As artists, our choices have consequences. Who funds our work matters. So, choose carefully. If our choice of subject matter is monitored, or we’re pressured (overtly or implicitly) to moderate criticism of certain important contemporary issues by those with $$, then we’re not making art. We’re making propaganda. We’re part of the marketing arm of a corporation, or corporate-linked charity, that sees artwashing as a weapon to further its own aims.

Even if our subject matter isn’t directly relevant to the practices or impact of a corporation or corporate-linked charity, even then, by taking their $$ we’re lending them our own social and professional capital at a cheap price, for a brief moment. The people who matter the most, our art-loving community, those who come to see our work, who experience our stories, listen to our sounds, are watching. They will not forgive those who betray our collective future for a few silver coins. We have a duty to educate ourselves about where the funding for our art originates from, and the harm it may have caused, before it’s laundered through us and our work.

(this image is: “Angelus Novus” by Paul Klee – his ‘angel of history’)