activation residency
Activation is a residency in Upstate New York and year round co-op fund. The residency offers artists 4 days of programming, rest, and care at the Outlier Inn every September. Our Care Program runs September 10 to September 13 and our Class Traitor Program runs September 17 to 20. The co-op fund is dedicated to redistributing wealth to crowd-funds, fundraisers, and requests for reparations. The fund seeks to uplift and center all marginalized people through a circular economy rooted in anonymity and care.
Activation was founded in direct response to the lack of creative opportunities available to Black and brown trans and queer artists by Black and brown trans and queer artists. In 2018, of the 20 artists who attended, 50% identified as Black and brown trans and queer people. In 2019, Activation hosted 60 artists, of which 70% identified as Black and brown trans and queer people.
We aim to meet the access needs of our attendees. We believe that care work is the work. We provide first aid kits, care staff, scentless body products, menstruation products, harm reduction and overdose preparedness kits, audio description, content warnings, live streaming, closed captioning, text, and touch tours, and sensory accommodation which looks like an ample seating tent stocked with pillows, a hydration station, earbuds, eye masks, and weighted blankets. We provide free childcare, American Sign Language, Arabic, and Spanish interpretation, Communication Access Real-Time Translation (CART) devices, and $75 travel vouchers by request. Attendees are otherwise expected to cover the cost of their travel.
This list is by no means exhaustive. We have real organizational, structural, and financial limitations. We do not have it all figured it, and our processes toward improvement present challenges. Sometimes our struggles are too complex to navigate in real time, however, it is through missteps that our ideologies and actions begin to sync. Reflexivity is so important as we are learning as we build. We ask that our organizers be treated with respect, dignity, and care as we move forward together.
We need your support to achieve our access goals this year! DONATE NOW
Care Program
September 10-13, 2020The Outlier Inn
307 County Route 54
Woodridge, NY 12789
Activation’s Care Program is for low-income Black and brown trans and queer artists. The program offers a $250 stipend, meals, luxury camping, generative programming including workshops, think tanks, live performances, installations, and exhibitions, healing activities like reiki, acupuncture, massage, yoga and meditation, a culture of rest and relaxation, time in nature, and peer engagement. This program is our attempt as centering marginalized people and their healing, and putting money in their pockets.
The residency operates out of a bucolic twelve acre property in Woodridge, New York. The Outlier Inn is comprised of a main house, a barn and shop, a bungalow, a cottage, a geodesic dome, an outdoor kitchen, two guest houses, two pastures, two tiny houses, wood-fired cedar hot tube, a vegetable garden, a trailer, two recording studios, and a pond. Property grounds are uneven and each building has a stoop or stairs.
Exploring healing justice. Re-imagining intimate gathering. Beautifully curated performances and workshops. Brisk dips in the pond. Luxury camping. Cozy camp fires and stargazing. Steamy hot tub hangs and community dinners. All complemented by the Outlier Inn’s natural landscape. The Outlier Inn’s intimate scale and unique layout make every performance at Activation exceptional. The geodesic dome provides immersive sonic experiences, while our workshops induce existential stimulation. The space’s state of the art facilities blur the lines between luxury and nature, encouraging deep and meaningful exploration.
Exploring healing justice. Re-imagining intimate gathering. Beautifully curated performances and workshops. Brisk dips in the pond. Luxury camping. Cozy camp fires and stargazing. Steamy hot tub hangs and community dinners. All complemented by the Outlier Inn’s natural landscape. The Outlier Inn’s intimate scale and unique layout make every performance at Activation exceptional. The geodesic dome provides immersive sonic experiences, while our workshops induce existential stimulation. The space’s state of the art facilities blur the lines between luxury and nature, encouraging deep and meaningful exploration.
Image of the geodesic dome at the Outliet Inn lit up at night during Activation 2019.
Class Traitor Program
September 17-20, 2020Activation’s Class Traitor Program is similarly structured for artists eager to activate their class privilege. The program is a sliding scale of $500-$1,000. Artists self select their program fee based on the following scale: $500 for $40K-$48K income, $600 for $48-$56K income, $700 for $56K-$64K income, $800 for $64K-$76K income, $900 for $76K-$88K income, and $1000 for $88K-$100K for income. Class Traitor attendees program fees fund Activation’s Care Program. This is our justice pricing model. We invented justice pricing because justice takes practice, and we believe in the power of redistributing wealth. The Class Traitor Program is our attempt at positioning those with wealth privilege to build cross class solidarity. We acknowledge the inherent hierarchy and risk associated with a pricing model catering to those with class privilege, and are working to implement a more equitable justice pricing model as we learn.
The program costs sliding scale $500-$1,000 USD.
Image of shed behind the trees with string lights in the late evening at the Outlier Inn.
Image of a group of Activators sitting, playing and engaging by the pond at the Outlier Inn, Activation 2019.