Another Amazing Kickstarter (How to Move a Mountain with BHQFU by BHQFU —Kickstarter) has been published on http://crowdmonsters.com/new-kickstarters/how-to-move-a-mountain-with-bhqfu-by-bhqfu-kickstarter/
A NEW KICKSTARTER IS LAUNCHED:
We’re The Bruce High Quality Foundation, an anonymous art collective based in Brooklyn, NY. For over a decade, we’ve been producing works of art, musicals, films, public interventions, and massive group exhibitions.
The Bruce High Quality Foundation, “Thank You, New York!” 2009
In 2009, we started a tuition-free, artist-run school called the Bruce High Quality Foundation University (BHQFU). With student debt on the rise and art education consistently being defunded, creating accessible and sustainable spaces where artists can learn from one another and grow in their work is at the core of our mission.
We believe that free arts education should be a right, not a privilege.
Over 7,000 miles away, in Zambia, there’s another school that shares this mission. Completed in January 2015 by the 14+ Foundation, the Chipakata Children’s Academy provides tuition-free, arts-based learning to over 200 students, ranging in age from preschool to the 7th grade.
Students in class at the Chipakata Children’s Academy
(L) The printing press and (R) a printmaking lesson for the Brooklyn Free School’s kindergartners
For this project, our schools are teaming up! Over the next six months, hundreds of artists in our community will use this portable etching press to create original copper plate prints.
Then, with your help, we’ll take the press on an incredible journey from our home in New York to its new, permanent home at the Chipakata School in Zambia. The press will anchor a new printmaking studio program, which will provide the students with the skills, tools, and equipment to create original works of art for years to come.
Prints created by the participating artists and the Chipakata students will be exhibited together in both New York and Zambia next year, showcasing the enormous community this project has fostered.
When we travel with the press to Zambia, we’ll bring along the engraved copper plates used to create the prints. The plates will be installed at the Chipakata school, on an exterior wall facing the mountains, forming a unique, collaborative mural that will develop a natural patina over time.
This is the just the first step in forging a meaningful and lasting connection between our two schools. Our long-term goal is to establish a teaching exchange program where US-based artists can live in Zambia as artists-in-residence, leading courses and workshops at the Chipakata school, and further cementing a meaningful collaboration between artists on different sides of the Atlantic.
College-aged students should not need to accrue massive debt to experience arts-based learning, and primary students should enjoy the benefit of exploring creativity throughout their entire education. Both BHQFU and the Chipakata school have seen firsthand the impact of arts education in our communities and we are invested in continuing to provide this invaluable resource.
Recess at the Chipakata Children’s Academy
BHQFU residency alumnus Orlando Estrada guest teaching a free class for high school students at MoMA Teens
BHQFU is a learning experiment where artists work together to manifest creative, productive, resistant, useless, and demanding interactions between art and the world. A 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, BHQFU was founded in 2009 by Brooklyn-based, anonymous art collective The Bruce High Quality Foundation. It has grown from a small office space in TriBeCa to a year-round free education program and public exhibitions series with hundreds of students annually at our headquarters in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. We also offer cost-free studio residencies to artists, giving them the time, space, and support to realize their work without going into debt.
The Bruce High Quality Foundation have been recognized for their work by the New York Times, Art in America, the Wall Street Journal, Artforum, Purple, VICE, and have exhibited their work nationally and internationally for over a decade. In 2013, the Brooklyn Museum held a massive retrospective of the collective’s projects.
The Bruce High Quality Foundation, “Pizzatopia,” 2016
The Bruce High Quality Foundation, Billboard Advertisement at 6817 Melrose, Los Angeles, 2016
We’re producing editions of prints created by US-based artists over the next year as a sustainable fundraising model to keep generating support for both the Chipakata school and BHQFU. We’ve got some amazing people confirmed, including:
We’re reaching out to the Kickstarter community because we know, firsthand, the incredible things that can be done when working collectively toward a common goal. We know that Kickstarter provides a one-of-a-kind platform to spread the word about this initiative and get supportive people involved right from the start. BHQFU’s success has always been the direct result of a community of students, teachers, and visiting artists who come together to change the world, one class at a time. With an audience as large as Kickstarter’s, this is an incredible opportunity for us to get the word out about both BHQFU and the Chipakata Academy far and wide. We invite you to join us in this journey towards reshaping how art is taught and learned, and who gets to participate!
With your support, we’ll take the press to Zambia and build a new studio program for the students. Over the course of two weeks, BHQFU will train students and faculty at the Chipakata school in various printmaking methods. Any additional funds raised beyond our initial goal will go directly to furthering the partnership and building out a teaching exchange program at the Chipakata school.
Pledge $25 – Get one 4×4″ Mosaic Mountain Mini Monochrome Painting, one “pixel” from a 5x8ft work by The Bruce High Quality Foundation exhibited at the NADA Art Fair in 2017.
Pledge $50 – Get the Silk-Screened “Copper Plate” Day Bag, plus bonus BHQFU zine!
Pledge $100 – Signed, full color artist book by The Bruce High Quality Foundation
Pledge $175 – Choose a 12×18″ signed Mountain Mosaic Print by The Bruce High Quality Foundation in Cyan or Magenta, produced in collaboration with Artspace
Pledge $175 – Choose a 12×18″ signed Mountain Mosaic Print by The Bruce High Quality Foundation in Black or Yellow, produced in collaboration with Artspace
Pledge $200 – Hand-drawn bar napkin in unique shadow box by The Bruce High Quality Foundation. No two drawings or shadow boxes are alike!
Pledge $300 – Receive a one-of-a-kind, hand sculpted “Featherweight Mountain” by The Bruce High Quality Foundation, copper polymer on lightweight foam.
Pledge $400 – Receive an exclusive, signed 20×24″ print, “The Wanderer” by The Bruce High Quality Foundation, produced in collaboration with Artspace
Pledge $500 – Get a private studio tour for you and up to three friends inside The Bruce High Quality Foundation’s giant Brooklyn studio. We’ll enjoy some beverages and send you off with some Bruce presents!
Pledge $1,000 – Join us at an upcoming printmaking party where you’ll meet participating artists and learn to make your own copper plate print that we’ll get framed for you!
Pledge $1250 – Get a custom-framed, Kickstarter-exclusive, 1-of-1 unique print by artist Seth Cameron.
Pledge $1250 – Get a custom-framed, Kickstarter-exclusive, 1-of-1 unique print by artist Sam Messer.
Pledge $1250 – Get a custom-framed, Kickstarter-exclusive, 1-of-1 unique print by artist James English Leary.
Pledge $5,000 – Name the portable printing press that’s become so dear to us before it makes its journey to Zambia!
Pledge $10,000 – Name the Printmaking Program at the Chipakata Children’s Academy! Your generous donation will also secure all supplies and equipment needed to get the program off the ground.
Risks and challenges
Our most significant challenge is ensuring that we have the time and resources to truly engage with the students at Chipakata, to construct a solid printmaking studio program, and to get to know the local community.
To do this, we require strong seed funding that will enable us to make this first step something monumental in the service of our ongoing collaboration. That’s why we’re asking you to get involved! We’ve generated a significant amount of energy between BHQFU and the Chipakata students already, and are eager to move to action.
Both organizations are brimming with excitement about this collaboration, and we know that enacting the program soon will bring the best possible results! But we also recognize the logistical challenges involved in real community engagement and the building of relationships, so we are making sure to keep a realistic perspective that allows the project’s full timeline to remain somewhat flexible.
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