Question: Should we do fundraising or donation buckets at our art hive events?
Response:
Adding a donation bucket sends a particular message
and unless you don¹t have a dollar in your pocket, you may not relate to
how it marginalizes individuals and families from feeling welcome to
participate. Creating small spaces of public access that are outside the
marketplace has been a hallmark of the art hives initiative from its
inception. It is a radical stance to say, money is not necessary at the
grass roots organizing level and that it is your participation that is a
gift to the community. I believe social change theory would support this.
The small amount of money you may receive at the site will counter the
power you will receive if you can say <Its Free, Join In>. Those
individuals that may appear to devalue actions when activities are free,
are victims of an upside down world that we are trying to re-balance.
Together we can find new ways to fundraise for this extraordinary FREE
project. Perhaps combine a crowd sourcing piece where art makers inspired
by the free experience over the summer, (as well as supporters, friends of
the art hives initiative, and funders), can go to a donation button
online. In this way you can initiate a potentially stronger financial
generator if haven¹t already asked for money on site.
It is up to each of us to contribute to the philosophy of the world we
would like to live in. All of us bring something necessary, adding all the
different parts to it, sharing the load and benefiting from our own
healing in the process. At this point in the initiative I think we need to
send a clear unified message: Everyone has a right to free places to
gather where we can develop new ways of being through making art together,
across all social-economic-cultural-differing abilities divides. This
bridging should be free, like air and water still are!