FAIR News: Advancing the Future of Arts & Culture
Newsletter
Dear Friends of FAIR,
On November 2nd, we came together in Los Angeles for an unforgettable afternoon advancing the future of the arts and culture.
Kicking off our year-end FAIR Forward Campaign with a fundraiser for the FAIR Artist Grant, we welcomed over sixty creatives, thought leaders, and donors to hear the powerful stories—and see exclusive film previews—from courageous FAIR artists. Featured speakers Clifton Duncan, Julie Eicher Aguilar, Wade Major, and Scott McRae recounted their harrowing experiences being broken by the culture of conformity, censorship, and blacklisting that has crept into the arts industries. They moved us to see a brighter future in spite of it all. They showed us how, through FAIR, we are building a better alternative in real time and outlined what it will take for our movement to succeed.
At the beautiful Pacific Palisades home of Sasha Young and Sean Odlum, we had the pleasure of mingling with special guests including The Coddling Movie's Ted & Courtney Balaker, The Unspeakeasy's Meghan Daum, The Free Press' Ben Kawaller, and political commentator Ana Kasparian.
Through the exceptional efforts of our hosts, FAIR Arts leaders Brent Morden and Michelle Pollino, we raised funds to support FAIR's work empowering freethinking artists with grants, resources, platforms, and other opportunities. These fundraising efforts helped to replenish our Artist Grant, which last year enabled six fearless artists to overcome funding barriers they faced because of their perceived identity group, belief system, or the ideas they chose to explore in their works.
On the heels of this remarkable fundraiser in Los Angeles, FAIR is proud to renew our commitment to building a new arts infrastructure. With our incredible community of artists, we are paving the off-ramp from the climate of divisive identity politics, groupthink, and censorship that has been suffocating the arts and entertainment for years. We remain united in our movement to reclaim a common culture of free expression, viewpoint diversity, excellence, and humanity in the arts.
We look forward to hosting more events as we head into the new year and are grateful for your support to make it happen.
Warmly,
The Team at FAIR
FAIR is thrilled to welcome back Erec Smith to our Advisory Board. Erec is an Associate Professor of Rhetoric at York College of Pennsylvania, and co-founder of Free Black Thought, a small group of scholars, technologists, parents, and American citizens determined to amplify vital black voices that are rarely heard on mainstream platforms. Smith is also a Writing Fellow for Heterodox Academy and serves as an advisor for the Institute for Liberal Values as well as Counterweight.
At York College of Pennsylvania, Smith’s research is mostly focused on political rhetoric, Buddhist philosophy and rhetoric, rhetorics of diversity, composition pedagogy, and discourse and identity. He has published many works, including The Making of Barack Obama, The Politics of Persuasion: An Exploration, A Critique of Anti-Racism in Rhetoric and Composition, and The Semblance of Empowerment.
We are so proud Erec has decided to join us—his work is invaluable and is a testament to the values we at FAIR are fighting for.
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This could be a truly amazing step in the right direction. I used to own an art gallery and frame shop, and uplifted many original artists in the tiny Alaskan towns in the area. Those days are over for me due to spinal issues, so I'm thankful for your work in this arena. There is much to be learned from the arts, and we've been squandering the human capital available in what could be a rich field (and by that I don't imply the selling of "invisable sculpture" for ridiculous sums!). Artists of all kinds can be the jesters to the kings as one of their important roles, as well as simply original thinkers who can expand artistic horizons in beneficial ways