Introducing Galerie Cali's #art4good Challenge

by Jorge Calderon July 28, 2020

We're launching a unique way to raise awareness and $ for social and environmental change.

Starting in October (2020), SF Bay Area artist Cali will create a special artwork every few weeks that will then go on an exhibition journey through a call for action challenge. The ultimate goal is to directly and indirectly catalyze giving through a shared experience. This is how it will initially work (subject to improvements through your feedback):

1) Once Cali has finished a painting for the challenge, we will create a call to action through our social media accounts and website blog.

2) The call for action will be for individuals to propose giving to charity in exchange for both receiving the painting temporarily and potentially owning it after the artworks exhibition tour is completed.

3) To initiate the call for action, we will have those interested in being part of the activity to voice their desire to give to the charity/cause of their choice. At this point, you are only raising your hand, it is not a commitment. Each participant will be subsequently added to a pool (yep, we will use a spreadsheet) and 48 hrs. after the initial announcement, we will use a randomizer to pick one participant from that group to be the first to receive the painting.

3) The person will be notified and if they are still compelled, they will give a donation of any size they would like to their charity/cause of choice. We will then send the person the artwork by mail (only within US, or delivered in person if in Bay Area). No need to worry about special insurance, we have that covered.

4) That person then can keep the artwork from 2 days to 2 weeks. When they are ready, we will coordinate with them for a new call to action for the next pool of recipients for the same artwork. We will then ask that initial person to then send the artwork to the next recipient directly using the special art strongbox that they originally received it in. We hope you'll be ok with paying for that postage to the next recipient (likely something between $10-$50 depending on where it is going).

5) The process is repeated until the artwork reaches an 8th recipient. At that point, we will then randomly draw from the 8 recipients to see who gets to keep the painting permanently (and have the option to auction it for the charity of your choice).

So in summary:

you raise your hand to give to charity
you only need to give if you are picked from the initial group
how much you give is 100% up to you
no additional insurance is required
we ask you to mail the painting directly to the next recipient
if you don't get picked from the original pool, you obviously are welcome to donate and we will make sure to acknowledge your giving
we plan to find ways to chronicle the journey of the painting and to highlight all causes submitted
we believe that the process and exhibition of the paintings will increase the value of the traveling paintings and so when you either get chosen as the permanent owner or you decide to auction it, there could be an upside for the asset

As an example scenario (the numbers here are solely illustrative):

Participant Sherrie C. is picked from an initial pool of 100 people, she decides to give $100 to her local education foundation. Three other people from that pool are inspired to give even without getting the painting, and that yields another $300 in catalyzed giving. Later, 7 other people become recipients of the traveling painting and give to their own causes and that might total another $700. More folks are inspired from those pools, maybe totaling another $400. You've collectively now helped catalyze $1,500. Sherrie C. is picked at random to be the owner of the painting and she decides to give it up for auction to raise more money for the education foundation (or other), that might yield another $3K-$10K for good. Overall, as a shared experience the charities/causes receive 10x what they would have if we just auctioned the painting. Now consider we'll be doing several unique traveling artworks each month (at least until the Covid pandemic ends), the catalytic power becomes exponential.

To reiterate, at the root of this call to action is to bring people together to extend the appreciation of art and to make positive social and environmental change. Be on the lookout for the first announcement in early September.