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Amanda Palmer

Hello, dear ones.Thank you for coming here and being curious.I’m a best-selling writer, speaker, musician, memoirist, and mostly, an ADHD-art-dreamer. Mostly, I love making deep art that evokes strong feelings. I deeply love my community - many of whom I've met on the road and through endless chatting on social media&nbsp; - and I collaborate with all sorts of people. I make art across infinite genres: music, film, essay, book, poetry, dance, animation, street theater, and more.Patreon is unusual and requires some explanation and learning curve, but speaking as an artist who’s been crowdfunded for almost twenty years: I LOVE working this way. I truly do.&nbsp;The internet is changing, fast, and most people are now coming to the understanding that social media is not the artist’s best friend. Most musicians are getting screwed by streaming services, who pay us fractions of pennies. Our old, dependable, organic reach to our communities on social media is getting strangled by for-profit algorithms and AI.This is an alternative.Patronage is a truly revolutionary way of sharing art and growing community.This is more than just money, it’s connection. This is my family of cheerleaders, wise-crackers, and agony aunts. We’re family here. I share my art and process, and we all share our lives.Over the last ten years, I’ve crowdfunded over 200 projects with funds from over 50,000 people, and paid forward tons of funds of my patrons’ dollars BACK into the creative community of people I’ve hired and worked with. I’m like…a one-woman radio station, or museum. Always on, always collaborating. You don’t have to pay attention to every broadcast, and I’d be impressed if you could even find time, we’re all busy). The idea here is that you trust me to curate, and you want me and my team of artists to succeed.A little more background:This patreon was kicked off in 2015 after I found success with funding on&nbsp; Kickstarter, but I didn’t want to fund a brand-new project with new “perks” every single year…that just seemed exhausting for me and my team (and for the audience, who wants to be bothered with a new Kickstarter campaign….constantly?).&nbsp;I just wanted to be able to WORK, with a predictable salary drawn from my audience, liberated from government grants (haha, what are THOSE?),&nbsp; for-profit brands and media companies, label boardrooms, or other corporations who had profit - not art - as their core mandate.I love working and making things directly with my listeners, my&nbsp; readers, my community.&nbsp;It works well. I get to keep my principles, make my own flexible deadlines and timelines (I’m a parent, it helps), and work without censoring myself.&nbsp;I write posts and find song lyrics in the words and stories that people throw back to me. I run webchats and webcasts and reach people in far-off lands, listen to what they have to say, and find out what the world feels like. I share the platform I’ve built with the people who helped me build it. It’s a trusted, family vibe. I host gatherings in little venues in cities all over the world - just for patrons - and get to meet and share art and stories with real people. I work with visual artists to make special things and stick them in the mail to show my gratitude, but that process feels like art itself. All the while….I write, I memoir, I chronicle. I ask. I listen. I don’t know what you call this, but it’s real.To me? It’s….the best.HOW DOES IT WORK?For an overview of how patreon works, they’ve got a great primer<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwvUjAv6pxg" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow"> HERE</a>.&nbsp;Since kicking off here, my patrons have helped me and my collaborators to make over 250 things ranging from songs, to whole albums &amp; EPs, to webcasts, to podcasts, to documentaries, music videos, to animations made using old voice memos. All of this work has employed HUNDREDS of musicians, filmmakers, engineers, graphic designers, painters, you name it….we’ve become our own little organic-art-farm ecosystem.The main thing to keep in mind as you look at this list is that ALMOST NONE OF THIS WORK IS “COMMERCIALLY” VIABLE! There’s just no way in today’s marketplace to “make a profit” from a youtube video with just a few thousand views, or a webcast of a beautiful orchestra show, or a weird animation (which are very time-consuming and expensive to produce) unless you’re a massive mainstream artist putting up huge paywalls and/or selling your soul to corporate advertisers.So….whether you’ve been a fan of mine since the days of The Dresden Dolls or whether you’ve just recently found me through my book,<a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/amanda_palmer_the_art_of_asking" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow"> my TED talk</a> (which is about EXACTLY this topic of art and asking) or you’ve stumbled across my work for any other reason: welcome to the nice side of the internet. I would love to invite you to join this community and see what we are doing.If you're already one of my patrons, or you’re returning...THANK YOU. I love you and you are making me - and my art, and my team - possible.Love,AmandaP.S. If you have any questions about the patreon, how it works, or how you can help: please don’t hesitate: <a href="mailto:patronhelp@amandapalmer.net" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">patronhelp@amandapalmer.net</a>

Free

THANK YOU. You’re actively supporting the whole team and Amanda's team, artwork &amp; collaborators!

WE ARE ALL ROWING THIS BOAT TOGETHER...

All of the above and...<ul><li>Access to monthly live webchats and Ask Me Anythings (trust us, these are FUN)</li><li>Exclusives to this tier: workshops, discussion forums, works-in-progress</li><li>Random surprises, downloads, photos/videos of Art in the Making</li></ul>

...AND WE ARE GONNA GET TO DRY LAND...

All of the above and...<ul><li>Exclusive Art In The Mail!</li><li>Other expressions of postal gratitude (we always have fun with this)</li><li>Special access/invites to special events when possible</li></ul>

...AND HAVE A PARTY IN A LIGHTHOUSE...

All of the above and...<ul><li>Guestlist access (when available)</li><li>Personal emails, occasional postcards and other little postal gifts</li><li>Art in the Mail: personalized for you or whoever you'd like</li><li>Video messages for you (or loved ones).</li><li>Actual Lighthouse dinners (??) and live bottle-flingings in your local area, when available</li></ul>

...FLINGING BOTTLES TO SEA FROM WINDOWS!

We’ll email you and figure it out. We've been doing this for ten years now, it works and people are happy. All the merch, all the shows, all the things. All the gratitude.

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