These challenging times have forced us all to re-examine our sense of community. At Arquetopia we understand this crisis as an opportunity to grow, reconnect, and create new ways of working together for social change in the arts. This summer, Arquetopia launched the first phase of our online residency space, and with your help, we will expand our virtual residency programs to increase access and offer more free online educational opportunities for artists and art historians around the world.
The effects of the pandemic of 2020 have been devastating for all economies around the world, and the cultural sector has been hit harder than any other. Cultural spaces, and especially artist residencies, have been severely affected through the restriction on mobility, the loss of income and funding, and the strict limitations to work with our communities. More than ever, we need to increase the possibilities for collaboration, reimagine our own community, and expand interconnectivity.
As a response, Arquetopia began offering virtual artist residencies, online events and a virtual symposium worldwide, in a series of open-ended critical dialogues free of cost. The response has been overwhelming, putting again into relevance important concepts such as reciprocity, solidarity, dignity, community, sustainability and social justice. The goal of our programs is to expand and open a space for critical discussions in the arts, reaching more artists and facilitate access to learning.
Arquetopia's virtual space will continue to open up larger discussions and benefit students, artists, residencies, and anyone else interested in the arts. We know it's necessary to join efforts in the cultural sector to turn these crazy times into new opportunities to interconnect, collaborate beyond borders, exercise reciprocity in the arts and create a generous open space for critical knowledge. In the words of Audre Lorde, "Without community there is no liberation."
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
