An Invitation to Join and Give

Dear Friends,

We want to express our gratitude for your past support of WPA, and invite you to join our year-end campaign, which will fund artist-organized projects well into 2022. But first, a look back.

2021 was another extraordinary year, and the artists we worked with accomplished so much. With your support, they organized virtual screenings, public performances, exhibitions, and more. They designed and edited a book that sold out its first printing. They conducted research on petit marronage, technology and disability, galactic escapism, and other fascinating subjects. Additionally, more than 200 artists presented works through our benefit sales.

As we look toward the new year, we couldn't be more excited! This week we’ll launch WPA books+editions, a rotating selection of artist books and limited edition prints available for sale in our gallery space and online. We’ve also commissioned a dynamic mural from DC-based artist Maps Glover, which covers several walls of our gallery. We’re hosting our third artist-organizer in residence, Misha Ilyin, and preparing to award a third round of twelve Wherewithal Grants. Plus, WPA staff is now back in our gallery space Thursdays through Saturdays. We hope you’ll come visit! 

We’re also thrilled to share that our 2022 programmatic season is shaping up to be one of WPA’s most ambitious yet. We are working on projects with artists Fabiola Ching (a workshop on literary dyke utopias), Ken Lum (reflecting on the Chinese-American artist experience), Miguel Braceli (exploring the meaning of citizenship), Matthew Mann (a critique of New Urbanism in DC), Yacine Tilala Fall (visual liberation), and Giancarlo Montes (imagining Queer futures).

I am inviting you to make a contribution, in any amount, in support of these projects before the year's end. Your gift will advance WPA’s artist-driven program model and, most importantly, enable us to continue serving our community as a cornerstone of DC’s contemporary art community, a platform for experimentation and a space for connection and conversation.

Thank you for being a part of WPA, and for your dedication to the arts community. We wish you a warm and healthy holiday season. 

Sincerely,

Photos from top left, clockwise: Fall Artist-Organizer-in-Residence Misha Ilyin, Virtual Arepera with Mercedes Golip as part of "Notions of Exile," Winter Artist-Organizer-in-Residence Brittney Washington, Maps Glover in front of their mural for WPA books+editions, "Black Women as/and the Living Archive" organized by Tsedaye Makonnen, and Miguel Braceli with WPA's Jordan Martin during a planning meeting for "Citizens without citizenship | Ciudadanxs sin ciudadanía."