The future of All the Sudden art space

Hi,

My name is Emily Lee, and I'm raising funds to support the new chapter of All the Sudden, a DIY community art space I co-founded in East Austin.

All the Sudden (ATS) has been hosting experiments in visual art, music, performance, and community work since its founding in 2021. Through ATS, we've organized an array of public art and community-building projects and have given first-timers the resources to host their own public programming as well. Examples of the projects ATS has hosted include visual art exhibitions, mutual aid fundraisers, poetry readings, book releases, book clubs meet-ups, experimental theater performances, independent short film screenings, South by Southwest showcases featuring both local and national bands, and creative workshops in ceramics, meditation, and improvisational music.

While numbers haven't been the measure of ATS's success, it's one way to begin to quantify the tangible influence this space has had on the community. All the Sudden has supported and shared the work of 30 visual artists, 41 bands/soloists, 9 poets, 22 freelance creative vendors, and 7 first-time creative workshop instructors, plus many other groups. ATS has raised over $2,000 for mutual aid work benefitting the climate, reproductive justice, and marginalized communities. It has undoubtedly helped re-solidify Austin's national standing as a creative hub.

In an increasingly unaffordable city, ATS has been unwavering in its commitment to accessibility as a matter of principle. ATS has always:

I'm thankful to say that these efforts haven't gone unnoticed. All the Sudden was awarded a Critic's Pick Award by the Austin Chronicle in 2022, earning the title of "Best Possibility to Get Your Hands Dirty at an Art Opening." Our communal ceramic pit-fire exhibition, A Pit Fire with Partial Shade, was reviewed in Sightlines Magazine in an article aptly titled, "At All the Sudden art space, it's process over product." Our winter art exhibition, which focused on issues of land development in modern-day Texas, received a glowing review in Number Magazine. However, the biggest praise ATS has received is evidenced by the ways that the community has always stepped up to help ATS in times of need, whether in the form of volunteering to paint the walls, tending the door at an event, sharing a power tool, or donating an afternoon of graphic design services. Without all of these collective efforts, ATS would not exist.

Now I'm writing to ask if you'll continue that tradition by donating to fund the future of All the Sudden.

It's been an indescribable honor to function as the sole director of ATS for the past year. As with most DIY projects, however, the time has come to pass the torch to a younger generation of artists collectivizing. Towards that end, ATS will be scaled back dramatically, and its focus will shift. Starting in October, the warehouse will mainly function as a self-sustaining studio space for up to six artists. Small, educational ATS events like book clubs, reading groups, and hands-on creative workshops will happen occasionally in the warehouse, up to once a month. Meanwhile, a budding collective of recently-graduated art students will take up residence at the same address, operating independently from ATS but on the same half-acre property. I'm so excited to share the property with a new collective of artists and to facilitate ATS serving visual artists in a more intimate way. Donating to this fund will support ATS's self-sufficiency, which will in turn allow these young artists to operate their own project space on the same property.

To make ATS's transition and continuation a success, we’ll need to build out the warehouse's art studios. This will include building:

All the Sudden has hosted several fundraisers, but never for ourselves; if this trust-fall of a fundraiser doesn’t pan out, the space will be forced to cease operations. If you’ve loved or used All the Sudden, please, please help spread the word by sending this link to family and friends. And if you're able, please consider donating to the cause.

With love, gratitude, and a fervent belief that Texas can in fact be a sustainable home for contemporary artists,

Emily Lee

P.S.

I would like to thank those of you who have donated what could to the ATS over the years. The creative community in Austin was directly supported by your donations, and All the Sudden would not have existed without your generosity.