Support the "Art of the T-shirt"
Invest in Proven Community Programs

Grass-roots community art organizations have taken a beating over the past twenty years as the first hit and continuously cut until few independents remain. Yet, it is in the many small community art groups and organizations that the great majority of local artists are nourished. Through these grass-roots groups, many are introduced to art where they live, including those who rarely reach out for it. The "Art of the T-shirt" reaches these groups because our "Screen Print Workshop for Artists" connects with the artists that speak to them. Our on-line ART-ACT program is beginning to involve additional artists on a global scale. This is connecting our local artists with an international community.

The "Art of the T-shirt" has, for over ten years, collected art all summer-long hanging exhibits in public libraries, then bringing the exhibits together for a "T-shirt Art Harvest Festival" in the last weekend in September. Youth show next to mature professionals. Artists were not only invited to participate but called on the phone and encouraged to show! Forty thousand people saw our exhibits annually in the public libraries. A lack of funding has suspended these library exhibits.

The Uptown Multi-Cultural Art Center incorporated in 1987. Our purpose, to found an arts agency that could market art to support its community art activities for our low income community and struggling artists city-wide, still motivates our actions. We built an art gallery on North Clark Street where the first "Art of the T-shirt" exhibit hung in 1989. Relocating in 1990 to the American Indian Center, the "Art of the T-shirt" took center stage in our programming. We explored its potential for a decade. Ten years ago we constructed a screen print workshop, and six years ago began building a community computer lab to serve enormous local needs. Our cable TV show in its sixth year promotes the art and artists of the "Art of the T-shirt". These programs are a solid foundation to base the success of a venture on which we have planned since our founding. We have refined our plans over the years. It is to market the graphic prints of artists on t-shirts produced in our screen print workshop over the Internet. We have just completed computerizing our finances to handle the inventory and accounting required to expand our business.

The "Art of the T-shirt" draws artists from all around Chicago. As it grows - so grows an informal network connecting these communities. Inclusive, not exclusive - the "Art of the T-shirt" recruits the self-educated, as well as college educated artists. It is not surprising that often those expressing their cultural heritage most freely have not been extensively re-educated in institutions of the dominate culture. The accessibility of the "Art of the T-shirt", for all artists to show and its public outreach are strengths. We have promoted its name for over a decade. The imprinted t-shirt industry represents 16 billion dollars annually. The t-shirt as a fashion and as an form of self-expression is a slice of Americana. To exalt this heritage through an annual exhibit makes good sense. We seek to create from this strategy sustainable programs in related arts that serve youth, artists, and the public.

Ten years of work provides us with our identity. Eight years of exploring inexpensive shortcuts and teaching artists how to screen print their graphic work provide us with many screens of art ready to print and artists ready to license their designs for sale. We have a startup facility. Our computer lab insures we have access to the technology we need and the training facilities to teach the skills required to compete on the Internet. Our website exudes the character of our annual "Art of the T-shirt" exhibits. We are positioning it locally to promote local artists and internationally to promote diversity as part of an on-line community. Finally, the cable TV programming we have produced over the last six seasons is material on our artists for many projects in the future. We have the pieces. We need the string to tie it all together. Stabilizing the "Art of the T-shirt" will allow us to solidify this suite of programs.

Our Board of Directors are representative of the artists exhibiting with us. We mail regularly to 460 artists who have expressed interest in our programs. Two hundred sixty-six have exhibited with us. Sixty have studied screen printing in our workshop. We would like to further expand artists involvement in and invite ownership of the "Art of the T-shirt" so those of us who built the exhibits can focus on building our venture. This proposal requests one full-time administrator (Chris Drew - $25,000), three part-time employees (an office aid, artist/volunteer organizer, and screen print workshop lab tech - $38,000), audit and accounting costs ($3,000), and other costs (materials, mailings, phone, website, rent - $9,000). This is a total of $75,000 for each of the three years of this proposal request ($225,000).

As a result of this support an administrator will be able to work full time for us. He will have the minimum help needed to maintain a professional office. The organizer will help manage the volunteers, interns and artists. The Screen Print Workshop Lab Tech will train and aid artists making regular lab hours possible.

The screen print workshop tech will help train artists in basic screen print procedures and maintain the screen print workshop. Our submission of grant proposals, aided for the first time by staff support, will increase greatly. Thus, we expect to find additional support for our workshops once we gain seed support for initial staff. Our proven programs are ready to expand effectively.

In the first year we will begin work on our business plan. By year two we will seek support to test this venture. During our third year we will be raising added funds from our screen print workshop and Internet T-shirt business. Our programs will be better staffed due to our greater ability to seek funding. We will be in a position to handle year four without our seed funders support.

After three years of seed support the "Art of the T-shirt" will be run by artists. It will be expanding into new communities. Artists' information and several hundred prints will be available on-line. Our website will be averaging hundreds of thousands of hits per week. We will be handling credit card transactions. Our computer lab will be focused on teaching basic computer skills and web site design. We will begin to be known around the world as the community art agency that addresses the issues of racism through art. These outcomes are measurable. We are ready to take the next step. Can you give us a boost up?

All rights reserved © 2001 Uptown Multi-Cultural Art Center (UM-CAC). E-mail UM-CAC at umcac@art-teez.org Ph.773/561-7676