THE DEVELOPMENT OF ARTISTS OF AFRICAN DESCENT
Indigo Arts Alliance (IAA) is an Arts Incubator dedicated to the professional development & amplification of Black and Brown thought-leadership, artistic vision and practice. Our central programs are Artists in Residence; in which global Black and Brown artists are selected to mentor Maine-based BIPOC artists to build relationships in solidarity and professional practice.
Through mentorship we facilitate working opportunities to engage in and receive critical feedback, relationship building and access to resources that build careers and networks. During Residency, artists participate in public artists talks, symposia, hands-on-workshops, presentations and community art events, thereby increasing their visibility, sharing intellectual knowledge.
We believe in the necessity of Black-led arts organizations to create, sustain and amplify access for Black and Brown artistic expression. We are directly dismantling and pushing back against narratives of our absence in the canon of art history.
What We Mean by Black and Brown
African descent refers to people from all African nations, African- American, Afro-Latin, and Caribbean. The geographic breadth of all the places where Africans were displaced as a result of the transatlantic slave trade. We describe “Brown” to include Native Americans, indigenous peoples, Latinx, East, and Southeast Asian, the Middle East and Pacific Rim.
Our Artists in Residence to date have ethnic identities representing the following countries: African American/US, Belize, Peru, Brazil, Sierra Leone, Trinidad, Jamaica, Mexico, India, Ethiopia, Sudan, Barbados, Gabon, and Ghana.
REAL PEOPLE REAL WORK
Ryan Adams, Maine
VISUAL ARTIST
Samaa Abdurraqib, Maine
WRITER/POET
Antonio Rocha, Brazil
PERFORMANCE ARTIST
Maestra Isaura Oliveira, Brazil
PERFORMANCE ARTIST
The Challenge:
Understand that Artists Need Development & Support
Facilitate creative exchanges
Grow, scale, enhance artistic practice
Learn new technical/creative skills
Time for creative reflection/exploration
Develop small business capacity
The professional development of Black/Brown artists generates a wealth of artistic expressions that address our most common human experiences and social justice issues.
AN INDUSTRY EXAMPLE
Professional Pathway of an Artist
2017 MacArthur Genius Fellow ($600,000)
“Celebrating the creative potential of individuals through
no-strings attached fellowships”
Dawoud Bey
Photographer, Chicago
Photo: John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
Residencies
1992 Residency (2) Addison Gallery of American Art
Light Work
Syracuse, New York
Publications
Picturing People
Harlem, U.S.A.
Street Portraits
Exhibitions
The Walker Art Center, “Dawoud Bey: Portraits 1975-1995”
The High Museum
"Dawoud Bey: An American Project"
“In 1985, Dawoud Bey had a residency at Light Work in Syracuse, New York. Residencies would become a key aspect of Bey's career, allowing him to focus at one place or organization and incorporate that specificity into his work.”
—The Whitney Museum
AN INDIGO ARTS ALLIANCE PAIRING
Enedia Sanches
Bahia, Brazil
Practice:
Visual Artist
Background:
Architect + Printmaker
Medium:
Metal, Etching, Sculpture
Exploration:
Multi-disciplinary materials expressing contemporary conceptual ideas. Merging abstract and figurative techniques.
+
Ebenezer Akakpo
Ghana, Africa
Practice:
Product Designer + Visual Artist
Background: Computational Design
Medium:
Metal, Etching, Sculpture
Exploration:
Solving Social Problems Using Ghanaian Design Aesthetic
Education
1990 BFA Empire State College
1993 MFA Yale
Publications – Photo Documentary
Harlem USA (1975-1979), Studio Museum of Harlem 1979
Dawoud Bey: Portraits 1975-1995
Class Pictures 2017 Aperature
Indigo Residency Outcomes
EXPOSURE to new audiences and expansion of practice to include all artistic markets
TIME to explore without the constraints of producing a "product"
STRENGTHEN capacity to communicate ideas in ways that result in winning exhibitions, commissions and funding opportunities
Public Engagement
SERVING OUR LOCAL COMMUNITY
BlackSeed Studio/David Driskell Fellowship The goal of this program is to identify talented Maine based artists whose work is of excellent artistic merit. The fellowship is open to all artistic career stages. It is exclusively for Maine based and/or artists with Maine roots.
IAA Internship Program Nurturing the next generation of Arts professionals. Paid and for college credit, college students gain hands on experience in arts administration, program development, curatorial practice, marketing promotion skills and studio practice.
Working together with our AiRs, we engage communities by facilitating a host of opportunities that connect, educate and inspire. We do this work independently and collaboratively with other arts and cultural organizations. Centering the artist as a central force for social justice and as a creator of legacy through the building and sustaining of a Black and Brown Arts Ecosystem.
Empowering artists of color. Transforming a community.
As a Black-led organization, Indigo Arts Alliance embodies a multiracial approach to the rich intersections of citizenship, community-building, and creativity. Our work is in service to shifting historical injustices as a vital component of achieving equity for Black and Brown artists. More than ever, our world needs people who can help us imagine more compassionate, generous, and welcoming human societies. We believe that artists are instrumental to doing the work of social justice in ways that are deeply grounded in lived experience and community.
The Challenge:
There is a history of inequitable funding for Black-led arts organizations to sustain, amplify, and create access for Black and Brown artistic expression
ARTIST DEVELOPMENT FUNDING
63%
Decrease in funding
60%
of operating budgets are under $300K
40%
of Arts Organizations Receive:
70%
30%
of Funds From Grants
From Philanthropy
The Business of Developing Artists Takes Committed Resources
Grant dollars don’t go as far as they used to
COVID-19 Pandemic Unemployed Artists
Small operating budgets, fewer program staff
Arts funding is saturated with community based programs
YOUR DOLLARS FUND
Total income
Individual Contributions
Restricted Grants
Unrestricted Grants
Total Expenses
Management
Programming
Fund Raising + Development