Katherine Bradford, Gina Beavers, and 140 Other Artists Are Giving Away Their Work for Free to Donors Supporting Pandemic Relief Efforts

Two months ago, as governors
across the US began issuing shelter-in-place restrictions, New York
artist Hannah Beerman, a recent graduate of
the Hunter College MFA program, looked out the window of her Manhattan
apartment and wondered what artists could do to support relief
efforts.

Her solution was
to launch Artists for
Humans, an Instagram
initiative in which artists give away artworks to those donating
money to specified relief causes. 

“I didn’t have access to a lot
of things, but I do have access to my relationships and my
friends,” Beerman tells Artnet News. The goal was modest, the artist says. “If
somebody had asked me how much I was hoping to raise, I would have
said maybe $400 or $500.”

The day after Beerman
launched the
effort, she woke up to some
400 direct messages in her inbox from artists willing to
contribute. 

To date, the project has raised
over $136,000 for the homeless, the elderly, and others impacted by
the health and economic crisis, and more than 140 artists have
donated works, including Gina Beavers, Katherine Bradford, Jeffrey
Gibson, Eddie Martinez, Vaughn Spann, and Molly Zuckerman-Hartung,
with many others in the queue. 

“I feel like right now, we can
really radicalize anything,” Beerman says.

New artworks are posted to the
Instagram account daily, the values of which are determined by the
artists and revealed to donors directly. After the donor provides a receipt for a
donation made to a specified charity, Beerman connects them with
the artist to arrange shipping.

Donations range from $100 to
$5,000, with most artworks handed over for far below their market
value, she says. (Some
artists consult with their galleries to determine
values.) 

“The point of the project is for
everyone to feel good, to connect with each other, to connect to
the city,” Beerman says.

Beerman will be presenting her own works at NADA’s new online fair, which goes live
Monday.

The post Katherine Bradford, Gina Beavers, and 140 Other
Artists Are Giving Away Their Work for Free to Donors Supporting
Pandemic Relief Efforts appeared first on artnet
News.