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June 16, 2020

Letter from the editor:

We are extremely grateful and proud to announce that we hit our initial goal of 3,000+ members in just over two months! Thank you!

When we launched this program on March 30, we had no idea what to expect or if it might be enough to fill the huge hole left in our budget due to the sudden and drastic loss in advertising after events were canceled and art spaces closed.

The membership program was the first goal that we set for ourselves to put us in a position to survive the summer. And we are relieved to say that we did it! With some additional support in the form of a grant from the Ford Foundation and a PPP loan, we were able to avoid staff layoffs and have been able to continue publishing throughout this crisis.

Going forward, it has become even clearer that our membership program will be critical to our future as an independent publication, and we want to thank everyone who has contributed so far. The fact is that advertising has never been enough to support our efforts fully, even in the best of times, so we are so grateful to our initial members for their support.

If you haven’t been able to contribute or join us as a member yet, we hope you will consider it today and in the months and years ahead, as we all work together to rebuild our society into what we always wished it could be.

We’re getting ready to ship out Hyperallergic Member tote bags in the next few weeks, and we’ve added a new benefit for Sustaining Members in the US & Canada: three free months of OVID.tv, which is a premiere streaming site for indie films and documentaries. So, if you’ve been on the fence about joining as a member, there is no better time than now!

This Friday is Juneteenth in the US, and for the first time our offices will be closed for this important holiday. If you're not sure what Juneteenth is, check out this short Washington Post video which helps explain why this holiday is significant.

Our next Sunday Edition, which is slated to appear this Sunday, June 21, will also be focused on Juneteenth.

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