Announcing Collective Action 2.0: Coming This Fall

(Artworks currently up for bid in our Collective Action Online Auction)

Collective Action is coming back, y’all… Bid on artwork in our Collective Action Online Auction now through July 9th and help create an even bigger social justice fundraising block party this fall!

You may remember that last fall as a response to the election of Donald Trump, a small group of organizers (Jacob Klensin, Brooke Di Leone, Daniel Levine, and myself – led by Grace Ahn) quickly put together a social justice silent art auction to take place the weekend before Trump’s Inauguration. We were able to do it with the help of over 160 Philly-area artists who donated artwork. And on the evening of January 14th we raised just over $23k in 3 hours! We donated the money evenly to 10 social justice organizations that we that felt at the time were either under the most direct threat of defunding (like Planned Parenthood) or organizations from communities that were often the focus of Trump’s divisive rhetoric on the campaign trail (like the muslim community, immigrant communities, refugees, women’s rights, free speech, the environment – see the full list of 10 organizations that we donated the money to here.)

We’re now excited to officially announce that we’re working on bringing Collective Action back this fall. And this time, as a social justice block party! That means music, art, food, and drink all to raise money for 5 social justice organizations that are currently under the most threat in Trump’s first year. We’re still deciding on what those organizations will be, but depending on how the votes go on the new Republican “Healthcare” bill this week, it may unfortunately need to be the many, many groups and communities that will be most effected by those cuts. But again, things are moving so quickly right now, we want to wait a few more weeks before we commit to exactly which organizations we’ll be donating this year’s funds to, but rest assured they will be organizations fighting for social justice.

Unlike January’s silent art auction, however, this block party requires many more upfront costs, so we’re asking anyone that can to help us get this off the ground by bidding on the artwork currently up for bid in our Collective Action Online Auction! All proceeds raised by this online auction will go directly to funding the upfront costs of this fundraising block party, and any/all leftover funds will be donated evenly to the five social justice organizations that we’ll be raising money for with the block party.

Why a block party, you ask? Well one of the biggest takeaways from the January silent art auction was the spirit of the event. Everyone we talked to said how great it was to be in a room with people from all different communities across Philly who were all interested in working together for good. With this block party, we want to not only create a big opportunity for fundraising, we also want to water this seed of action. We’ll be inviting the social justice organizations that we worked with/donated to in January as well as the ones we’re planing on donating to for this event to come and set up tables to talk with attendees, engage with people, and hopefully get people working together, even volunteering for their organizations. The goal, to have the effects of Collective Action last well past our event!

There are currently 18 artworks up for bid in our online auction, including from artists: Lauren Rinaldi, YOMI, Zoe Cohen, Brendan Lowry, Jaiya Bhandari, Tim Gierschick, Michelle Angela Ortiz, Darla Jackson, Thomas Buildmore, and many more… Check out all the artwork up for auction here!

I hope you’ll consider bidding, if you can. And then joining us this fall. If you were able to join us last January, I think you’ll agree that this is such a creative way to not only raise money but build connections for collective action in the Trump era. It’s just one step of the many steps we should all be taking, but it’s one I’m so proud to be apart of… Can’t wait to share more with you about the block party in the coming months!