ARTISTS MAKING MONEY, Collaboration with Kelley Meister, 2011
Making Money as an Artist is a collaborative multi-media artwork between Kelley Meister and Emmett Ramstad. By creating our own “arts funding network,” this project values artistic production on its own terms rather than as a commodity. Making Money as an Artist was born out of frustrations with unemployment and rejections from grant applications. The project started when Ramstad made 30,000 dollars in 3 days (as in made, made). He mailed this money, in a briefcase, to Meister along with a letter praising hir outstanding work as an artist. This was the beginning of a no-application-necessary granting agency for artists.
Through this piece we are hoping to encourage conversations amongst artists and their admirers about what it means for artists to make money and what it means to support artists. In a time of troubled and slashed arts funding, “Making money as an Artist” has granted over a million dollars to individual artists through performance installation workshop participation. Through these workshops, artists are taught to invent, draw and reproduce their own forms of currency and acceptance letters. It is our hope that this piece will inspire folks to make their own money and continue the project in their local art circles, thus adding to the number of artists making money as artists.
Click here for a pdf of the funding letter to customize and allocate to the artist/s of your choice!
Through this piece we are hoping to encourage conversations amongst artists and their admirers about what it means for artists to make money and what it means to support artists. In a time of troubled and slashed arts funding, “Making money as an Artist” has granted over a million dollars to individual artists through performance installation workshop participation. Through these workshops, artists are taught to invent, draw and reproduce their own forms of currency and acceptance letters. It is our hope that this piece will inspire folks to make their own money and continue the project in their local art circles, thus adding to the number of artists making money as artists.
Click here for a pdf of the funding letter to customize and allocate to the artist/s of your choice!