COME TO YOUR CENSUS, ARTISTS

A CONVERSATION ABOUT ART, DISABILITY ADVOCACY
+ PARTICIPATING IN THE 2020 CENSUS

Online Tuesday, September 15, 1pm





Join us online this Tuesday, September 15 at 1pm with Art+Action Coalition Partner Creativity Explored for Come To Your Census Artists, a conversation about art, disability advocacy, and participating in the Census—the most democratic process our country offers. 

The event is part of a series of civic actions inspired by the artwork included in The Good American, an exhibition featuring USA-themed art by over 20 artists with developmental disabilities. Moderated by exhibition curator Cléa Massiani, panelists include artist and CE collaborator Ana Teresa Fernández, Art+Action Founder + Artistic Director of Social Impact Amy Kisch and Executive Producer + Project Director Brittany Ficken, Executive Director of San Francisco's Office of Civic Engagement and Immigrant Affairs Adrienne Pon, and Director of the San Francisco Mayor's Office on Disability Nicole Bohn. People with disabilities make up 22% of the American public, yet they traditionally have been among the most under-counted populations. Disability is not only its own category, it is also a subset found within every social, economic, and racial demographic in the United States. Census data helps direct more than $1.5 trillion a year in federal funding—including for key programs that support and protect the rights of people with disabilities.

The exhibition is a celebration of the American spirit, bookended by the anniversary of 9/11 and Election Day, November 3, and reflects on the people who made our country what it is today while providing uplifting, and sometimes satirical, commentary on the 2020 election cycle. Asking "What does it mean to be a good citizen?" "Who is the we in 'We the People?'," CE is offering a series of programs and guerrilla activities with CE artists and the public spark interest in civic participation, with art as a medium to mutual understanding and inclusion. Program topics include disability rights, accessibility, the 2020 Census, voter registration, and SOMOS—an activist art-making project with Ana Teresa Fernández about immigration, identity, and self-representation. Artwork included in the exhibition will be available for sale on the CE Artsy page from September 11 to November 3, with 50% of proceeds benefiting artists directly.

Artwork by Creativity Explored artists Andrew Li and Antonio Benjamin are prominent parts of Art+Action's COME TO YOUR CENSUS campaign, and can be seen on billboards, transit shelters, street-pole banners throughout the Bay Area and downloaded from Art+Action's open-sourced FREE Census Toolkit. 


RSVP FOR THE PANEL DISCUSSION HERE

CALL TO GROUP ACTION 
POSTER YOUR COMMUNITY FOR IT'S FAIR SHARE OF MONEY + POWER 



With less than 4 weeks until the newly-shortened Census deadline, Art+Action is urging you to take action in your neighborhoods to ensure that your community receives its fair share of federal funding and political representation for the next 10 years.

Download our MONEY + POWER posters, featuring artwork by Brian Singer + Stephanie Syjuco, and put them up in your neighborhood grocery stores, bodegas, food banks, laundromats, coffee shops, restaurants, bars, liquor stores, and on community + school bulletin boards, walls, storefront windows (boarded up or as is) to inspire your community to claim their fair share before the 2020 Census ends on September 30. 

Your participation in this group action will help our communities recover from COVID-19, and thrive for the next decade—as the Census determines funding for public health coverage (Medicare, Medicaid, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program), healthcare (through grants to hospitals and clinics), and food assistance. Census participation is also one piece of the puzzle in righting the racial inequities in our country, by ensuring our most vulnerable and under-resourced communities are supported. 

DOWNLOAD BRIAN SINGER'S $20,000 CENSUS BILL POSTER HERE
DOWNLOAD STEPHANIE SYJUCO'S POSTER HERE


Artwork (left to right): Brian Singer + Stephanie Syjuco 
 

KABILANG TAYO SA KINABUKASAN / BE COUNTED FOR OUR FUTURE 

RAF SALAZAR BILLBOARD UNVEILING OF SOMA PILIPINAS ACTIVISTS



Art+Action is pleased to announce the unveiling of artist, illustrator, and designer Raf Salazar's billboard as part of the COME TO YOUR CENSUS campaign at 8th + Harrison in San Francisco’s SOMA neighborhood.

The Bay Area is home to around 500,000 Filipinos—who represent 12% of the 4 million Filipinos in the U.S.. There’s power in numbers, which is why the artwork he created depicts community activists and social workers from SOMA Pilipinas—an organization dedicated to celebrating the love, pride, and people power of generations of Filiipinos in San Francisco and beyond—empowering each other as a group. 

Salazar and Luisa Antonio, Executive Director of the Bayanihan Equity Center, are committed to ensuring that we are all counted fairly and accurately, so took a moment to share why completing the Census is a vital form of activism and resistance via PSA (in English + Tagalog). For each of us who completes the 9-question confidential Census, we bring $20,000 into our community over the next ten years for vital resources—including essential emergency services, healthcare, hospitals, affordable housing, food assistance, schools, child care, senior care, public transportation, road repair, and other community-based programs. This funding shapes our future for a decade, and is essential for our immigrant communities. 

The Census also ensures our voting power, equal representation in government, and fair redistricting for the next decade. Everyone has the right to safely participate—citizen or not—and there is no citizenship question on the 2020 Census. So if you haven’t already, please take 10 minutes and fill out your Census at my2020Census.gov or call 844-330-2020 by September 30th. It’s time we get our fair share. It’s time we come to our Census, and be counted for our future. 



WATCH ARTIST RAF SALAZAR'S CENSUS PSA (ENGLISH) HERE


WATCH EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE BAYANIHAN EQUITY CENTER LUISA ANTONIO'S CENSUS PSA (TAGALOG) HERE