OUR MISSION:
to organize, recognize, & celebrate(!)
marginalized, low/no income & working class creatives
via accessible, pop-up & virtual programming throughout
New York’s "mid-Hudson Valley" region
ABOUT US
arts + activism + accessibility
Founded in 2018, Celebrate845 aims to provide platform, opportunity, and agency for marginalized, low income, no income, disabled, and working class creatives to share their work. Our larger goals are to collectively explore and take down systemic barriers within the arts, empower artists to use their creative skills towards liberatory efforts, connect artists here to local resources, and build strong, sustainable, and healthy communities for all.
We create space for people to come together, share experiences via the arts, and learn from one another while centering those who have been historically, systemically, and intentionally left out. We intend to find ways to sustain ourselves long-term not through individualism but through building power and community through the arts. Over time, we have expanded our mission to be more intersectional, as we are mightier when we are together. We also empower artists to recognize the importance of being involved in their communities and we use our platform to address regional issues such as gentrification, opportunity inequity, food insecurity, and more.
We prioritize things like:
- Celebrating this land and one another regardless of ability, class, or artistic skill level
- Compensating artists and collaborators for their efforts
- Making our events safe(r) and more accessible to be part of and attend
- Creating income sources when we can to help sustain local artists living in an increasing gentrified region, and doing so outside of the non profit industrial complex
- Not taking massive commission on sold works or wares
- Working with collaborators and venues that are like-minded
- Sourcing sustainable supplies and food locally
- Using our platform to amplify important work led by those most impacted across the 845
- Identifying and moving resources from those with privilege to those most impacted by systems of oppression
- Incorporating mutual aid and public health messaging into our work so that people outside of our digital bubbles can discover and access resources
- Not compromising our values and not being silent bystanders against systems of oppression, including but not limited to: ableism, bigotry, carceral systems and prisons, classism, gender bias, gentrification, police, racism, transphobia, xenophobia, Zionism.
We are dedicated to exploring the intersections between art, activism, and accessibility. We are here to help facilitate skill shares so that all people are empowered to build what we need. We are not here to uphold oppressive, racist, classist, exclusionary, and inaccessible ways of being. We are committed to holding space, sharing resources, and helping to make and keep the Hudson Valley creative community excellent.
Click here for FAQs about us
Hot Temper | WOMXNFEST 2019 | photo by Emely Pena
organize - recognize - celebrate!