Throughout upcoming exhibiting artist Beverly Buchanan’s archive, we find handwritten notes, sketches, manifestos, lists and letters, all of which give a glimpse into her community-driven ethos.
If I Won the Lottery was written as a proposal for a collective space imagined with care and support in mind for working artists.
If I Won the Lottery
Beverly Buchanan
- Set Up a Kitchen available for artist to come by and get meals, and go
on back to work for–Breakfast, lunch + supper
- sections Eat on site or take home or studio
open 24 hours.
- Set up Artists garden area for anyone to plant things or just “Be”.
Full time staff garden supervisors helpers. Free seeds
- An ART Hospital. Have to be a sick artist –
Rooms with canvas walls. Play rooms – Greenhouses, Nurseries–
Mandatory No Work periods – Flexible Times. Honor system.
- Art Car and Bus for picking up supplies, stamps–mailing express mail
Staffed. You don’t have to leave your studio.
- Garden area Fountains. Plant seeds, stop and get a drink near several fountains.
continue work
- Holiday A Present Room. Pick up or drop off a gift for another artist–
Holidays or Not.
- Finally, a surprise gift for someone who’s always wanted a “Dale Evans cowgirl suit + hat holster etc
Transcribed by Mo Costello and Katz Tepper from a handwritten note in the Beverly Buchanan Papers at the Smithsonian Archives of American Art, undated (circa 1990s).
THIS AUTUMN, WE ARE GIVING LIFE TO BUCHANAN’S WISH LIST WITH SOME COMMUNITY EVENTS OF OUR OWN:
Beverly Buchanan: Weathering is open at Spike Island from Saturday 26 September 2026 until Sunday 31 January 2027.
The exhibition at Spike Island is curated by Clémentine Proby and Nicole Yip. It was developed in collaboration with Haus am Waldsee (Berlin) and 49 Nord 6 Est – Frac Lorraine (Metz), and will tour to Vleeshal (Middelburg) from 14 March to 27 June 2027.
The exhibition is generously supported by Art Fund, the Henry Moore Foundation, the Terra Foundation for American Art, and the Beverly Buchanan Exhibition Circle. With thanks to the Estate of Beverly Buchanan.
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