Artists for Artists
Artists for Artists (AfA) is a platform run exclusively by and for artists. The guiding ethos of AfA is that mentorship, community, exchange, and solidarity are each central to the art-making process. This ethos is underpinned by three key principles: artists for artists, peer-to-peer exchange, and radical care. Operating without institutional intermediaries, the AfA platform brings leading international artists in direct communication with early career artists of diverse backgrounds. Bypassing major cultural and educational spaces (museums, galleries, art schools), and moving beyond the co-option of cultural capital and exploitation of artistic labor that characterizes many institutional structures, AfA strives to generate and strengthen international networks and communities of artists. Connecting artists from diverse backgrounds and disciplines, across various stages of their career, AfA contributes to professional development, whilst engendering new social and artistic encounters.
Peer-to-Peer Micro Grant
A fundamental aspect of AfA is peer-to-peer support - a form of solidarity that is both educational and economic. Moving away from transactive models of art-making, exchange, and education, AfA online masterclasses proceed as peer-to-peer exchange without the need for institutional support or financial payment for training/mentorship. Instead, AfA generates seed funding for the practice of early career Participating Artists through a system of peer-to-peer funding. This is achieved through enrolment donations. Once an application is accepted, the Participating Artist is asked to provide a donation that is pooled into a traceable online Group Fund. In order to reach the minimum target, the recommended donation for each participant is $50. The AfA Microgrants are distributed to Participating Artists selected through a voting system. All artists admitted to the AfA Masterclass are automatically eligible for the AfA Microgrant. The AfA Team, the AfA Core and AfA Collective, volunteer time and expertise.
Radical Care
The direct impact of a constellation of crises (environmental, political, economic, social) upon communities globally has meant that the issues of empathy, strategies of mutual aid, and forms of personal and collective care have returned to the zeitgeist. Wary of the co-option of forms of care ( community aid, self-care, volunteer work etc.) by institutions and neoliberal forms of governance, AfA’s platform is one that connects artists directly - knowing that artists and not institutions - are best placed to identify mutual need, and to offer support and guidance. Driven by an understanding of the symbiosis between self-care and collective forms of care, AfA proceeds in the knowledge that care is about feeling with others, rather than feeling for others - about working with others, rather than for others. AfA describes this ethos, these forms of exchange, and consequent engendered encounters with the term radical care* - a new way of understanding how artistic exchange can operate as an avenue for navigating immediate crises, precarious lifeworks, and unstable futures.
*‘Hobart, Hi‘ilei Julia Kawehipuaakahaopulani, and Tamara Kneese. "Radical Care Survival Strategies for Uncertain Times." Social Text 38.1 (142) (2020): 1-16.’
Collective & Core
The AfA Collective (consisting of all AfA alumni) proceeds with General Assemblies that take place every 3 months. Within these General Assemblies, alumni vote and discuss forthcoming AfA activity including: development strategies, peer-to-peer Microgrants, and outreach activity.
The AfA Core plays a crucial role in developing the conceptual framework and practical implementation of current and future activities of the AfA Masterclass. The AfA Core’s focus is divided into three interconnected strands: thematics / research, administration / communication, design / exhibition.
AfA Core includes:
Orestis Athanasopoulos (Artist, Filmmaker / Paris and Athens)
Ihab Balla (Visual Artist, Educator / Melbourne)
Sophie Chalk (Artist / New York)
Raul Hott (Architect, Researcher, Artist / Santiago)
Itamar Gov (Artist, Curator / Berlin)
Vishal Kumaraswarmy (Artist, Filmmaker / Bangalore)
Chrisoula Lionis (Researcher, Cultural Producer / Athens, and Manchester)
Engy Mohsen (Architect, Visual Artist / Cairo)
Kate Stodart (Curator, Artist / Naarm Melbourne)
Stefanos Tsivopoulos (Artist, Filmmaker, Educator / New York, and Amsterdam)
Steering Group
Kari Conte (Curator, Writer / New York, and Istanbul)
Uros Cvoro (Art Historian, UNSW Australia / Sydney and Banja Luka)
Khaled Hourani (Artist, Curator, Writer / Ramallah)
Charles Green ( Artist, Art Historian, Curator University of Melbourne / Naarm Melbourne)
Abhijan Toto (Curator, The Forest Curriculum / Bangkok, and Seoul)
Team
Chrisoula Lionis (Researcher, Cultural Producer / Athens and Manchester)
Stefanos Tsivopoulos (Artist, Filmmaker, Educator / New York and Amsterdam)
AfA is the brainchild of artist/educator Stefanos Tsivopoulos, developed as a continuation of his ongoing research on alternative forms of knowledge, economy and ecology.
AFA Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is meant by ‘artists for artists’?
A: AfA is run by artists, for the benefit of artists. Without institutional intermediaries, AfA operates with the understanding that artists are the people best suited for knowing how to support artists.
Q: What is peer-to-peer funding?
A: AfA Masterclass donations are pooled together into a public AfA Micro-Grant. Through a peer-to-peer voting system, funds will support the production of selected projects (one per workshop).
Q: What is ‘radical care?’
A: AfA draws on Hobart and Kneese’s definition of ‘radical care’ – new (and often overlooked) strategies for personal and collective care that allow us to navigate precarity, and to build resilient communities.
Q: What do you mean by ‘early career artists?’
A: AfA invites early-career artists who have begun their professional art career, but require support to be propelled into the next stage of their development'
Q: What do you mean by ‘Advising Artists?’
A: The name ‘Advising Artists’ is used to describe leading internationally recognized artists who have volunteered their time and expertise for the AfA program. These Advising Artists offer guidance and mentorship through lectures and masterclasses, each demonstrating their commitment to supporting fellow artists without the need for remuneration.
Q: What do you mean by ‘Participating Artists?’
A: The name ‘Participating Artists’ is used to describe early-career artists who will be participating in the AfA masterclass program.
Q: What does participation in the AfA program look like?
A: Participating Artists will be invited to take part in a program of lectures and a workshop. Each Participating Artist will have access to all lectures presented by Advising Artists and will take part in a four-hour workshop program hosted by a single AfA Advising Artist.
Q: How and where do AfA masterclasses take place?
A: Masterclasses (lectures and workshops) take place online via Zoom. To download Zoom, please visit zoom.us/download
Q: Where did AfA originate?
A: AfA is the brainchild of artist/writer/educator Stefanos Tsivopoulos. Developed as a continuation of his artistic practice and ongoing research on alternative forms of knowledge, economy, and ecology – AfA was inspired by the needs of early-career artists Tsivopoulos was working with at the New School in New York.
Q: How can I contact AfA?
A: Follow us on social media and reach out to us at info@afamasterclass.org
To contact AfA please write to us at: