2021 - What a Year! Here’s a Quick Recap

Dear readers, supporters, artists, partners, and friends,

As we are reviewing our year, we feel an enormous amount of gratitude towards all of you. This year has exceeded our expectations and that’s because you were there every step of the way, engaging in our projects, providing feedback, applying for grants, creating a social media buzz, and patiently collaborating with us even in the most hectic of times. Thank you!

Of course, we would be remiss not to mention the dedication of our small internal team, from full-time staff, to part-time employees, to interns and contributors. Everyone actively contributed ideas, showed dedication and unwavering belief in what Repaint History stands for, and made the execution of projects possible.

Alright, so let’s see what 2021 was all about!

We exceeded our funding of artists commitment

At the beginning of the year, we committed to funding women artists in the amount of 5,000 CAD. The funding was distributed through our quarterly Call for Art rounds, each featuring 3-6 winners. We are excited to report that we have distributed almost 10,000 CAD in 2021! And that number will most likely increase even further to 13,000 CAD since our last Call for Art for the year is still open.

As you know, 20% of all application fees go back to the fund. Plus, we got incredible partners for the 2021 rounds. That’s how we were able to exceed our target and fund 13 artists to date. That number will be at 17-19 artists by the end of the year.

We worked on spreading awareness about the inequality in representation

We launched multiple campaigns to reach out to museums and increase awareness of the uneven representation of women – especially BIPOC female artists – in museums and galleries. We ran an Instagram campaign, encouraging our followers to tag museums and galleries (400+ shares within the first 30 minutes of the campaign going live,  THOUSANDS of shares overall – not to mention the thousands of likes, comments, and just love in general), we fulfilled our pledge from 2020 and donated 1,046 CAD to the Baltimore Museum of Art that ran a year of collecting work by only women artists.

We were able to support the work of dozens of women artists

It’s difficult to quantify the work we’ve done supporting female artists this year. Between enabling the recipients of the Call for Art funding to replenish their materials or rent out a new studio, thus providing them with financial support, we did our best to show that we are genuinely invested in the success of our network through a variety of ways. For example, we promoted art shows of our network members through our newsletter and social media accounts, we put a spotlight on individual artists through our Artists We Love series, we hosted studio talks and hosted mentorship sessions.

We also shared resources that we thought artists in our network might find useful – online tools, marketplaces, learning opportunities, etc.

We shared news in the world of art and women success stories. 

We set up dozens of calls with our network members to try and better understand their needs, achievements, goals, and inspirations.

While we can’t put a monetary value on this, we sincerely hope that many of you felt that we are a valuable resource. That was our goal.

We co-founded the Fair Art 2030 Pledge

At the end of the year – just last month – we announced the launch of our new collective project, Fair Art 2030.

Fair Art 2030 is a pledge project and collective for equality and inclusion in the art world, a Fair Art Pledge and public promise that museums, galleries, art fairs, and organizations are invited to sign as an indication of their commitment to representing the full population in their collections, exhibitions, programming, and management by 2030.

While many institutions create “buzzworthy” headlines towards inclusivity and equal representations, we have yet to see the actual data supporting this change.

If you are also as passionate about this necessary change and believe that lack of inclusive representation in the art world is no longer acceptable, then join us and help spread the word!

Looking forward to 2022

As delighted as we are with 2021 and what we were able to achieve, we are also completely exhausted (who isn’t, though, right?). So we are looking forward to the holiday season and unwinding with our loved ones, drinking hot chocolate, listening to Christmas carols, and catching up on sleep. We definitely need to recharge, given that we have massive plans for 2022. 

We listened to all your feedback and have set up projects that will allow us to increase the ways in which we support you    and create impact. We do have amazing partners, we have you - our network - and we have talented staff. So here’s to 2022.

We wish you and your loved ones happy holidays! May 2022 bring you joy, good health, inspiration, and unforgettable memories.

Love,

Pegah and the Repaint History team