TURN*ON invites us all to reimagine our sexualities. It further invites us to rethink our organizational modes in the view of building solidarity and autonomy in the context of art & activism organizing. Alongside other initiatives, the Artivistic collective is putting together TURN*ON's p2p solidarity fund.

Background

The current collective behind TURN*ON has managed to pull together the biggest budget ever in the history of Artivistic! Thanks to the Canada Council for the Arts and the Conseil des arts de Montréal, our current budget (July 2009) amounts to $27,000 CND! We worked very hard to get this and are super happy about it. We also know that many participants are actively looking for funds on their end: THANK YOU!

Part of the objectives of TURN*ON is to render visible the labour and the infrastructure behind event organizing in the view of building on existing self-organizational approaches. To that end, our budget (including the participants' and allies' contributions) will be made public here once it is more stable.

The current budget allows the event to take place along with most of the logistical aspects, honoraria (not much but still something) for participants, as well as some travel expenses for guests who were invited prior to the release of the call for participation. Indeed, we are still looking for additional funding to cover more travel expenses and (more decent) honoraria for all! Almost 40 participants are coming from overseas and several are contributing to the fundraising efforts on their end, showing that, despite our initiation of the project, the event will be the fruit of much wider collective energies!

What it is

TURN*ON's p2p (peer-to-peer) solidarity funding project is meant to help participants - who for various reasons have less access to funds - receive support from their peers or supporters, other participants, sister organizations and/or affinity groups. We therefore invite individuals, community organisations and affinity groups that support TURN*ON's mandate and have at heart the taking place of the event to contribute financially and/or in kind.

To date, supporting organizations have contributed to TURN*ON’s p2p solidarity fund by way of partnerships that take the form of co-presentations. For instance, artist-run centres such as Studio XX and OBORO, and universities such as Concordia and McGill, have secured infrastructure to welcome some workshops and lectures.

Other examples include TURN*ON participants in Nantes (France) taking the initiative to organize a local fundraising event in order to help cover their travel expenses but also others'. We welcome similar initiatives, whether collective or individual, between participants and/or with their peers.

We will do our best to document and update the list of initiatives here.

How it works

Since peer-funding is a kind of networked funding, not everything is centralized by Artivistic. For TURN*ON, we have set up a blog to enable participants to make their initiatives visible as well as to make their needs more specific for potential donors. After having logged in, click here to post, including comments and suggestions. As the tally evolves, the Artivistic collective will regularly update the budget.

Contribute in making TURN*ON take place!

Go to TURN*ON's blog

View the latest TURN*ON budget

For questions, get in touch at: participation [at] artivistic [dot] org

Some links to other p2p funding initiatives:
http://2009.pixelache.ac/festival/programme/alternative-economy-cultures/
http://www.incubate-chicago.org/sundaysoup
http://www.tandatanda.org/

thanks to Andrew Gryf Paterson for his advice and input...