A silent auction called Collective Action rallied 100 Philly artists through social media

Some 100 Philly-based artists have pledged work for Collective Action, described as “a silent art auction for social justice under Trump,” and they did it through social media.

The event, happening on Jan. 14 at 990 Spring Garden, plans to raise some $20,000 to be donated evenly among 10 nonprofit organizations, local and otherwise, including Juntos, Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Join over 100 Philly-area artists for #CollectiveActionPHL, a silent art auction for social justice under Trump: https://t.co/BKhEHXxL8M pic.twitter.com/O7ZwwvKiQP

— Conrad Benner (@StreetsDept) December 29, 2016

A week after the elecction, lead organizer and activist Grace Ahn took to social media to brainstorm the idea of a fundraiser along with coorganizers Jacob Klensin, Brooke Di Leone, Daniel Levine and Streets Dept’s Conrad Benner. But the response from local artists prompted a rework of their original plans for a small event at a local bar.

“This entire event was planned, organized, and grew 10x in size due entirely to social media,” said Benner in an email. “Grace reached out to me on Facebook, we put a call-for-artists on Facebook and got over 150 responses which caused us (gleefully) to increase the size, scale, and fundraising goal of our event.”

Here are a few of the artists/brands that have donated works so far:

• Aubrie Costello
• Amberella with Philadelphia Woodcraft Company
• Caitilin Tschanz
• Felt+Fat
• Jaiya Bhandari
• Mackenzie Vaughan Pikaart
• Brendan Lowry (aka Peopledelphia)
• Krista Dedrick Lai
• Billy Cress
• Shawn Hileman (aka Masthead Print Studio)
• Emma Fried-Cassorla (aka Philly Love Notes)
• Indy Hall Arts’ Sean Martorana
• Zoe Cohen