April 21st Action Alert & Update on "Entitled Millennium Trust Fund" Gallery scheduled to open in #CrownHeights:
On March 31st Sam Fein sent the following email to E4F :
"As previously stated, I will review your request when my family crisis has abated. I will take your petition into serious consideration, and I do hope we can speak when I return to NYC. Please note that due to limited internet access + mitigating circumstances, I cannot respond to you at the date and time requested. I will contact you when I am available to discuss in an in depth manner. Unfortunately, it will most likely be in May, which I know is not the timeline you desire.
Kind regards,
Sam"
As of April 20 2017, Sam Fein has not changed the name of the gallery and has not set up a time to meet with community activists, artists, & residents. As far as we can tell Sam Fein is still taking submissions from artists on her website.
On March 20th , Mi Casa No Es Su Casa, an anti-gentrification insurgent art collective by New Yorkers for New Yorkers, issued a statement saying the collective : publicly condemns the name Entitled Millennial Trust Fund chosen for this new art gallery, fully knowing that art galleries and gentrifying millennials with trust funds have consistently displaced working class families and POC from our neighborhoods. The name of this gallery only adds insult to injury, is in poor taste and will be taken as an act of aggression toward the community of Crown Heights. We will assume that any artist willing to be associated with such a gallery is complicit with the actions and carelessness of this gallery.
We are asking the community to:
1. Continue to sign and share the petition. http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/641/667/059/
2. Continue to put pressure on Sam Fein to set a meeting date with community members by May 7th, 2017. This meeting would include multiple community stakeholders and could be conducted in-person, through SKYPE or via conference call.
Signed :
Nancy Ahn, Life-long Brooklyn Resident, Graphic Novelist
Malcolm Brown, Crown Heights Resident, Photographer and Videographer
Alicia Boyd, Founder, Movement to Protect the People (MTOPP)
Sabrina De Martini, Artist, Lifelong Brooklyn Resident
Paul DeMuro, Artist Studio Affordability Project
Alec Duffy, Co-Director, JACK
Esteban Girón, Organizing Committee, Crown Heights Tenant Union (CHTU)
Will Giron , Mi Casa No Es Su Casa: Illumination Against Gentrification
Imani Henry, Executive Director, Equality for Flatbush
Michael Higgins Jr., Brooklyn Anti-gentrification Network
Katie Hydell, Bushwick Community Organizer, Equality for Flatbush
Sheehan Moore, Brooklyn Anti-gentrification Network
Soraya Palmer, Steering Committee, Equality for Flatbush
William Powhida, Artist Studio Affordability Project
Pati Rodriguez, Mi Casa No Es Su Casa: Illumination Against Gentrification
Bruno Daniel Garcia, Mi Casa No Es Su Casa: Illumination Against Gentrification
Shellyne Rodriguez, Take Back the Bronx, Bronx Social Center
Anthony Rosado, Bushwick-Native, Founder of The Testourmonials Project
Maddy Rosenberg, Central Booking Art Space
Heather Marie Scholl, Racial Justice Artist/Flatbush Resident
Maya Shoukri, Brooklyn Anti-Gentrification Network
Raia Small, Steering Committee, Equality for Flatbush
Southwest Brooklyn Tenant Union
Shatia Strother, Program Coordinator, FUREE (Families United for Racial and Economic Equality)
Joyce Stewart, Founder & President,The 320 Sterling Street Tenants Association, Crown Heights
Amanda Trainor, Equality for Flatbush/ Artist/ Crown Heights Resident
Peter Velez, Lifelong Crown Heights Resident, Equality for Flatbush
Manon Vergerio, Brooklyn Anti-Gentrification Network
Elsa Waithe, CopWatch Patrol Unit - CPU, Comedian, Flatbush
Amy Wald, Brooklyn Resident and Organizer
Lauren Wilfong, Brooklyn Anti-gentrification Network
Gleb Wilson, Brooklyn Anti-gentrification Network
Noah Wolf, Brooklyn Anti-gentrification Network
Tamara Zahaykevich, Artist Studio Affordability Project
Background:
On March 18th, Samantha "Sam" Fein, an artist born and raised in Tuscon, AZ issued a call for "proposals for exhibitions, collaborations, and/or unique uses for our 150 square foot project space located in Crown Heights, Brooklyn." For details: https://entitledmillennialtrustfund.com/projects/
The name of Sam Fein's gallery/workspace /project is called Entitled Millennial Trust Fund
The Brooklyn anti-gentrification group, Equality for Flatbush - E4F and several other community residents, artists and anti-gentrification activists have expressed their opposition to the name deeming it, insensitive, classist and in poor taste given the current state of rampant gentrification and displacement of low-to-middle income residents, particularly of color, from Crown Heights.
Equality for Flatbush has called on Sam Fein to:
1. Change the name of her gallery/artspace/project IMMEDIATELY &
2. Meet with community residents, artists, and other anti-gentrification activists by March 31st to ensure that the Crown Heights community will not be impacted in a negative way when and if her gallery/art space/project opens in 2017. This meeting could be conducted in-person, through SKYPE or via conference call.
Sam Fein has been asked to respond in writing to E4F with dates and times for a meeting during the week of March 27th no later than Friday, March 24th 5pm EST.
Here is the original thread on Art Opportunities, Jobs, and Advice, where several people who simply asked for explanation of accountability , were dismissed by Samantha Fein :https://www.facebook.com/groups/artopportunities/permalink/1349483685117018/
Here is a screenshot of an exchange between Sam Fein and Imani Henry of E4F : https://www.facebook.com/BeforeItsGoneTakeItBack/photos/pcb.1470817079629787/1470816532963175/?type=3&theaterc
Please continue to check out & post your opinion, thoughts etc on EMTF 's Facebook page :
https://www.facebook.com/EMTFnyc/
Twitter & Instagram accounts :
@EMTFnyc @SamFeinArt
More about the artist & her work :http://www.samfein.com
#SamFein #BrooklynIsNotForSale #ChangeTheName #ArtWashingIsGentrification #EntitledMillennialTrustFund #EMTF #CrownHeights #Brooklyn
