GANGGANG

CENTERING BEAUTY, EQUITY AND CULTURE (Winter 2024). GANGGANG is a cultural development and creative advocacy firm that works to center beauty, equity and culture in systems and cities, testing new, more equitable models. GANGGANG is moving the global Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) conversation toward that of equity in action, to achieve equity by way of identity and economic justice. We call this cultural reparations: a sustainable movement toward authorship and away from racism by creating new ecosystems that center care and the economic viability of artists.

GANGGANG believes that people of color have contributed more to the arts and culture sector than they have received, and that artists, musicians, makers and creators continue to be underrepresented and grossly underpaid for their work in this sector. GANGGANG aims to change this, finding ways to appreciate and financially support work that impacts the culture of cities with a reparational slant toward those whose work has historically been exploited and underfunded.

GANGGANG’s most visible display of a new equitable model is BUTTER: A Fine Art Fair. BUTTER is a multi-day fine art fair organized by GANGGANG that features artwork made by black visual artists from Indiana and across the country. Anchored in Indianapolis over Labor Day weekend, BUTTER honors and amplifies the value and worth of Black artists, serving as a new model for economic justice in the arts and a catalyst for career transformation. Since its inaugural year in 2021, BUTTER has generated over $710K in artwork sales, and 100% of those proceeds go directly to the showcasing artists.

The newest initiative GANGGANG has embarked on is The I Made Rock ‘N’ Roll Festival. I Made Rock ‘N’ Roll honors the genre by offering insight into its creators. Designed to educate and to promote human connection through the untold story of rock and roll, the campaign will culminate in a one-day Black rock festival featuring a lineup of rock legends like Janelle Monae, Gary Clark Jr., and the Robert Randolph Band playing in downtown Indianapolis in May 2024. The mission-based initiative is being backed by GANGGANG and Forty5 and is meant to bring people together by way of the arts.

In addition to GANGGANG’s own initiatives, the non-profit partners with Indianapolis-based businesses and organizations to think strategically together through creative direction, transformative production and strategic engagement. These opportunities arise as the Indianapolis community has begun to prioritize the importance of centering beauty and culture when activating spaces. GANGGANG can work alongside these partners to curate events or spaces that welcome community and advocates for opportunities to bring artists in.

In the image, attendees view the We. The Culture: Works by The Eighteen Art Collective, debuted at Newfields in 2022, co-curated by GANGGANG.

Clowes Fund Field(s) of Interest: Workforce (Youth) Development