AIC RSS Greater Boston Maine Pioneer Valley Rhode Island
This website is an archive of previous AIC activities.

Click here to link to the current AIC website.

Many different organizations came together to help with the Fundred-raising effort,  including:

A.C.E.
Artists for Humanity
Boston Children’s Museum
Community Works Rhode Island
Harvard Square
Business Association / MayFair Festival
Hearth
ICA
Lead Action Collaborative
M.F.A. Teen Council
Medfield Memorial and
Blake Middle School
Raul  Gonzales
Rose Kennedy Greenway
samson projects
Spontaneous Celebrations / Wake Up the Earth Festival
Tropical Foods

The Fundred-making effort started long before Tory and the Sous Terre truck arrived here.  Urbano Projects in Jamaica Plain hosted a DudleyCarlos_FrontFundred kick-off event on February 20, and many of us had our first experience creating money!  Attendees viewed examples of Fundreds created by the kids of Jamaica Plain and watched a video of a speech by artist Mel Chin, who founded the FUNDRED Dollar Bill Project.

samson projects on First Friday, April 2, was a fantastic location for one of our first Fundred-making events!  Camilo Alvarez, the director of samson, generously offered space to AIC to set up a Fundred-making table.  Tater tots were donated by Will Gilson of the Garden at the Cellar, and beer was provided by Artists in Context.  The attendees of the South End gallery scene were delighted to find that for the low price of one handmade Funded they received some delicious tater tots, and for just two Fundreds they could get a nice cold beer.  Throughout this fun evening the people of Boston made almost 300 Fundreds and didn’t stop until the beer ran out!  Huge thanks to Camilo of samson and Will of the Garden and most of all a huge thanks to everyone who came out and made a Fundred!

Earth Day at the Boston Children’s Museum saw 3,200 visitors and was a rousing success!  The FUNDRED table was equipped with three professional face painters, and each person who wanted to have a design applied was asked to create a Fundred to pay for it.  Sometimes the lines for face painting were 10 people long, and hundreds of kids learned about the FUNDRED Project, Operation Paydirt and the poisonous effects of lead in our soils.  At the end of the day, visitors to the BCM had created more than 200 Fundreds, and the face painters had sore arms from painting flowers, dogs, happy faces and many other fun designs on the faces of the creators of those important Fundred Dollars Bills.

PVD1MakerThe FUNDRED project then traveled south for a bill-making event at  Community Works Rhode Island's South Side Shines Community Cleanup Celebration in Providence on Saturday, April 24.

Once the FUNDRED truck arrived in Boston, the FUNDRED events really ramped up.  AIC planted a Fundred-making table next to the Sous Terre truck in the parking lot of Tropical Foods in Dudley Square, Roxbury on April 30, and many fabulous Fundreds were made through the afternoon and into the evening by children and adult shoppers alike.

Urbano Projects hosted a Fundred-making event at at the Wake Up the Earth Festival on Saturday May 1, where 200 Fundreds were collected.  There was a constant flow of children and adults curious about FUNDRED and the truck and eager to participate.  WUTE was the perfect event for this kind of project, celebrating 25 years of community efforts in support of the neighborhood and the environment. According to the Spontaneous Earth website, "The Wake Up the Earth Festival began in 1979 when a group of local neighbors and activists banded together to stop the Interstate 95 expansion into Jamaica Plain. The festival began as, and still is, a celebration of what can be accomplished when people of all traditions, cultures, ages and beliefs come together. A great many individuals, local artists, community groups and schools join forces every year to make a unique community collaboration."  The Sous Terre truck was a huge draw and certainly encouraged people to draw Fundreds.

On May 2, the city of Cambridge hosted MayFair in Harvard Square.  This annual festival celebrates the spring and the eclectic atmosphere of Harvard Square. Thousands of people turned out on a beautiful Sunday to create some Fundreds and enjoy the festivities

On Monday, May 3, the Boston FUNDRED pick-up party was hosted by the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. The event included authentic New Orleans-style jambalaya from the Border Cafe, music provided by the Sociedad Latina Youth and others, a speech by Davida Andelman of the Lead Action Cooperative and a Fundred-making table.  As visitors made Fundreds, read about the project and ate some food, Casey Engels (Program Coordinator for The Center for Art and Community Partnerships at MassArt) talked about FUNDRED, how it came to the college and how it had been activated in the community since December.  Tory Tepp spoke about the importance of the project at local and national levels and introduced Davida of Boston's Lead Action Collaborative.  Davida provided exciting statistics about the lowering of lead levels in Boston homes, noted the still-present issues Boston communities face and gave information on how to get involved beyond FUNDRED.  Cady Fontana, MassArt student and FUNDRED organizer, had the honor of conducting the Official Fundred exchange with Tory, and the creations of our community were on their way. 

Then on Tuesday, May 4, Beverly High School hosted a pick-up event in the front foyer of the school with a Fundred-making table, lightExtraordinaryRenditionBand1 refreshments, music and a presentation of Fundreds to Tory.

On May 5, the FUNDRED truck headed north to Augusta, ME. According to Lindsay Rowe, the Maine Arts Recovery and Reinvestment coordinator:

“It was a warm and sunny day in the state capital, which was great because we planned the event outside on the lawn of the Capitol building (we had an inside space reserved in case of rain, but with 120 kids attending the event, it was great that we were able to do it outside). The 120 students were from after-school programs at the local elementary schools, and all had participated in the FUNDRED project. They were greeted by Maine Arts Commission Director Donna McNeil, who thanked them for their Fundred drawings, and by First Lady      Karen Baldacci, who explained the importance of the FUNDRED project.                      

Tory Tepp spoke to the students about his experiences as the FUNDRED armored truck driver and Commissioner of Conservation Eliza Townsend and Deputy Commissioner of Environmental Protection Jody Breton talked about the environmental aspects of the project.

"Students from each of the schools then were selected to place the Fundreds that their school made into Maine's gold FUNDRED treasure chest, which sparkled in the sun. One student was selected to transport the treasure chest containing Maine's 1,850 Fundreds ($185,000 worth of Fundreds!) to the armored truck, escorted by two FUNDRED guards, of course. Then students were divided into two groups: half got the chance to look inside the FUNDRED truck to learn about how it is fueled while the others enjoyed a snack, and then they switched. The event was a huge success! (We only wish we had gotten all of the Fundreds back, completed, that we gave out so we could have donated more Fundreds, but we will still collect them and send them in before they are delivered to Congress.)”