Help Us Launch Resources for Trans Artists!
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Hi! We are Voluminous Arts, a trans-run record label based in New York City focusing on the intersections between experimental music and the dance floor. We were founded by electronic artist Gavilán Rayna Russom—who came out as transgender while on tour with Grammy-winning band LCD Soundsystem —to open space for trans artists to explore experimental and electronic music as well as clubs and nightlife, tools that have been important for her to navigate her identity and transition.
Since Rayna left LCD to focus on building Voluminous Arts in 2021, the community around the label has grown dramatically. Today we are an all-trans, all-artist staff of 5. Together we have worked to put out 18 releases, introduced 4 transgender experimental artists to wider audiences through our network, and helped build a community of like-minded trans folks that support each other’s creative visions—as well as facilitated conferences and gathering spaces for nightlife artists and workers to join in conversation about their challenges and visions .
As a community offering, this year we began to provide free access to DJ equipment in our office space so that trans artists can practice their skills and record professional quality DJ mixes. Opening our space to more trans artists has been rewarding, and through conversations with them we have identified additional needs within our communities.
We want to expand our community reach to meet these needs. To do this we need additional support, and this is why we are launching this fundraising campaign that will allow us to design and open a robust community resource program by trans people and for trans people, facilitated through our trans-run label.
The funds requested here will put us in line to open up the following resources for our community in 2023:
- Community Resource Hub – A physical space in Queens that is open for trans people to co-work, gather and host community workshops, practice DJing and record their sets, with enough flexibility for the community to find new ways to use the space. Currently, we have opened our office for others to work out of but due to limited staffing we are only able to open two days out of the week. Additional funds will allow us to bring on additional staff to open up to five days a week & offer more regularized open hours.
- DJ Practice & Recording Studio – In 2023, we envision an expansion of our current DJ Practice & Recording Studio and our community program around it. Due to limited capacity, we are only able to provide open hours for our DJ studio every two weeks. Additional funds will allow us to provide regular maintenance to our DJ equipment so that it remains in good working condition for our visiting artists, and to provide more open hours at the studio.
- Bring on Community Coordinating Staff – Our biggest barrier in expanding our community programs has been our limited capacity as a team. Although we are a staff of 5, we all work on this project part-time with limited hours—having additional projects and jobs to supplement our incomes. In order to bring these community programs forward, we have identified the need to bring one or two additional part-timers who can take on the roles of community & space coordinator. This will allow us to expand office hours and host events that support trans people and give them time to think, gather, organize and create—away from the gatekeeping and hierarchies that often characterize both organizing and creative spaces.
We hope to keep this fundraiser active for the next month, hopefully hitting our goal come 2023, so we can hit the ground running making more resources available for trans artists. If any, additional funds will be used to condition our Community Resource Hub to accommodate the needs that arise as we move forward with these ideas.
Thank you all! <3
And if you prefer:
Venmo – @voluminousarts
Organizer
Voluminous Arts
Organizer
Austin, TX