Robert Rauschenberg Foundation
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![sep15_rauschenberg_image.jpg]( "sep15_rauschenberg_image.jpg")
| Robert Rauschenberg, Poster
for CORE (Congress of Racial Equality), 1965 (detail). Silkscreen print
with varnish overlay, 35 7/8 x 23 7/8 inches. |
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2016 Artist as Activist
Fellowship
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Artists
with ambitious projects addressing racial justice through the lens of mass
incarceration are invited to seek up to 100,000 USD in
support.
The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation
announces the next call for proposals to its Artist as Activist
Fellowship program. In its inaugural year, more than
600 artists applied and six fellowships were awarded. Moving forward, each
call for proposals will be guided by a thematic frame. During the 2016 and
2017 fellowship cycles, the thematic frame is racial justice through the
lens of mass incarceration.
Of the 2.2 million people
currently in American prisons or jails, 1 million are African American.
This rate of incarceration is a 500 percent increase over the past 30
years, and if current trends continue, one in three black males born today
can expect to spend time in prison during his lifetime. Nationwide, African
Americans represent 26 percent of juvenile arrests, 44 percent of youth who
are detained, and 58 percent of the youth admitted to state prisons.*
This constitutes an epidemic. Particularly so given mass
incarceration's intersection with wealth inequality and economic justice,
voting rights, immigration rights, access to affordable housing, and
inequitable educational policies. It is exhausting to unravel the
complexity of this issue, let alone to design ways to dismantle the social
and economic structures that produced mass incarceration as a phenomenon.
Yet that is the task before all of us, one that requires an army of
creative thinkers.
The 2016 Artist as Activist
Fellowship provides the opportunity for creative professionals
who are committed to making meaningful progress towards ending mass
incarceration to seek a robust set of resources to advance their work. RRF
believes that, at their best, art and artists are disruptive. The very
nature of being a compelling artist is to generate new thinking and inspire
new ways of being, whether through fostering empathy or by proposing
radical alternatives to our current systems. If a new world is possible, it
is the minds of artists, designers, culture bearers, and other creative
professionals who will call it forth.
To learn more about
the fellowship, including how to apply, click here.
About the Artist as Activist program
Since the program's
launching in 2012, the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation has invested nearly
1,000,000 USD in 15 artists working at the intersection of art and social
justice, as well as 10 organizations that are leaders in the cultural
ecosystem that makes such work possible. In its 2016 cycle, the
program will shift to exclusively offer two-year fellowships that are
guided by a thematic focus. In 2016 and 2017, that theme is racial justice
through the lens of mass incarceration.
About the
Robert Rauschenberg Foundation
The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation fosters the legacy of
the artist's life, work, and philosophy that art can change the world. The
foundation supports initiatives at the intersection of arts and issues that
embody the fearlessness, innovation, and multidisciplinary approach that
Robert Rauschenberg exemplified in both his art and philanthropic
endeavors.
Media Contact
For further
information contact [email protected]
* Sources: The Sentencing
Project and NAACP Criminal Justice Fact
Sheet
![sep15_rauschenberg_logo.jpg]( "sep15_rauschenberg_logo.jpg")
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311 East Broadway
New York City, 10002 USA
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