About this Kickstarter project:
WE BELIEVE ART HAS THE POWER TO WAKE PEOPLE UP.
Eight years ago, the artist Shepard Fairey made the iconic image that captured a period of HOPE in America. Today we are in a very different moment, one that requires new images that reject the hate, fear, and open racism that were normalized during the 2016 presidential campaign. So on Inauguration Day, We the People will flood Washington, DC with NEW symbols of hope.
This art has been already been commissioned by the Amplifier Foundation. Some of the greatest activist artists working today, including Shepard, Ernesto Yerena, and Jessica Sabogal, have collaborated with photographers to create a series of images that capture the shared humanity of our diverse America.
Now the tricky part: printing and distributing these images on a massive scale in time for Inauguration.
Much of Washington will be locked down on Inauguration Day, and in some areas there will be severe restrictions on signs and banners. But we’ve figured out a hack. It’s called the newspaper! On January 20th, if this campaign succeeds, we’re going to take out full-page ads in the Washington Post with these images, so that people across the capitol and across the country will be able to carry them into the streets, hang them in windows, or paste them on walls.
Every dollar you put into this campaign will buy six ads printed and distributed for us.
Amplifier will also distribute these images as large placards throughout DC at Metro stops, out the back of moving vans, at drop spots to be announced in the coming week via our social media feeds, and, on January 19, as free downloads for you to print and share as you like.
This art is meant to spark a conversation, and after January 20, our work will continue. What does WE THE PEOPLE—these three famous words in the preamble to the Constitution—mean in the 21st century? Over the next several months, Amplifier will partner with organizations, schools, and everyday families to create spaces across the county, in both red states and blue, where we can speak, listen, and share our answers. Watch for updates on this as the campaign funds and moves into the world!
WHO ARE WE?
SHEPARD FAIREY is one of the most accomplished street artists in the world, and creator and founder of Obey Clothing and Obey Giant, first becoming known for his “Andre The Giant has a Posse” sticker campaign while at the Rhode Island School of Design. He became widely known during the 2008 presidential election for his Barak Obama “Hope” poster.
JESSICA SABOGAL is a first generation Colombian American muralist. Her art serves as a haven, a tribute, a creative outlet of adoration and exaltation for women with stories often untold. Her pieces possess a vision of female identity that is revolutionary and powerful, brave and beautiful. Most recently she has created a visual campaign entitled, “Women Are Perfect” which attempts to spread this simple but necessary notion worldwide.
ERNESTO YERENA is an artist living in Los Angeles. His art brings political concerns to light with subject matter that depicts cultural icons, rebels and everyday people voicing their stance against oppression. While Yerena identifies as Chicano he also strongly identifies as Native/Indigenous to this continent which is often seen in his work. Highly recognized for his activism, Yerena is the founder and curator of the Alto Arizona Art campaign (2010) as well as a founding member of the We Are Human campaign (2009).
THE AMPLIFIER FOUNDATION: Our non-profit is dedicated to amplifying the voices of grassroots movements through art and community engagement. We do this by funding collaborations between those movements and contemporary artists so that their messages can reach a wider audience. Our goal is to flip artists into activists and observers into participants.
Our work has supported Criminal Justice Reform projects with Cut50.org, Environmental campaigns working with Indigenous groups against the KXL pipeline and in defense of Treaty Rights in the Black Hills, and we have, just this week, commissioned, and started printing and distributing the majority of the art for the Women’s March on Washington as an official partner.
WHY KICKSTARTER?
We are here to find partners as much as funding. When this message is heard we want them to know it comes direct from the people. Our goal is 10,000 backers in this Kickstarter and ten times that many participants after Inauguration day.
