas’ work on Art:21 is representative of our approach: we collaborate with extremely talented individuals to help create our films and programs. In a conversation last fall, the artist spoke about his work on the series:

We really try to honor the people that have been chosen for the series.

I’ve had a long experience in television, and when I’m making something for television, I think about how it’s going to be received, in the same way when I’m making something for a gallery, I think about that context.

What we’re making is 13 minute portraits of artists and their work. This is the primary subject, and the subject is much more important than the forum. Things that you might do in a 13-minute [art] piece that would seem to be fun or interesting wouldn’t necessarily serve the art.

We make variations on the 13 minute documentary. The artists speak for themselves mostly and I try to break down a little bit of the opaqueness. Some of what we actually shoot is quite difficult, so we try to make it clearer without changing the meaning.

In the coming months we will be offering additional excerpts from Art21 Public Programs on our blog and keeping you informed of upcoming Art21 programs nationwide. Donate to Art21 at Art21.org/donate or the Art21 Facebook Cause today to help make this possible!

All those who donate $10 or more to Art21 by Friday, June 20, 2008 will be entered to win Art21 DVDs and books. Read here for details.

Day 2 – Art21 Online Fundraising Drive

First off, we’d like to give props to everyone who has already made a donation to Art21 or joined our Facebook Cause. THANK YOU for a terrific first-day response!

Did you know filming and editing costs for Art21 Exclusive videos with artists are paid for by donations to Art21? When we filmed Josiah McElheny last summer, he described what he took away from the Art21 experience:

Art:21 made me question what role the artist should have or can have in defining what art is.

What it made me realize is that if I, or other artists, are going to participate in documentaries, we really need to use that opportunity to try to define why art is important. That sounds like such a big subject, but I think artists can do it in a way that goes beyond ‘This is what artwork means.’

Art is a space in which the individual can function without regard for the structures that influence most of our life. Most people’s experience of their work life is to be in a structure that’s involved directly with making money, with helping people, etc. But art occupies one of the few places in life where there is a kind of open-endedness.

We all need to have this open space. I really believe that, and hopefully art can promote that. It’s what artists are doing and we need to explain that, each of us, in our own individual way.

We know that many who are reading this blog are working artists, teaching artists, and art-lovers. We’d love to hear from you in the comments below. How do you define what art is and why it is important?

We need your help. We want to offer more Art21 Exclusive videos. Donate to Art21 at Art21.org/donate or the Art21 Facebook Cause to help make this possible!

All those who donate $10 or more to Art21 by Friday, June 20, 2008 will be entered to win Art21 DVDs and books. Read here for details. P.S. The Facebook Challenge is still wide open!

Support Art21 – Win DVDs and Books!

Welcome to Art21’s first ever online fundraising drive! The drive launches today and will run through June 20, 2008, simultaneously at Art21.org/donate and via the Art21 Facebook Cause. Throughout the fundraising drive we will showcase what donations to Art21 will provide, but for our first post, we wanted to give a little bit of background information on our organization.

As you might know, Art21 is an independent non-profit organization. We are often thought of as being part of PBS, but we actually produce our television series independently, and are funded primarily by generous donations from individuals, foundations, corporations, as well as by the National Endowment for the Arts. Art21 has been around now for just over 10 years, and has a New York-based staff of 10 very-hardworking people.

Donations to Art21 are 100% tax deductible and cover the not-insignificant expenses of producing our Peabody Award-winning television series, education materials, public programs, and most recently: the new online videos (released weekly on this blog, and on YouTube, BlipTV, and iTunes); Joe Fusaro’s “Teaching with Contemporary Art” column; and columns by our guest bloggers. We also have a number of new projects in the works, including a redesigned, interactive website that will launch in late-2009, timed to coincide with the broadcast of Season Five of Art:21–Art in the Twenty First Century.

We’re offering an incentive to those of you who join in supporting Art21 at this time. Those who donate $10 or more through Art21.org/donate or through the Art21 Facebook Cause by Friday, June 20, 2008 will be eligible to win Art21 DVDs and Books:

RAFFLE
Art21 DVDs: Complete Set (4 Seasons)
Art21 Books: Complete Set (4 Seasons)
GRAND PRIZE: Complete Set (4 Seasons) of Art21 DVDs and Books.

Art21 FACEBOOK CHALLENGE
Use the Art21 Facebook Cause to help spread the word. The #1 Fundraiser in the Art21 “Hall of Fame,” raising at least $100 by June 20, 2008, will automatically receive a complete set of Art21 DVDs.

Thanks to all of you who have supported Art21 financially in the past, and welcome to all our new readers and donors!