? ? ? UPDATE: Yayyyy! We made it to our goal!! With 9 days left to go and a bunch of perks still available - and we still need to raise about $5,000 more to meet our full project budget so any additional donations are welcome and every little bit helps! ? ? ?
Our Story
Work Hard / Stay Hard is a week-long work party created to support a queer arts community in the woods of Middle Tennessee. We are organizing for the second year to support our dear
Idyll Dandy Arts (IDA) with resources, renovations, and radical love. There will be
about 100 folks showing up to work on crews including Roofing, Garden, Grounds, Plumbing, Archiving,
Kitchen, Health
& Wellness, Trash and Recycling, Party Patrol and much more. Were raising the money to make this a fully-funded project that gives to
IDA without draining the resources they need for ongoing sustainability.
IDA is an intentional queer community in the hollows of middle Tennessee. IDAs
200 acres provide space for ten residents as well as guests,
interns, musicians, expansive gardens, and lots of projects. It is
important to the residents of IDA to
provide a safer space for queer and trans people to learn rural
living skills and connect with a natural space. They work to create
an environment that is open to queer people of different
backgrounds, identities, and abilities. IDA is host to the annual Idapalooza Fruit Jam, a week-long music festival and gathering held every summer.
The Impact
At IDA, for over 17 years, we have had the
chance to be our dressed-up, stripped-down selves and to feel seen and
celebrated. So many of us have had our lives significantly changed
by our time there. When we see the Welcome HOMO sign, we really do feel a rare homecoming.
Now the land has been purchased and we can give back in a new way.
One of our foundling mothers, Ha, called it pride of place. We can
show our love and really cultivate that sense of stewardship. We
can put in the time and love and trust and funds to build the value of
this incredible place. This is the part where you are invited to come show that love; to make that investment.
Our community has gotten together to organize an immense gift to IDA
called Work Hard//Stay Hard. This effort will make life a little
easier on the full-time residents, and insure the vitality of this
place we love as home.
What We Need & What You Get
It will take $21,000 to pull off the work we have planned, including a massive and crucial project of re-roofing the front barn so that it can withstand more years of rocking all night long full of sweaty queers. We can coordinate up to 100 participants, so we're asking all participants to raise $200 each in order to fund this work as a gift to IDA. But IDA's community tends towards the very low-income, and many participants have tons of love and energy to give but are able not able to raise the money to travel to IDA, miss a week of work, and contribute to the cost of materials. We are holding benefit events in Philadelphia, NYC, the Bay Area, Pittsburgh, Denver, Providence, and beyond... and we still need your help. To raise this money, we need to meet or exceed this goal of $2,500 in donations from friends and allies that can't make it to the work gathering, or don't live in a city with a benefit party, but have some funds to kick down for strengthening and sustaining IDA.
Other Ways You Can Help
Spread the word through your networks! Tell your friends how much IDA has meant to you and ask them to support this project. Every year, IDA has over 500 visitors -- we know that there is enough support to raise the funds we need, and more, if our community gives what they can. No gift is too small or too big!
PS: Thanks to the folks at American reCycled for use of footage from their gorgeous video documentary. Check out the full length version here. Thanks also to Lex Young for editing the shorter version for fundraising purposes.
