Feminist Union of Charlottesville Creatives (FUCC)
Feminist Union of Charlottesville Creatives (FUCC) is an arts organization creating programming that compensates artists and writers in central Virginia, while also creating spaces that allow women, non-binary and genderqueer creatives to share their work, develop their skills, build their artist resumés, and gain visibility within the larger local artist scene.
FUCC started in 2017 as a Facebook group for a progressive community of women, non-binary, and genderqueer creatives seeking a safe-space to share opportunities and aid one another creatively through supportive dialogue and action. Since its conception, we’ve recognized a significant need within the arts community for a non-competitive space for artists to support one another and grow through shared experiences. FUCC has grown beyond the online platform into a community-building, grassroots arts organization that focuses on creating paid opportunities for artists and writers in Central VA.
Ramona Martinez: “Before COVID-19, FUCC was largely focused on organizing our annual art exhibition and hosting occasional clothing swaps. Sri Kodakalla and myself (Ramona Martinez) took over as co-directors in January or February of 2020, and by late March we were buying a website domain to host our annual show online, in light of the shutdowns.
Sri and I really thought hard about how we could create FUCC programming that would inspire people and also be safe to participate in. I had been talking about publishing a zine for a year, and Sri was the one who suggested we produce it through FUCC. We already had a pretty big network of artists (maybe around 25-30) who regularly participated in our programming and we thought we could easily pull something together.
Truth is, it was much harder than anticipated! Every step was a learning process, including how to make a 15-20 page booklet (much more confusing than it seems at first!) But we had a lot of support from our community and we have been able to publish two (three as of mid September 21) zines and pay artists for their work. Through this work, FUCC transitioned from an artist collective into an organization that creates programming for women, non-binary, and genderqueer artists and writers. We have a lot planned for the future, and we hope to continue bringing people into our orbit to share their amazing work with us and our communities here in Central Virginia”