Free the Chair!

• Support the rights of homeless folks in our community AND
• The freedom of working artists to make public art that cares

The Story: The chair I painted for the Downtown Development Authority was taken from Old Town Square the day after it was finished for a part of the design that read: "Everyone has the rest* *Unless you are in Fort Collins." The DDA pulled the chair because "they can't "be political," when earlier this year, the DDA supported one of the most outwardly discriminatory policies towards homeless people the city has ever proposed in a public letter.

The Point: Removing the chair from the square promotes silence around the violation of homeless rights and the censorship of public art in this town. Only supporting working artists when we agree to be silent and complicit regarding issues that matter and only allowing certain spaces to "be political" allows injustice to continue by pushing this issues and these people to the margins of our minds and communities.