Inquilinos

Santa Barbara Tenants Union

Silkscreen, ca. 1979, Santa Barbara, CA

CSPG invites artists, organizations, and activists to submit posters for our newest exhibition to premiere May 2017. Original posters, old or new, preferred, high resolution digital files accepted. Posters must be or have been produced in multiples, including Offset, Silkscreen, Stencil, Litho, Woodcut, Linocut, and Digital Print. Please send posters to CSPG by April 3, 2017.

Remain! Reclaim! Rebuild!

Posters on Affordable Housing, Gentrification & Resistance

Throughout the world, gentrification targets low income and vulnerable communities, driving up rents and housing costs for existing residents. Developers, merchants, and property owners are rapidly changing formerly affordable housing to luxury living. As the income gap widens, existing rent control legislation is unable to reconcile the gap between real wages and housing affordability. It is within this landscape that renters worry if they can ever buy homes of their own – or keep their rentals through retirement. As housing costs escalate, people often must choose between paying the rent or skipping meals, or moving away from schools, friends and family. When people are forced to move, their families and communities suffer.

Remain! Reclaim! Rebuild! will show the connection between gentrification, the loss of affordable housing and the increase in homelessness. Five decades of graphics will document not only that the crisis is local, national and international, but that people have been organizing to protect affordable housing for decades. Posters have been among the most effective tools to promote affordable housing, oppose gentrification and publicize the plight of the homeless. Posters are powerful tools for educating about the issue, organizing resistance and inspiring people to work for social justice.

CSPG maintains the largest archive of post-World War II political posters in the U.S., with more than 90,000 domestic and international posters and prints. Through traveling exhibitions, online photo albums, internships, and volunteer opportunities, CSPG is reclaiming the power of art to inspire people to action.