The 2020 Festival is Paused

A message from the FGP Creative Directors:

We sincerely hope you all are staying healthy, creative, and hopeful. These are challenging times. In the face of such overwhelming health, societal, national, and financial uncertainty, we hold a newfound appreciation for centering the joys of art-making in community. 

With hopeful hearts and cooperation from our space, the CSV Center, back in March we re-programmed the 2020 Festival, originally slated for May, to late-September of 2020. But, following months of conversations with our artists, volunteers, and venues, and with the reality that COVID-19 still poses its threat and restriction to our day-to-day lives, Fresh Ground Pepper has made the difficult decision to pause hosting our 2020 Festival as previously planned. 

What does a Festival PAUSE look like?

Well - in reality, it looks like this: no FGP programming in-person for the foreseeable future. It means putting on hold the element of congregation in space to celebrate art and the artistic process, something that FGP has been doing every year since 2009. It is definitely sad: our 2019-2020 resident PlayGround PlayGroup artists were preparing to share new genre-defying projects (like mosh-pit musicals and queer-alien church services just to name a few). We were lining up a program of art workshops for kids, experimental nights of prompted work, a series of Creative Leadership Labs, and of course a few healthy art parties. All of it - on pause.

In a wondrous collective fundraising effort, we were able to secure funds for our Festival with significant help from donors within our artist community, through Kickstarter, grants, and privately offered donations. Because of this initial support, we were able to honor our original Festival contracts, pay our 2020 resident artists, and pay festival designers. Now, we pause on utilizing the remainder of our festival funds, and rather than simply saving them for an unknown Festival date, we are exploring a more impactful next step for this new world. 

Okay, and what does THAT look like? 

We see this as a way to make best use of this gift of time -by digging deeper to unearth new ways of operating.

We look forward to evolving. To newness. To hearing from you. To having your presence and imprint as part of the ongoing conversation about how to celebrate the artistic process, how to champion new art, and how to nurture the creative spirit. THANK YOU for trusting FGP with your work and your spirit. THANK YOU for giving your time, talents, money, and ideas to FGP.

Lots of love,

AJEJA

(Andrew, Jaclyn, Ellie, Jenny, and Andrew)