Start a Chapter

The Art Cheerleaders welcome new chapters that carry forward the project’s spirit of art advocacy, satire, performance, and public participation.

A chapter may be organized by artists, students, educators, museums, galleries, arts organizations, community groups, or independent collectives. Chapters may be temporary or ongoing.

Step 1: Learn the Lineage

• SMFA Boston, beginning in September 1995
• the Kim Irwin feminist cheerleading workshop lineage
• the first SMFA squad
• the Richmond revival beginning in 2007
• the project’s use of cheerleading as satire, advocacy, and institutional critique

Step 2: Define Your Purpose

Ask:

• What are you cheering for?
• What are you critiquing?
• Who is your audience?
• What art community are you supporting?
• Why does this need to be a cheer?

Step 3: Write Your Cheers

A chapter may perform historical cheers, adapt historical cheers, or write new ones. New cheers should use:

• rhythm;
• repetition;
• call-and-response;
• humor;
• direct language;
• art-world specificity;
• physical movement;
• public address.

A cheer should be performable. It should sound different when shouted by a group than when read silently on a page.

Step 4: Build the Squad

Chapters should be collective. Members do not need cheerleading experience, but they should be willing to rehearse, move, speak, shout, and perform as part of a group. A chapter should decide:

• who is organizing;
• who is performing;
• who is documenting;
• who is responsible for safety;
• who will submit materials to the archive;
• how authorship will be credited.

Step 5: Rehearse

Art Cheerleaders performances should look energetic, even when deliberately awkward. Rehearsal matters. Suggested rehearsal elements:

• warmup;
• vocal projection;
• rhythm;
• simple formations;
• entrances and exits;
• call-and-response timing;
• audience cues;
• safety review;
• documentation plan.

Step 6: Perform

Possible performance sites:

• art schools;
• gallery openings;
• museum events;
• public art sites;
• lectures;
• funding hearings;
• civic arts events;
• exhibition openings;
• art fairs;
• public sidewalks or plazas where permitted.

Before performing in a private or institutional space, secure permission when appropriate. Public disruption can be part of performance history, but safety, consent, and context matter.

Step 7: Document and Submit

After the performance, gather:

• date;
• location;
• event title;
• roster;
• cheer texts;
• photos;
• videos;
• press;
• flyers;
• programs;
• audience response;
• credits;
• permissions.

Submit the documentation for possible inclusion in the Art Cheerleaders archive.

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The Art Cheerleaders Charter

The Art Cheerleaders exist to support art, artists, and creative culture through performance, satire, public enthusiasm, and collective action. An Art Cheerleaders project should:

1. Cheer for art.
   The central subject should be art, artists, art education, cultural labor, creative communities, public funding, institutions, criticism, censorship, or the conditions under which art is made.
2. Be both sincere and satirical.
   The best Art Cheerleaders work is not only parody. It is funny because it is invested. It can mock the art world while still believing art matters.
3. Use cheerleading as a form, not just a costume.
   Chants, formations, call-and-response, movement, group energy, rhythm, pep-rally structures, uniforms, signs, and public address are all part of the language.
4. Punch up, not down.
   Critique should be aimed at systems, institutions, hierarchies, clichés, funding structures, censorship, exploitation, and pretension—not at vulnerable people or marginalized communities.
5. Support artists and cultural workers.
   The project should make visible the labor, anxiety, humor, debt, ambition, absurdity, and persistence of making art.
6. Invite participation.
   The project works best when it creates a public, social, collective space. Art Cheerleaders can perform for an audience, with an audience, or through documentation that others can learn from.
7. Credit the lineage.
   New projects must acknowledge the Art Cheerleaders / Art School Cheerleaders origin and, when relevant, the Richmond revival.
8. Document the work.
   New chapters and contributors are encouraged to preserve photos, videos, flyers, scripts, cheer texts, rosters, dates, venues, and press so the lineage remains traceable.
9. Avoid hate, harassment, and cruelty.
   Art Cheerleaders projects may be sharp, irreverent, and politically engaged. They should not promote racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, antisemitism, xenophobia, harassment, threats, or personal attacks.
10. Keep making art.
    The project is not a reenactment society. It is an evolving art practice.

Art Cheerleaders Pledge

As an Art Cheerleader, I agree to:

• cheer for art;
• support artists and cultural workers;
• use humor without cruelty;
• critique institutions without erasing people;
• acknowledge the project’s history;
• document my contributions;
• respect fellow performers and audiences;
• avoid unsafe stunts and coercive participation;
• credit the lineage whenever I adapt, perform, publish, or teach Art Cheerleaders material.

I understand that the Art Cheerleaders are a living collective tradition, not a costume theme, brand gimmick, or generic pep squad.