It started with one generous act of sharing from The University of Texas at Austin alumna Everest Pipkin (BFA in Studio Art, 2013) to their extended community of artists and creatives. Pipkin had been compiling The Big Artist Opportunities List, a cloud-based Google Doc of artist opportunities, for years, including everything from open calls to residences to funding opportunities big and small, near and far from where they are based in Austin.
When they posted the list to Twitter, it immediately caught on and was retweeted and shared widely. Artnet and Hyperallergic wrote articles on the document and interviewed Pipkin for comment. Now the Google Doc stands as a crowd-source document, where other artists have added opportunities they have found as well.
"Not only do Pipkin’s informational resources contain a wealth of advice and lived experience, they serve as a handbook on the myriad ways we ask far too much from artists, often couched in love-of-the-game rhetoric," wroteHyperallergic contributor Sarah Rose Sharp. "Hats off to Pipkin and any other artist finding a way to make it work, and even with the odds stacked against success, finding ways to give more back!"