ABOUT

The Critical Mass Artist-In-Residence Program (CM:AIR) is a unique artist-agency collaboration. Founded by artist Shantell Martin and Critical Mass, CM:AIR is a bold new initiative to enact rapid industry-wide change by offering tangible support to artists, with the goal of ushering in new industry standards for partnering with artists by first opening dialogue about artist-brand exploitation. As beacons of creativity, artists bring agencies an invaluable perspective, and therefore should be respected and collaborated with fairly. The unfortunate reality is that, all too often, the creative potential for these relationships gets bogged down in unfair contracts or power imbalances.

CM:AIR is designed to support artists with tools, resources, and opportunities while building up the infrastructure for a transparent and equitable collaboration model. CM:AIR’s first focus area seeks to address artist-brand exploitation by exploring equity in contract negotiations, intellectual property, and modeling new norms for creative collaboration. The program was founded with longevity in mind, so artists for years to come can partner with our agency to help educate wider audiences about artist rights issues while continuing to build upon the successful foundation created by Shantell and Critical Mass.