Wide Awakes

Wide Awakes March on October 3, 2020. Image copyright Benjamin Lozovsky.

What it was: 14 get-out-the-vote initatives before the 2020 election, run by and for artists across the United States.

We we did:

Consulted crowdfunding strategy and outreach
Hired and managed videographer and animator
Co-authored campaign copy and communications strategy
Hired fulfillment center for 1,200+ rewards
Managed and allocated $500,000 budget

Result:

Crowdfunding campaign that raised $258,793 across 1,766 backers.
Funds matched a $250,000 grant, for a grand total of $508,793.
$22,000-$37,000 distributed to 14 initiatives each in October 2020.

Press:

The Guardian, 2020.
TODAY, 2020.
The Art Newspaper, 2020.
Vogue, 2020.
Artnet News, 2020 and 2021.

Abraham Lincoln wasn’t elected in 1860 without help. A network of hundreds of thousands of mechanics, laborers, clerks and artists, called the Wide Awakes, formed to agitate for the abolition of slavery through marches, banners, flags and capes. And in 2020, the Wide Awakes did it again.

With the help of 1,766 backers and a matching grant of $250,000, a reimagined Wide Awakes for the 21st century raised $508,793 to distribute across fourteen partner organizations dedicated to get-out-the-vote initiatives one month before the 2020 election. From marches from Harlem to New York City Hall to Mobile Soup Kitchens to pop-up public artworks, the Wide Awakes pushed for Joe Biden’s election in a critical moment in American history.

The participating organizations included: Amplifier, The Art of Equal Pay, Creative Time, For Freedoms, Ghetto Gastro, Guild of Future Architects, The Incarceration Nations Network, Into Action, In Plain Sight, Kindred Arts, Lead With Love, Sankofa.org, Summit, and the Wide Awakes Collaboratory.

For Freedoms, FEDERAL HALL BANNERS (vinyl banners), 2020. Image courtesy For Freedoms.

Coby Kennedy, Hank Willis Thomas, and José Parlá as the Wide Awakes at Juneteenth Jubilee, 2020. Image courtesy Sidewalkkilla.

September-October 2020

Code 20-11