About the Campaign

Hi! We’re Sonnenzimmer, the Chicago-based collaborative graphic art studio of Nick Butcher and Nadine Nakanishi. Help us rebuild our print shop and redefine artist-led fundraising by supporting this campaign.

We’ve been creating experimental graphic works together since 2006. In 2022, we closed our print shop to pursue a live/work space. We took a leap of faith and bought a house to escape rising rents with the goal of moving our print shop into our basement. But we’re in a pickle. We’ve been hammered with unforeseen costs to make this 100 year old house stable. We’ve depleted our savings and need help to rebuild our shop to keep world-building with our experimental prints.

We can’t take out loans because interest rates will kill us, artists’ grants don’t support this kind of stuff, and saving up the money would take years. So, in true Sonnenzimmer spirit, we’re trying something new. This is not a fundraiser. It’s a SUNRAISER.

What’s a SUNRAISER? It’s simple. The capital we raise will rebuild our shop. Then we’ll pay it forward by volunteering our labor to a local non-profit. Sunraising creates a cycle of gratitude and support. 

Now more than ever, artists need new ways to create capital outside of the traditional marketplace. This SUNRAISER is just that, doing the work we love with partners we believe in, and redefining artist-led fundraising, while we’re at it. 

What We Need

We need to raise $60,000 and we’re giving ourselves 60 days to do it. The money will go towards finishing and outfitting our basement to be a functioning print shop. This includes rewiring, plumbing, framing, drywall, flooring, ventilation, and some waterproofing. We’ve got the screen printing equipment, we just need a place to put it. 

Why $60K+?
Here’s an estimated cost breakdown.
$ 16,800.00 Plumbing, Moving Water Pipes
$ 14,000.00 Electrical
$ 3,500.00 Insulation
$ 9,000.00 Framing 
$ 1,500.00 Doors
$ 9,000.00 Drywall, Flooring and installation
$ 3,500.00 Labor: Editing, Video Editing, Photography, Fulfillment, Screen Printing, Mastering
$ 2,700.00 Materials: Films, Screens, Paper, Inks, Packing Materials
$ 2,500.00 – 3500.00 Printing (Publication, Stickers, Record Pressing)
$ 8,500.00 taxes

What if we don’t hit our goal?
If we don’t hit our goal, you will still receive your perks. Any funds raised will chip away at readying the print shop, and we’ll still pay it forward with a dollar-for-dollar labor match to our non-profit partner. 

We’ve developed the following tiers to guide our labor exchange with netizen.org. 

• $5,000 raised. Sonnenzimmer commits to a small-scale one-off project with netizen.org. 
• $10,000 raised. Sonnenzimmer commits to 3 months of work with netizen.org. 
• $35,000 + raised. Sonnenzimmer commits to 12 months of work with netizen.org. 

About Us and Our Partner

Sonnenzimmer
We began collaborating in 2006. We had both migrated to Chicago post-college, moving from small towns in Tennessee (Nick) and Switzerland (Nadine). Merging backgrounds in print making and typography, we initially gained attention for our colorful and abstract posters for Chicago’s improvised music community. Amongst these artists, we found a home for graphic experimentation, developing an improvisatory approach to screen printing and design that created an imaginative graphic language. Fast forward to today, our process has evolved to include artist’s books, performance, and exhibitions that explore the elastic edge of the graphic arts. We’ve exhibited, lectured, and led workshops internationally, yet it’s our print shop that is the true laboratory for our experimental graphic works. Without it, we’re just talking about pictures instead of making them. For even more info, go to www.sonnezimmer.com

Past Sonnenzimmer projects:

• Music Lives Here
• Toward Common Cause
• Sonnenzimmer: The Arts Club of Chicago at 100
   

Our Non-Profit Partner
netizen.org is an artists-led 501(c)(3) born in Chicago, with reach well beyond. They are a collective of new media artists, educators, and activists on a mission to reestablish human agency in the information age through public lectures, workshops, digital tools, events, and festivals. Their innovative programs include walking tours of the internet, internationally acclaimed festivals, and forward thinking art-ware publishing. Our labor exchange with netizen.org will include a full rebrand of the organization and additional graphic support to help the organization reach a wider audience.

Past netizen.org projects:

• Bias out of the Box: an event exploring the inherent bias of Artificial Intelligence. 
• Chicago Internet Walking Tour: a guided tour of Chicago’s internet infrastructure. 
• D.R.E.A.M. (Data rules everything around me) event series.
   

The Impact

Your donation will rebuild our print shop and support our non-profit partner, netizen.org.
Your support will help us keep making the work we love and will be a catalyst in a chain of generosity. Help shift the paradigm of artist funding models by introducing the Sunraising model to a larger audience and changing the trajectory of independent artists in Chicago and beyond.

This project is not in a vacuum. We’ve successfully crowdfunded several projects (Warp and Weft: Poster Construction by Sonnenzimmer, Per Diem: Graphics in Time ), raising over $50,000 in capital. Additionally, we’ve awarded $14,000 to working artists through our own publishing grant, Ideas Beyond Formats. 

Risks & Challenges

Construction projects are famous for swelling costs and expansive timelines. To solve that, we have started to put aside a small buffer of savings to cover surprises along the way. Additionally, our timeline for studio buildout is flexible. Your rewards will not be dependent on its completion and our labor exchange with netizen.org will begin independently from the print shop build out.

Another potential challenge will be our dollar-for-dollar labor exchange with netizen.org as we navigate an ongoing working relationship. To address that, we’ve done our due diligence with securing a like-minded partner with shared ideals and working methods. Additionally, we’ve already engaged in a trial work period with netizen.org in November of last year.

Collaboration is at the core of our practice and we look forward to shifting the paradigm of artist funding models by continuing the work we love to do with partners we believe in. 

Other Ways You Can Help

We need every supporter to enlist 3 to 4 more people! This project aims to create a new fundraising model for working artists and we can’t do that alone. Any way you can help spread the word is appreciated, whether that’s sharing this campaign with friends or running your own Sunraising campaign to support your practice. Now more than ever, we artists need new ways to create income and generate equity outside of the traditional marketplace.
Tag us: #sonnenzimmer #sunraiser
 

Thanks!
Aliya Haq & Ellie Hall for the amazing video, Ben Blount & Brian Kett for project consultation and script development, netizen.org crew for being open to this adventure.