One of the most dire problems in the art world is the sheer lack of health service assistance that artists have access to. This is not an acceptable way for a professional artist to live. The risks they take are major; the odds are not in their favor. Artists who depend on their work for income need to find a way for their health to be supported.
Tom Cingel
Enter O+, a new festival that was started by a dentist, a doctor, and a couple of artists – all friends – in Kingston, NY (near Woodstock). Their idea is quite simple: Artists come to the festival to perform or show their art, and are ‘paid’ with health care of all kinds ranging from physical therapy, blood tests, dentistry, eye exams and the like. Covering everyone’s healthcare is no simple matter, but much success has been had with the festival thus far. It marks the beginning of a solution to the artist healthcare problem.
Past participating visual artists include: Mike Egan, Thom Grady, Jessica Harrison, Polly M. Law, Denise Orzo, Geddes Jones Paulsen, Kevin Paulsen, Anthony Pontius, Scott Holloway and many others.
Artists can apply to get their artwork into the festival, but it’s highly competitive. The best way to get involved is to volunteer and still get access to some of the health services offered. For details on volunteering, check out the site here.
Taking part in any way means spending Columbus Day weekend in October up in Kingston, NY, which is a short two-hour drive north of Manhattan with bus services leading directly into the heart of the festival. If attending is not feasible for you, spreading the word will help call attention to the festival and help it grow so that more artists can be helped. You may want to consider starting a version of the festival in your city.
O+ is only about to hit its third birthday – it’s still young and small. Because of the attention it’s gotten (TED, Wall St Journal, Huff Post, Bloomberg Business Week and others), and because its volunteers are VERY passionate about its cause, it really has the potential of reaching very far and wide.
Check out some of the street art from previous years’ festivals:
Scott Holloway presides over a cemetary
Denise Orzo
Bonnie Smith (detail)
Mike Egan
Andy Milford
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