[p2p-research] Fwd: [My-ci] The Creative Resistence Fund

[Michel Bauwens]

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From: Dante-Gabryell Monson <dante.monson at gmail.com>
Date: Sun, Dec 19, 2010 at 11:32 PM
Subject: Fwd: [My-ci] The Creative Resistence Fund
To: sustainable_solidarity at yahoogroups.com, hc_ecology at yahoogroups.com,
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From: Geert Lovink <geert at xs4all.nl>
Date: Sun, Dec 19, 2010 at 8:35 AM
Subject: [My-ci] The Creative Resistence Fund
To: my-ci at orgnets.net


http://creativeresistancefund.org

The Creative Resistance Fund is intended for activists and culture
workers in situations of distress as a result of their professional
work. Distress situations may include verbal threats, imprisonment or
legal persecution, violent attack, professional or social exclusion,
or harassment. In assessing potential cases, freeDimensional confirms
the validity of the persecution faced with trusted outside sources and
conducts its own independent research. We also consider the extent to
which our limited resources can be effective in relation to the
urgency of the situation. Download the application form here.
Concept
The Creative Resistance Fund provides small distress grants to people
in danger due to their use of creativity to fight injustice. The fund
may be used to evacuate a dangerous situation; to cover living
expenses while weighing long-term options for safety; or to act on a
strategic opportunity to affect social change. The first round of
grants was underwritten by Freedom to Create. The Fund works with the
Festival Against Censorship in Bilbao, Spain to  make one travel and
accommodation grant annually. The first monetary award was made in
June 2010 to Kianoush Ramezani, Iranian cartoonist and chronicler of
the Green Movement.  Reporters sans Frontières notified
freeDimensional that Ramezani was stuck in Paris without a place to
sleep as he awaited political asylum status.

The first Bilbao award was given in Spring 2010 to Umida Akhmedova,
Uzbek photographer who was charged with criminal defamation of the
state due to her documentary photography exhibit, Women and Men, from
Dusk until Dawn.

Case Study: Abazar Hamid

Each year, hundreds of culture workers are violently assaulted for
pursuing social change through their art forms: as community leaders
and role models, they lose their jobs; face arbitrary imprisonment;
and are sometimes killed for speaking truth to power. Between 2005 and
2010, freeDimensional has come to the aid of over 60 activists and
culture workers in distress. These individuals are activist artists,
journalists, musicians, writers, and community organizers and came
from more than 20 countries. Based on lessons learned, we realized the
need for an emergency fund to quickly respond to victims of work-
related persecution or systemic marginalization. For example:
evacuating a dangerous situation (travel and visa expenses) to allow a
culture worker-in-distress to travel to an art space that has offered
creative safe haven or covering general living costs while the
recipient weighs long-term options for safety; paying for urgent
psychological care that would enable a victim of persecution the
mental health needed to take the next step; assisting with the cost of
language courses that would empower an exiled culture worker to pursue
his or her craft in a new country.

Committee
Grants are typically made within two weeks from the time of
application if approved by the Creative Resistance Fund committee,
which is made up of the Executive Director and two to three board
directors. The committee is currently recruiting additional members.

Partners
The Creative Resistance Fund is made possible by a start-up grant from
Freedom to Create; in-kind support from the Bilbao Festival Against
Censorship / Producciones Serrano; and freeDimensional’s general
operating support from the Sigrid Rausing Trust.

email: inquiry at freedimensional.org
P.O. Box 2, New York, NY 10276 USA


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