Dear friends,
As a member of our community, we welcome you to show your love for experimental and socially engaged art during this challenging period through our recently launched Pay It Forward campaign. Through this initiative with Crowdfunder and the Mayor of London, organisations can raise vital funds to stay afloat, rebuild and recover from the impact of COVID-19.
Thank you for your support and being a part of our family.
Warmly,
The Showroom Team
The Showroom, London is a contemporary arts organisation committed to serving as a platform for emerging practices and ideas, where collaboration, community and learning are integral to the production of unconventional art and discourse.
The global Covid-19 pandemic has created a very uncertain landscape for millions of small businesses, which is going to make it very challenging for arts organisations like The Showroom to survive.
Image above: Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum, Exalt B.H., work in progress - mural on the exterior of The Showroom, as part of Women on Aeroplanes, 2018. Photo: Daniel Brooke
In lieu of our annual fundraising event in December, we are hosting an extraordinary Digital Fundraiser for November to help sustain our advocacy for transdisciplinarity and togetherness through art, education and community.
This coincides with our current collaboration with CIRCA, a new and independently curated digital art platform, presenting new work by interdisciplinary artist Cauleen Smith on the giant 4K screen of Piccadilly Lights and on the circa.art website.
Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, like many others, we have been required to shut our doors in accordance with government guidelines and in support of our team, neighbours, and greater community. We have worked hard to continue developing a meaningful digital programme and reinventing ourselves without losing our characteristic spirit of conviviality and common growth. Notwithstanding, the arts ecology is continuing to face unprecedented challenges, especially in delivering collaborative public programming.
Image above: Cauleen Smith, COVID MANIFESTO on the Piccadilly Lights, 2020. Video, colour, sound, 2 min. Courtesy of the artist, CIRCA, and The Showroom, London
We remain deeply committed to continuing to work in creative and sustainable ways with our neighbours and community – The Church Street Ward, known for its culturally rich and diverse communities that has been hard hit by Covid-19.
We believe our collective ethos and experimental methodology is a more vital endeavour than ever. We are thankful that Arts Council England have granted us financial support through essential Emergency Response Funds, which will help us continue in operation until March 2021, yet further funding efforts and new strategies need to be implemented to avoid a highly precarious situation in 2021/22.
Image above: Communal Knowledge at Work, July-August 2016. Courtesy of The Showroom
The Showroom’s role remains critical for bringing together projects around art, education and social justice. Our projects - whether with local neighbours, national or international partners - create forums for people to reflect upon and speak about the issues that are at stake for them, giving us all a platform and a voice.
The money raised through this fundraiser will be used to support our future programme and sustain our vision to remain a key cultural agent for change.
Image above: In conversation with Jason Moran, Elio Villafranca, Elvira Dyangani Ose, Reece Ewing & Katherine Finerty, Zoom still, 2020. Courtesy of The Showroom
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Most rewards are for collection at The Showroom when we reopen but if you need them delivered contact us and for a little extra we can add delivery.
£10 or more
Spare us a tenner to help an arts space you love get through whatever Covid-19 sends our way. All donations, no matter their size, receive a thank you GIF of artist Cauleen Smith’s current COVID MANIFESTO launch video for CIRCA at Piccadilly Lights. Our exhibitions and online content are free, but producing them costs money, so by giving here you will be becoming both a donor to the arts and giving to a vibrant and mixed community in London.
£25 or more
Become a Friend. Have your name on our website
Pledge £25 today and, when we open again, come by to see an exhibition and pick up a copy of The Church Street Partners' Gazette, a newspaper that was created by artist Can Altay in partnership with our neighbourhood as part of his eponymous project at The Showroom!
£50 or more
Special Spring 2021 Drinks Reception
Pledge £50 today and join us for a casual, socially-distanced evening at The Showroom next Spring (date to be confirmed) to enjoy our current exhibition, drinks, conversation and good vibes, hosted by our Director Elvira Dyangani Ose. Your name will also appear on our website in appreciation of your support!
£100 or more
Exclusive Virtual Artist Conversation Q&A
Pledge £100 today and we'll reward you with a private in-conversation session with an artist working within our programme, led by one of our Curators. Your name will also appear on our website in appreciation of your support!
£150 or more
Limited Edition Art Publications
Receive a selection of our rare, limited edition publications from past projects and exhibitions. You will get a copy of Amateur by Wendelien van Oldenborgh, the first comprehensive publication about van Oldenborgh’s moving image works, and installations, plus a copy of Cluster: Dialectionary, which aims to find new ways to position the work of contemporary visual arts organisations. Your name will also appear on our website!
£300 or more
The Tiger's Mind - Print & Publication
A hand-set letterpress print by Will Holder, 'The Tiger’s Mind' score (2012), from the original text by Cornelius Cardew - with a copy of 'The Tiger's Mind' documenting the making of the film by Beatrice Gibson - a perfect pairing. Please note this print will not be framed. Your name will also appear on our website in appreciation of your support!
£350 or more
Cauleen Smith's Signed LP - Pigeons Are Black Doves
This rare signed LP commemorates the 2018 Whitney Biennial Procession by Cauleen Smith with a crowd of participants. This vibrant blue coloured LP is a recording of the two poems spoken during the programme. Side A features Avery R. Young and Tina M. Howell as they lead a choir rehearsal in preparation for the procession. Side B is a live recording of the 'In The Wake' procession that took place on 11 April 2017.
£3,000 or more
Become a Benefactor of The Showroom
Benefactors are immensely important to the survival of The Showroom and are appreciated in a number of ways. They are invited to our annual dinner; acknowledged in the gallery, on the website and on all our published material, get free attendance to all our talks and events and invited to special events just for donors.