ANNOUNCEMENT OF INAUGURAL ARTISTS

Rodney Ewing, Our ABCs (installation view), Silk Screen and Paint on Wood and Paper, 2019.

[CHICAGO, ILLINOIS — May 31, 2021] The DEMIL Art Fund is thrilled to announce its first round of recipients this Memorial Day.

A group of anti-war veterans created the DEMIL Art Fund (DAF), a creative arts nonprofit, in November 2020 to promote the creation of artwork inspiring racial and social justice, and promoting dialogue around war and militarism.

In partnership with the emerging Veteran Art Movement, the DAF focuses on supporting artists with $5,000 , amplifying their artistic practices and engaging the public with artwork supported by the fund.

DAF is proud to announce the inaugural artists are veterans Rodney Ewing of San Francisco, GOODW.Y.N. (aka Nicole Goodwin) of New York City and Monty Little of Madison, WI. Each of these recipients epitomizes DAF’s mission to assist artists working to create knowledge around questions of peace and justice.

Ewing will continue working on his project, “The Devil Finds Work”; this project is documentation of how the Black Body has had to develop ways to safely navigate physical, social, and psychological spaces in America. GOODW.Y.N. will choreograph a performance and create an installation in the heart of NYC Times Square to honor those affected by the Iraq war. Little plans to use the award to build a large landscape project based on the Navajo Reservation.

“We established the DEMIL Art Fund to assist artists who are creating work that addresses societal problems,” said founder Ken Nielsen. “We believe art can stimulate discourse on issues that directly affect people’s everyday lives. This fund is intended to support artists who are engaging and informing society about the impact of institutional violence to manifest a more just and demilitarized world.”