Axle Contemporary
a mobile artspace based in Santa Fe, New Mexico
Be Counted
Axle's Be Counted is an initiative using art and design to increase census participation and voter turnout in New Mexico and adjacent communities.
Artists
-- Be Counted: CENSUS
This part of the project is online only. Artist-created content will be posted on this website and social media. All participants and the general public are encouraged to share the content. Artwork will be downloadable, printable, and available here for free, to display in myriad ways, taped up in shop windows, car windows, or printed as large posters and displayed in the community. This initiative starts now, growing as more artworks and designs are received, until September 30 the day the census ends. This online work can be any format.
-- Be Counted: VOTE
Similarly, artist-created content will be posted on this website and social media for sharing and download. In addition, selected works will be printed on corrugated 18” x 24” plastic “Yard Signs.” These will be placed around Santa Fe (our home community), along roadsides and intersections where many campaign signs are placed. This part of the project started run early September and will grow as more artworks and designs are sent to us, up to the elections on November 3rd. Art for Be Counted: VOTE should be in horizontal yard sign format, 24” wide x 18” high. Work should be easily read/seen/understood while seen from a distance. However work that will only be online can be any format the content can be more diverse, as online viewing allows for more detailed looking and reading.
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Our organization, Axle Contemporary, is funded largely by grants, donations through the non-profit Axle Projects, Inc. This non-profit status restricts our activities. We cannot promote particular candidates or political parties. We can work in a more general way and do activities that are non-partisan: increasing census participation and voter turnout, voting to protect the environment, addressing climate change, racial justice and equity, and other issues. Please make sure the artwork you send us conforms to these guidelines. If it does not, we won’t be able to use it. Please contact us if you have questions.
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Please let us know if you are interested in participating, and please encourage others artists you know to participate as well.
Contact us at info@axleart.com with any questions. Send us your images to info@axleart.com
Individuals and Organizations
The more eyes on this initiative the better! You can help by sharing the images on social media, in e-mails, on your website, taped up in your car window, pasted to the side of your building, or any other way you can think of. All the images are downloadable and printable. Also, you can purchase yard signs and put them out for others to see.
Contact us to see how you can extend the reach of this initiative in your community: info@axleart.com
Portions of the yard sign printing are generously donated to this project by A Good Sign in Albuquerque and Allegra in Santa Fe.
The Friends of Axle's Be Counted Initiative support this project by sharing their resources with us:
IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts
City of Santa Fe Arts & Culture
Thanks also to these to organizations that are helping to spread this project in their communities: Vital Spaces, School for Advanced Research, Paseo-Taos, New Mexico School for the Arts, Santa Fe Arts & Culture, Upaya Zen Center, TOKo Santa Fe, Santa Fe Book Arts Group, Southwest Contemporary.