The Future Belongs to the Loving

May 3 - July 31, 2025

Curators and Organizers: Patricia Miranda, Michael Sylvan Robinson, Natalya Khorover, Jenn Cacciola, and Sarah Valeri

Artists, Performers, Agitators: (updated as the project grows)

Jocelyn Braxton Armstrong, Regan Avery, Aileen Bassis, Claudia Bavagnoli, Veronica Bello, Nia Blue, David Borawski, Melanie Brewster, Ram Brisueno, Alexandra Brock, Emily Budd, Serena Buschi, Elizabeth Castaldo, Katie Cercone, Jodi Colella, Davida Cook, Patricia Dahlman, Elizabeth de Bethune, Hale Ekinci, Carolyn Ellis, Federica Patera + Andrea Sbra Perego, Susan Hoffman Fishman, Deborah Freedman, Gonzaga Gómez-Cortázar Romero, Chrissanth Greene-Gross, Ellen Hackl Fagan, Shelby Head, Avery Johnson, Elena Kalkova, Amy Keefer, Barbara King, Wendy Kohli, Mindy Kombert, Bonny Leibowitz, Antoinette Legnini, Constanza Liberona, Rita Maas, Katrina Majkut, Markham Maria, Lenka Maskova, Elizabeth Mihaltse Lindy, Jeffrey Mueller, Kaitlyn Niznik, Sari Nordman, Kelly Marie O'Brien, Lisie S Orjuela, SOLI Pierce, Kate Quarfordt, Carin Reich,, Margaret Roleke, Victoria Rolett, Jon Rowe, Theda Sandiford, Aleksandra Scepanovic, Diana Schmertz, Yulia Silina, Katrina Slavik, Jessica Soininen-Eddis, Darcy Spitz, James Stamboni, Rebecca Steiner, Dayna Talbot, Frankie Tejada Lizardo, Emily Tironi, Winnie van der Rijn, Cynthia Walat, Joan Wheeler, Elizabeth White, Devynity Wray

Description:

How can artists strengthen the connections and care that foster community in these challenging times of environmental and political crisis? As we encounter individuals and institutions self-censoring in an effort to be “safe,” we come together to hold and celebrate art that is joyous, openly activist, and politically explicit. This project offers the empathetic space of art to encourage practices of artivism and craftivism and to support artists who facilitate community-building. As artists, we can join together to create pathways away from isolation and anchor us in resilient communities to face the challenges ahead.

We welcome radical political work and artworks that emphasize the joy and love of resistance.

We are excited to have our Caribbean artists in The Future Belongs to the Loving featured on Repeating Islands, a blog focusing on artists from the Caribbean and the diaspora! Thanks to writer Ivette Romero for the post.

Some terms:

Craftivism is a social process of collective empowerment, activism, and expression incorporating elements of anti-capitalism, solidarity, and feminism centered on practices of craft.
An artivist is an artist who uses their work to promote social change and challenge injustice.

Themes:

Feminism

Health, Rights, and Autonomy of women and women-identified persons

Violence against particular communities and all humans

LGBTQ-BIPOC issues

Ecology and Environmental issues (all aspects)

Alternate Economies for grassroots communities

Art+Craft and Activism

Your theme here!

Details:

We invite you to collaborate with us for the May 3rd event, and throughout the duration of the exhibition. Whether you are an artivist, craftivist, or artist who typically doesn’t consider yourself an activist, we welcome you to join us for this act of care and coalition-building. We hope this project will also be a seed for future artivist projects.

The Deadline has passed- however the project is evolving and ongoing. If you have an idea for a collaborative project or are an organization interested in the project- email us at mapspace.art@gmail.com

There is no fee to enter or propose projects.

Everyone is needed to build hope, resilience, and care in our communities. We are open to ideas big and small.

We welcome all genres of art, performance, and actions!

Workshops and presentations may be highly informative with actionable wisdom or may prioritize less structured time spent in collective making. Activist organizations interested in participating in events and partnering with artists are also welcome. Our focus is projects and workshops that emphasize community, collaboration, and change, and that might potentially work with organizations doing on-the-ground change work.

Let’s grow this nationally!

This program is in-person and deeply local. We are also interested in partnering with artists, artist-run organizations, galleries, institutions, community groups around the country who are interested in creating simultaneous programming where you are. If you are an artist or org who would like to initiate something in your area- apply with your project. We will coordinate all programs under the project and website. Groups will independently design, initiate, and control their own programs, to be listed with all under the The Future Belongs to the Loving Project. The NY contingent will not organize, interfere, or fund these projects- we hope this can be a country-wide community effort!

NOTE: This is a volunteer artist-run project. Our main goal is to join together in person to make, create, and resist. Programs are designed to bring artists and the community together. The team will offer as much support as possible to facilitate; we offer space, social media posts, and website links, however artists are expected to be fully involved in developing, funding, promoting and attending programs they offer.

Residency

We are also developing a possible Residency at MAPSpace for summer 2025. This would be for groups of 3 or more artists, artivists, craftivists, activists, and organizations who want a free space to work together on action-oriented projects. This is not a studio residency for one artist. If you are interested in more info, reach out and stay tuned!

MAPSpace

MAPSpace

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