Dignity
Dignity is the quality of being worthy of honor, respect, and inherent value as a human being.
Indignity
An action, event, or treatment that hurts a person's pride, self-respect, or sense of personal worth.
Dignity
Dignity is the quality of being worthy of honor, respect, and inherent value as a human being.
Indignity
An action, event, or treatment that hurts a person's pride, self-respect, or sense of personal worth.
Who we are.
We are a non-profit art exhibition and community gathering space comprised of an ever growing and collaborative community of artists, filmmakers, authors, researchers, journalists, photojournalists, activists, educators, care givers, practitioners and more. We are headquartered in New York City and founded by artist Mateo Gutierrez.
What we do.
We are dedicated to the collaborative artistic representation and understanding of cultural, direct and state violence, in all its forms, throughout the world. We curate exhibitions in pop-up physical spaces throughout the world, predominantly in New York City and always with an online presence on a biannual schedule. This means we produce two full scale unique installations per year and present them to the public in both physical spaces as art installations and also online, often both functioning in a manner that supports and enhances the other.
Our ethical purpose.
Grounded in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, our mission is to create public art installations that translate the abuses of corporate and state power as well as the damaging effects of corporate, state and cultural violence into visceral human stories that demand accountability and inspire collective action. We are a collaborative community dedicated to documenting the devastating impacts of imperialist, state-sponsored violence. From predatory capitalism and forced displacement to criminalization, deep psychological trauma, and the denial of the basic needs for human survival, we use art to lay bare the architecture of oppression in all its forms. We believe that by making this suffering visible, art restores dignity to the oppressed while awakening the conscience of the societies complicit in their pain. We all lose our dignity when we live in a world that harms even one of us. Our ultimate purpose is to undo that indignity and to place human dignity back at the absolute center of our existence, paving the way for our true evolution as a species.
Our artistic purpose.
We believe that art is a universal good and a fundamental human endeavor. Specifically, we hold that art should not be contained within intellectual or financial hierarchies that exclude anyone from equal participation. Art is for everyone or "art is ours" as we like to say. It should be accessible, free and available to all. We live by this doctrine and we do not sell artwork ever, under any circumstances, nor do we charge exhibition entrance fees of any kind.
Financial structure and transparency.
We do not solicit donations or ask for payment for access to the center and our work ever. We ask for nothing. Our entire financial model is defined by solving our financial needs behind the scenes and exclusively through the generous donations of our board, and we never burden our larger community with our financial challenges. Our board currently consists of artist Mateo Gutierrez and his contributions to the CHD to fund and keep the center afloat. As we add more board members and they make financial contributions a section will be added to the website to showcase who they are and what their respective backgrounds and affiliations are. All board members are required to have no corporate, political or other ties that conflict without ethical purpose in any way and will be fully vetted as such.
Timeline: Soft launch NYC fall 2027. Full launch NYC winter 2028.
Inquiries: mateo@mateogutierrez.net
Header image: Annette Lemieux (American, b. 1957), Left Right Left Right, 1995. 30 photolithographs mounted on museum boards attached to wood, 1/3, 107 x 144 x 24 in.