Be About Love Festival
This October, Blackfish Gallery presents a month-long exhibition entitled The Love Politik: One World, Indivisible, featuring juried and members’ works of visual art and the Be About Love Festival, a virtual stream of curated musical acts in jazz, blues, folk, and indie rock, and includes performance art, theater, poetry and dance as well as immersive and interactive works. This project takes its inspiration from such figures as Gandhi, Dr. King, Coretta Scott King, Nelson Mandela, Mr. Rogers, Greta Thunberg, Jane Goodall, César Chávez, Dolores Huerta, Mother Teresa, and many others. Blackfish organizers are invoking these and others from the international arts scene in a call to loving arms on behalf of an urgently felt need to present works that celebrates all love.
We have graciously received a generous grant from RACC and sponsorship from the Wilsonville Arts & Culture Council, but we still have a $5,000 gap in our funding to cover all our expenses. As October fast approaches, we are calling in all the love for Blackfish and the Portland Metro art community to make this event completely free to the public. Would you consider sending some love our way in the gesture of sponsoring this multi-disciplinary community art project at one of the following levels:
Individual Giving Levels
Just Friends $50
> Public acknowledgement in all PR materials
> Poster of event
> Warm virtual handshake by organizers
Friends with Benefits $100
> Public acknowledgement in all PR materials
> Signed CD’s from BugToast
> Our Affection
Super Friendly Arts Lover $500
> Public acknowledgement in all PR materials
> Signed CD’s from select bands
> Our Not Shallow Love and Affection
Swipe Right Arts Lover (Tinder edition) $1,000
> Public acknowledgement in all PR materials
> Personal shout out on introductory video during event
> Signed CD’s from participating bands
> Event poster
> Our Deep Love and Affection
GOAT (Greatest Of All Time) Arts Lover $5,000
> Public acknowledgement in all PR materials
> Personal shout out on all video during event
> Signed CD’s from participating bands
> Signed event poster
> Social distance ice cream social and performance by festival
performer Olivia Awbrey and her band in your own yard
> Our Deepest Love and Affection
Businesses Giving Levels
$5,000 - All Benefits from GOAT (above) as well as virtual ad on FB event page,
website event FB page before, during, and after the festival.
$1,000 - All Benefits from Swipe Right (above) as well as virtual ads on website
event page and FB event page during the Festival
$500 - All Benefits of Super Friendly as well as public shout outs during the event
Your support is an important part of continuing the long legacy of Blackfish Gallery’s impact on our community and beyond. Blackfish has earned an honorable reputation for being much more than a commercial art space. Over the years, we have sponsored panels on critiquing and collecting, welcomed prominent artists, like Native-American installation artist, James Luna, and regularly devoted one of our street-facing display windows to under-represented and emerging artists. In celebration of our 40th year, we honored our long-standing landlords, the Wong family, who provide us with a viable space in a historical neighborhood during a time of gentrification. We are well known for our commitment to raising topics of interest that resonate across the spectrum of our diverse audience, which includes representation from an array of political, socio-economic, educational, and ethnic backgrounds. Love Politik is a special opportunity for Blackfish to use our unique position in the community to provide a platform for a diverse group of artists to share their perspective.
Our gallery members share concern over current philosophical and political divisions which can leave us feeling hopeless, powerless, and alone. Because of its stature and experience, the gallery is in an excellent position to provide a platform for a wide variety of artists to speak out, to question, to share and to educate. By including voices from all corners of the globe—giving expression to diverse backgrounds/perspectives/beliefs—this visual show and allied performances present a unique opportunity to encourage dialogue, challenge notions, and draw audiences into a cross-fertilization of new understanding and creative actions. The theme of love is intentionally being brought to the public in an election month when people will need supportive community and creative outlets, regardless of outcomes. As an artist-run gallery, we take our responsibility to mediate and celebrate connection between the arts and our larger community seriously.
Your gift will make it possible for us to create space for conversation between a variety of artistic disciplines and amplify artists' voices that are calling us to action and engaging us in critical dialog, as a catalyst for much needed change in our society.
MISSION STATEMENT
Blackfish Gallery is a collective of artists who are committed to a space where ideas and art freely come together, where concept and commerce co-exist for the enrichment of individual artists and the community.
ORGANIZATION HISTORY
Blackfish Gallery was founded in 1979, when Portland had few galleries. The founders pooled resources and established a not-for-profit cooperative gallery, whose primary object is to promote, exhibit, and sell the work of artist-members. In addition, the founders felt that advocacy on behalf of art, especially contemporary art, should be included in the gallery’s mission. To this end, the gallery has continued to show work by progressive artists from other areas and to sponsor educational events such as panel discussions and artists’ talks. The gallery owes its longevity—40 years and counting—to successful planning and management, the establishment of by-laws to establish clear policies and procedures, and an ongoing commitment to the sense of community amongst the artist members.
BLACKFISH MEMBERSHIP
Rita Alves, Lynda Ater, Carol Benson, Kelsey Birsa, Barbara Black, Clint Brown, Myra Clark, Greg Conyne, Jana Demartini, Robert Dozono, Merridawn Duckler, Erin Robinson Grant, Kane Ikeda, Aaron Johanson, Michael Knutson, Paul Missal, Monica Mitchell, Rory ONeal, Edie Overturf, Angela Passalacqua, Christopher Shotola-Hardt, Charles Siegfried, Stephan Soihl, Mandy Stigant, Steve Tilden, Sue Tower, Alice Walker, and Judith Wyss
