Feldkamp 11
26123 Oldenburg, Germany
Non-profit registry 202542, District Court (Amtsgericht) Oldenburg
IBAN: DE06830654080005322910
BIC: GENODEF1SLR
RIERA STUDIO is an independent cultural initiative. This means that we do not receive support from Cuban cultural institutions or systematic funding from abroad. We depend on the commercialization of the artists' works, as well as donations and collaborations with foreign cultural organizations, to keep our program running. However, these founding sources have become increasingly difficult and sporadic, endangering the sustainability of our program ART BRUT PROJECT CUBA. That is why we have decided to promote direct forms of support for those interested in our work.
WHY HELP US?
Most of the artists participating in Art Brut Project Cuba live with functional diversity conditions associated with mental health disorders. In today's Cuban society, this not only continues to represent a social stigma, but also places these individuals - and their families - in an extreme condition of vulnerability. There are practically no effective public policies for care and social insertion, nor programs for labor insertion. Since 2020, the worsening of the current socioeconomic crisis has exposed people with functional diversity, as well as other vulnerable groups, largely. The precariousness of the health and social care systems puts their material living conditions and their physical and mental health at serious risk. Some of the artists in our program have even experienced homelessness and/or begging.
For a brut artist, creation is a necessity — often imperative and even obsessive. It is a unique form of communication and self-expression. Ensuring these creative processes continue in a healthy, sustainable way requires constant access to materials and the basic necessities for a dignified life. This is why the Art Brut Project Cuba supports not only the artistic production of these individuals, but also their psychosocial development. To this end, we aim to have a specific impact on each artist's microenvironment in terms of fostering greater appreciation and inclusion, as well as ensuring access to basic living conditions.
To this end, our program favors the search for different possibilities of commercialization of the works of these creators, which for many constitutes their only source of personal income and the way to gain representation and recognition in familiar/neighborhood environments that in many occasions relegate or undervalue them. In short, one of the main objectives of Art Brut Project Cuba is to ensure that art becomes a source of autonomy and personal and communicative expression for its members in the restrictive and increasingly precarious context they live.
HOW WILL YOUR HELP BE USED?
Your donations will help us purchase art supplies and provide a suitable working environment for artists who do not have one. They will also provide basic necessities for a dignified life for the artists included in this program:
- Transportation and food assurance during the workday.
- Monthly delivery of food and basic personal care items for the most vulnerable artists.
- Support for purchasing basic goods, such as beds and mattresses.
- Providing alternative energy sources, such as rechargeable lamps (Cuba currently experiences an average of 18 hours of power outages per day).
- Improve and increase storage conditions for artwork.
- Create opportunities for new artists, especially those in peri-urban, rural, or hard-to-reach areas outside the capital, who have traditionally been overlooked.
- Protect the heritage of art brut and other art forms undervalued or marginalized by Cuban cultural institutions based on our program's research and archival work.
HOW YOU CAN HELP
- MONETARY DONATIONS
Due to external and internal obstacles preventing direct receipt of donations in Cuba, support for the program will be received through Cuba-Direkthilfe e.V. - a German nonprofit organization that, since 2023, is supporting vulnerable communities in Cuba, and that has Art Brut Project Cuba within its support programs. Donations to charitable organizations are tax deductible under the German law. Cuba-Direkthilfe e.V. will issue the corresponding certificate upon request.
Feldkamp 11
26123 Oldenburg, Germany
Non-profit registry 202542, District Court (Amtsgericht) Oldenburg
IBAN: DE06830654080005322910
BIC: GENODEF1SLR
- PURCHASE OF ARTWORKS
In the case of acquiring Art Brut Project Cuba artworks, the artists receive 60-80% of each sale, depending on the artwork and artist. The remaining proceeds are used for the program's sustainability, promotion, and exhibition expenses, as well as for the weekly workshops and an emerging fund to support artists who have not yet been able to market their work and lack economic resources.