Who We Are
Living Room is project intended to elevate the voices of, and financially compensate artists who are Black and Indigenous People of Color, more specifically those who are Trans, Two Spirit, Nonbinary, or Gender Nonconforming (GNC). In the spirit of mutual aid, we recognize the marginalization and oppression faced by these groups and seek both help to artists & arts educators who have suffered losses due to the pandemic while also allowing them a chance to show their works as well as their perspectives while also being compensated for doing so. Our goal is to host a collection of artists and their works in an online gallery as well as offer a series of (online) skillshares or presentations to help better a community of artists. All organizers for Living Room are exclusively BIPOC and trans*.
How we pay people
We want to be as transparent as possible about our work, who we are, how we organize and how we spend our money. We received a $5,000 Arts Innovation Grant from the Sachs Program for Arts Innovation through the University of Pennsylvania. With the exception of those funds allocated to pay for this website and our G-Suite account, this money will be distributed amongst the artists we work for and with as well as our ASL interpreters. Every artist will be paid a minimum of $200 for showing their artwork on our website or giving a 1 hour skill-share, workshop, or artist talk. Additionally two of our organizers, Carmen and Arcelio, were paid for their added work as ASL consultants and graphic designers for the project respectively.
Participants will be be paid via the University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Pay system, wherein participants will be given an engagement form, sign into a portal, and submit a W-9.
You do not have to be a US citizen to participate in living room. If for some reason you cannot fill a W-9, a consultant will be brought on to accept the money in your stead and assure you are paid.
Please allow up to 2 weeks for payments to process, and we HIGHLY recommend selecting Direct Deposit, if available for the fastest way to receive funds.
While we welcome all to view our gallery and attend our hosted online events, funds are reserved specifically to assist BIPOC Trans, Two Spirit, Nonbinary, or Gender Nonconforming artists who have been especially impacted by the pandemic. Although not a requirement, Philadelphia residents or marginalzied BIPOC within UPenn’s community will be prioritized for funds.
It is our mission for this project to be queer, healing, just, and anti-racist to the core. Please don’t hesitate to drop us an email with questions, concerns, or requests. We love you.
Co-Organizers
Fae alaz (they/them)
Fae Alaz is an MFA candidate at the University of Pennsylvania. As a disabled artist and community organizer, much of Alaz’s work centers on the intersection of queerness along the axes of sex work, medicalized institutions, addiction, and the pipelines there involved. This past year they worked with artist Deidre Logue and Allyson Mitchell of York University to do accessible archiving of Killjoy’s Kastle: a Lesbian Feminist Haunted House using archival methods like photogrammetry and immersive technologies like augmented and virtual reality.
Celestino Pottinger (they/them)
Celestino Pottinger is a media lover and maker based out of Providence, RI. Celestino has hosted galleries, learned photography, and built stages for the community space at Lodge Co-operative in Ithaca, NY. After receiving a BA from Cornell University’s Media Arts program, they’re spending time building community with other BIPoC artists and Soulquarians fans.
Celestino writes poetry for Eachother Journal. They write poems, make videos, organize music promotion, and help with social media promotion for Queerstar Collective. He hosts the Queerstar Radio Podcast. He is a proud Caribbean and a less proud fan of Game of Thrones.
Photo by @spooky.world on IG
Arcelio ConDE (they/them)
Arcelio Conde is a nonbinary trans artist of Salvadorian descent. They graduated in 2017 from CSULA with a B.A. in Animation and a minor in Women and Gender Studies. Their main areas of interest are Gender & Sexuality, Environmentalism, and Culture outside of the United States. As someone who has led many lives and held many identities, Arcelio believes deeply in the potential for human growth, connection, and general love for one another through simple acts of kindness and understanding. Some hobbies include reading, caring for two cats, anime, video games, and walking around Los Angeles in the ghostly hours.
Carmen Lugo (They/them)
Carmen Lugo is a Tainx interpreter currently living in Philadelphia who is a trained ASL/English Interpreter with over 5 years of experience. They also have a degree in Linguistics from the University of Pennsylvania, with a minor in Deaf Studies/American Sign Language. Carmen has traveled to meet Deaf folx abroad, and isalways bettering their knowledge