Have 2 minutes and 7 seconds to be awesome and enjoy our funny video?
Help fund our new adobe center so that DAA can advance visual literacy and support documentary artists in Asia.
Now that you have enjoyed our quirky/strange/funny fundraiser video and then help us make our dream come true!
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We have reached over 2000 bricks this week, and with the first funds from our indiegogo campaign coming through we have a small mountain of soil on site that should make 2000 more!!
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We have extended our fundraising campaign. Please keep spreading the word about the campaign!
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Separate from our work at DAA, but still amazing. Kevin Ledo has begun working on this fantastic piece of art on our site!! Thanks Kevin!
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We reached 50% of our final goal. Thanks to all our contributors, we are in the papers thanks to you !
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One of our students from Kachin State, Hkun Li, just won the 3rd price of the Yangon Photo Festival ! Signed by Aung San Suu Kyi, this award allows him to attempt a workshop in the largest photo festival in the world in Arles, France.
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Keep on spreading the word and sharing this page to help us achieve this project !
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Help us to build DAA²
We want to bring our Documentary Arts center to a next level by building a bigger, sustainable, better designed and much more comfortable art center in Chiang Mai City. This is not only about building a center. This is about enhancing a community and gathering people together to share and discover thoughts and stories about the world we live in.
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Documentary Arts Asia exists to:
- Increase the number & quality of Asian documentary artists
- Support emerging and established photographers & film makers
- Engage & expose the public to the quality documentary work being produced
- Assist under-represented groups to tell their stories
- Celebrate those who have dedicated their lives to this field and the work they produced.
Our current center was established in part by a grant from the prestigious W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund.
Since 2011 Documentary Arts Asia organized an annual documentary photography and film festival, more than 300 movie screenings, 100 workshops, opened a new center in Kachin State, Burma and is on its way to co-produce the f28 Month of Photography in Chiang Mai.
All those achievements were made possible because of a lot of motivation and work by all our volunteers and supporters.
Our current gallery is now too small to welcome all our visitors and many of our events are overfull, forcing us to turn people away.
What We Need & What You Get
12,000 $ sets the basic structure such as foundation, supports and the roof for our new documentary art center. The reason we can do that so affordably is because we are going to build the walls and interior with adobe bricks we are making ourselves.
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We really hope we can go well over the minimum goal to complete furnishings decorations and finishing touches.
For your help we will offer you gifts of astonishing value.
The photos will be from DAA founder Ryan Libre (Pulitzer Center and Eugene Smith Memorial Fund grantee, 2 times Tedx speaker). Many of the prints are from his exhibition Portraits of Independence which won the Nikon Inspiration Award for "one of the most creative and remarkable exhibitions" at the Nikon HQ that year. Other prints are from his solo exhibition Playground of the Gods at the Fujifilm Salon.
Also available are extroardinary prints taken by our best students from our satellite center in Laiza, Kachin State.
These prints will not only look great on your wall but are collectors items that will increase in value.
The Impact
As the years passed since Documentary Arts Asia started we have noticed that the growth of interest in documentary art has increased. With a new center comes new possibilities which we eagerly look forward to.
We are a very unique art space and foundation that not only shows films and introduces documentary art makers but also support them with residencies, grants, gear and more. With our new art center we could do all that in a much bigger scale.
The co-founders, Non and Ryan, have successfully completed 25 adobe buildings from scratch and helped out with many other projects involving earthen buildings with a NGO called earthen adobe.
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Other Ways You Can Help
It's still possible for you to help even though you can't contribute, spread the word out and make some noise about our campaign, no act of assistance is too small and every hand, view and smile helps us reach our dream of DAA².
Thank You!