Institute for Unpopular Culture (also known by the acronym, IFUC) is an alternative and outsider culture organization based in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

History

It was founded in 1989 by David Ferguson. IFUC's stated objective is to provide a range of services necessary for non-mainstream artists to fulfill their goals of artistic expression: public relations, counseling, business opportunities, and access to equipment. Ferguson said that IFUC provides artists with grants and other funding for their projects.Martine, Lord
Ferguson finds unconventional fits him just right
San Francisco Chronicle, March 29, 2002. Ferguson called his approach to arts patronage "new philanthropy".

Much of the business that takes place at IFUC is volunteer-driven, or works given in trade.

Ferguson has said that IFUC arranged exhibitions of William Noguera's pen and ink photorealism—a sponsorship that raised eyebrows due to Noguera's status as a

death row Death row, also known as condemned row, is a place in a prison that houses inmates awaiting Capital punishment, execution after being convicted of a capital crime and sentenced to death. The term is also used figuratively to describe the state of ...

inmate at California's

San Quentin State Prison San Quentin State Prison (SQ) is a California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation state prison for men, located north of San Francisco in the unincorporated place of San Quentin in Marin County. Opened in July 1852, San Quentin is the ...

.Lawrence, Ella
In Pen and Ink
SF Weekly, December 27, 2006. Retrieved on April 3, 2008. Ferguson claimed that IFUC had also been associated with performance artist Holly Hughes, one of the infamous

NEA Four The "NEA Four", Karen Finley, Tim Miller, John Fleck, and Holly Hughes, were performance artists whose proposed grants from the United States government's National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) were vetoed by John Frohnmayer in June 1990. Grant ...

, a quartet of artists who saw their NEA funding cut off because of concerns of indecency.Feinstein, Julie
Just Think
SF Weekly, August 16, 2000. Retrieved April 4, 2008. Other talents Ferguson claimed to have benefited from IFUC backing including graffiti artist

Barry McGee Barry McGee (born 1966) is an American contemporary artist. He is a well known graffiti artist, and a pioneer of the Mission School art movement. McGee is known by his monikers: Twist, Ray Fong, Bernon Vernon, and P.Kin. Life and education Barry ...

(a.k.a. "Twist") and installation artist Joe Mangrum. Ferguson stated that The Institute helped launch the Punk Rock Orchestra, a San Francisco Bay Area music group which performs orchestral arrangements of punk rock classics.Kalem, Stefanie
Chamber Punk.
ast Bay Express, April 16, 2003NPR Weekend Edition Punk Rock Orchestra
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Notes

External links

IFUC website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Institute For Unpopular Culture Underground culture Outsider art Philanthropic organizations based in the United States Arts organizations based in the San Francisco Bay Area Organizations established in 1989 1989 establishments in California