ArteSumapaz is an art and culture center founded in 2019 on a former coffee plantation in Cundinamarca, Colombia. Our strategy for the center is based on an ecosystem of communities; with the belief that no one community type by itself is sufficiently robust to create enduring meaningful change in the system. The center’s initial central function is that of an artist residency, in which artists come from all over the world and stay anywhere from one to six months. The residency is artist-funded, meaning we don’t rely on government funding. Because of the difference of economies between Colombia and the US and Europe, it means modest fees from a handful of artists ensures a financial break-even for the foundation’s operating costs.
The creation of an intentional community in which interested individuals make a more substantial donation to the foundation forms the basis for purchasing the property over a five-year agreement with the owners. Meanwhile, we have already demonstrated that with artists and passive reforestation, we are able to generate more revenue than the local traditional model of cow ranching, which has allowed the land to regenerate with local species. The three main communities that have thus far worked together include the local agricultural community, international artists, musicians, writers and other makers, as well as the longer-term participants in the intentional community. Each community provides either a historical perspective or a source of fresh new ideas.
The idea that nature is at the center of creative endeavors can be heard in the advice of artists going back to the Renaissance, and even more recently, in the pedagogy of the Bauhaus and Black Mountain College in the United States.
Saying that nature conservation is at the heart of art making comes easily, as does a focus on social justice issues such as colonialism, racism, misogyny, and discrimination against trans persons. We’ve come to believe that these are not separate issues, but in themselves are all a part of creating innovative solutions to help heal both the traumas of people, but those traumas inflicted against our very environment.
We ask creatives to ponder these issues; but also how do we then share them across with local communities in a non-colonialist spirit. This, ultimately, requires a mutual sharing of ideas; it cannot be unidirectional. We have to work within the realm of not only creative solutions, but in the systems of communication in which those ideas can be received and help to create change.