Alum-Led Fulcrum Project Seeks to Address Inequities in Artist Funding

Fiber and Textiles alum Feather Chiaverini and local artist matt lambert founded the project in order to support underrepresented and vulnerable artists.

Fiber and Textiles alum Feather Chiaverini, along with Detroit maker, writer, performer and curator, matt lambert, has founded the Fulcrum Project in order to address systemic inequalities in artist funding and residencies and to support vulnerable artists and designers during the global COVID-19 pandemic. The project is already garnering attention from curators, higher education programs and crafts institutions around the country.

Founded in reaction to the global pandemic, this summer’s George Floyd anti-racist protests and the ongoing Black Lives Matter movement, the Fulcrum Project was created to support new and emerging crafts-based artists and designers who remain underrepresented in the arts world, including LGBTQAI++, Indigenous, Black, people of color, disabled and alternatively abled people. The project raises funding for digital residencies and other programming, including presentations by noted and established artists and designers with the first residency held in August.

Assistant Professor and Section Head of Printmaking, Tyanna Buie was among recent artist presenters and Photography alumni Lancer Casem and Rachel Elise Thomas were both awarded digital residencies.

First-round residencies have been filled, but the Fulcrum Project is still accepting donations for future programming. Visit the organization’s Instagram profile at Fulcrum Project  for more information.