Pink Flamingo

Call for allies: please help uphold the fences area. Rebel News just forced themselves into our face and aggressively tried to engage without consent. No one is allowed in the fences area excerpt the mural team. We are on break for a bit and will be back to work after 4PM.

We are delighted to announce our partnership with Jae Sterling (@jaesterling) and the @sansfuccs crew on a new mural to be completed in Chinatown this September. We made the difficult decision in August to postpone our publicly funded murals project to 2021 after an onslaught of racist vitriol and threats. However, we also received an outpouring of support including that of artists and building owners in the city. Thanks to the generosity of some wonderful Calgarians, we are ...able to proceed this fall with an additional, privately funded mural project that we are extremely proud of. The Guide & Protector by Jae Sterling will represent his vision for Black voices and Black artists in Canada. When we saw his work at the debut of his solo art show Riding Horses With White Men, we knew Jae had an incredible talent that needed to be shared with the world. After seeing his proposal for The Guide & Protector, we knew now was the time to press on with a new and separate project that will serve as the perfect precursor to our 2021 murals. More information on the mural’s completion date will be coming soon. Thank you so much to the good Calgarians who rose to the occasion, everyone who spoke up on behalf of Pink Flamingo and those who offered their generous support - you made this project possible. Photograph by @clairephotographs

[Transcription] Hi everyone. My name is Allison, I am the president and co-founder of Pink Flamingo. I use she/her pronouns. I wanted to start by saying thank you our supporters. It’s been a really interesting 72 hours where we’ve gone from up to down, up to down. And having everybody’s support roll in yesterday and today - it’s been overwhelming in a great way. For me, my position in the world, having people stand up for me and for my cause, is just, it’s everything. And i...Continue reading

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Pink Flamingo will be postponing our mural project to Summer 2021 due to the violent viritol, racism and threats we have received in the last 36 hours. We do not wish to add to the harm our community experiences. We moved forward with this wall after reaching out to the original artist and would not have gone ahead if we did not understand our correspondence as supportive, or at worst, neutral. The artist is free to change their mind or express themselves as they see fit, and... we must adapt to this because the power dynamic is not in our favour for a variety of reasons. We announced this mural weeks ago without backlash, sending more than 145 press releases and doing numerous interviews in regards to announcing the project. Our vision for this wall is also one of hope, evolutionizing this message by hearing it from the perspective of a racialized artist. Nothing About Us, Without Us. The last two days, the narrative has changed, and it is no longer safe to carry out the Black Lives Matter Murals this year. The city is not ready. But we are. Let's take ourselves on this journey together while we prepare to show the world that Black Lives Matter and art will be done about us, by us. We deserve the same funding opportunities and visual representation as all of the non-Black artists in this city and we know in our hearts that the support necessary will be there.

Pink Flamingo, Calgary Arts Development (CADA), and The Beltline Urban Mural Project (BUMP) are facilitating four city-wide murals in Calgary in two phases. Phase I includes a QTBIPOC (Queer, Trans, Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour)created mural which will be unveiled in October of 2020. The Black Lives Matter BIPOC Murals Project is a response to the current and historical Black Lives Movement taking place in our city and worldwide. Under the current circumstances of... our socio-political climate, it is crucial that we find the capacity to come together to meet, rebuild, and re-imagine our present way of relating to one another and to our future. The collective silence and irremediable damage that has been inflicted by systemic racism has gone on for far too long. It is clear that we need to be engaging in ongoing self-reflection, continuing education, relationship building and actual impactful, transformative anti-racism practices. Public art plays an essential role in influencing culture. It presents the capability to help us question ideologies we’ve been taught and conditioned to acceptincluding the ideologies that uphold racism. It is imperative that Black, Indigenous and racialized folx not only see themselves reflected in their city, but that they see themselves organizing and leading within their city. This demonstrates the act of decentering whiteness. At the centre of this initiative are Black-led organizations, focusing on the importance of BIPOC artists and voices. Now is the time where the stories and expressions of those who have been underrepresented in the past can be celebrated now and into the future. Follow the link to the RFP here: https://calgaryartsdevelopment.com//black-lives-matter-mu/

We did it. Thank you.

After the Notice of Motion "Calgary's Commitment to Anti-Racism" was unanimously adopted by Council last week, I made two motions. The first was to allocate $1...20,000 for four murals by BIPOC artists in support of Black Lives Matter and Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour, facilitated by Pink Flamingo and local artist Katie Green with support from Calgary Arts Development and Beltline Urban Murals Project. The second motion grants $250,000 to to community initiatives that work to undo systemic racism and support better systems in Calgary. Both motions were carried.

Pink Flamingo is delighted to announce that its proposal for a series of murals by BIPOC artists has been approved for funding by Calgary City Council this afternoon. The $120,000 project will see four murals created throughout the city. Pink Flamingo will lead dynamic consultations, with support from Calgary Arts Development, to allow BIPOC community members to determine what the murals will be. The details of this are TBD in the near future and we will begin soliciting inpu...t soon. For now, we promise that BIPOC artists who lead these works will be paid fairly for their efforts, have creative control over the murals and receive the empowering work environment they deserve. This is possible thanks to the collaborative support of artist Katie Green, Calgary Arts Development, the Beltline Urban Murals Project, Jennifer Thompson and Ward 8 Councillor Evan Woolley, as well as all the rest of the eight members of Council who voted in favour. Pink Flamingo president Allison Dunne and operations director Colin Gallant.

SOME NEWS Pink Flamingo, Katie Green, Beltline Urban Murals Project and Calgary Arts Development were quietly working on a proposal with Evan Woolley for the Ci...ty to fund 4 murals created by BIPOC artists. It just passed! More info on it will be coming soon. Much credit is due to Al Tatjana for her vision and her moving words at Council these past two days. I love you!!

I'm pleased the Notice of Motion "Calgary's Commitment to Anti-Racism" passed unanimously at yesterday's Council meeting. The meeting continues today at 1pm. I'...ve brought a motion arising to facilitate Black Lives Matter and Indigenous, People of Colour Lives Matter murals in Calgary with local artist Katie Green, Pink Flamingo, and Beltline Urban Murals Project. View the proposal, as well as letters of support from Antyx Community Arts, Canadian Cultural Mosaic Foundation, and more at the link below. Click "Combined Meeting of Council" and scroll down to item 13.1 from June 15: https://www.calgary.ca//Legislative-se/Agenda-Minutes.aspx Stream live here: http://video.isilive.ca/calgary/live.html

Pink Flamingo’s proposal for a four-part mural series will be voted upon by Calgary City Council today. We ask the City for $120,000 to fund four murals created by BIPOC artists that celebrate Black lives, Indigenous lives and the work of the activists who fight for them. This cost covers appropriate compensation for everything from consultation to implementation. We have the support of Calgary Arts Development, Ward 8 Councillor Evan Woolley, artist Katie Green and the commu...nities we stand with and inhabit. Now, we’re asking Council to release a fraction of its $4.7 million public art reserve for a one-time project grant that will prominently showcase BIPOC stories in the public realm on the artists’ own terms. As a grassroots organization representing the overlooked QTBIPOC community, we ask Council to allow us to demonstrate that arts work outside of existing exclusionary systems is both worthwhile and necessary. Council has just passed a motion that will reconsider its operations to root out systemic racism, and empowering new ways of working is an extension of that commitment. Tune into this afternoon’s live Council broadcast to see how it goes.

We create together, we fight together, we struggle together, we try together. Let’s take a step forward into healing together. See you tomorrow... Today I recommend following @yycvoices

Posted by the admirable @shetinadams I wanted to take a second and tell you that if you have worked with a BIPOC organization and you leave them out of your resource lists or posts, you are not an ally, this is a performance for you. Do you know how I know?... Because if you were an ally, you’d think of these organizations right away and reach out. You would have...PROPERLY PROMOTED THEM SINCE WORKING TOGETHER. You would have...PAID THEM. You would have...DONE MORE WORK IN QT/BIPOC COMMUNITIES AS THEY RECOMMENDED. This is HARD work and when you borrow our experiences so you don’t have to do the work, and then you disregard us? The veil is thin and there is a reckoning in our midst. So sit down. Be humble.

If you’re not already following @rachel.cargle take this minute and get to it. At home we love our siblings at @theunlearningchannel so please give them a follow too.

Don’t break the focus. The fight must survive so we can survive. #blacklivesmatter