"After careful deliberation, Sager Braudis Gallery has decided to sever ties with The Crossing, one of our largest sponsors over the past 5 years. While we of course do and always will encourage freedom of speech, expression, and religion (some of the founding principles upon which we’d based our partnership) we firmly believe the content expounded in a recent sermon made at the church is antithetical to our identity as a business and our beliefs as proponents of the arts, our artists, the art appreciators we serve, and humanity in general. We have long held that art is the ultimate uniter. With sponsors and patrons alike we regularly share the experience of art in spite of a myriad of differences, and will continue to do so. However, sponsorship inevitably creates a shared platform, making the core ideals of each organization relevant to the partnership. We fundamentally and adamantly stand against the sermon’s thesis, and while its content was not explicitly “hateful,” feel it contributes to a simplistic and heteronormative philosophy that does in fact lead to intolerance, creating a dangerously prescriptive and prejudiced mindset which perpetuates the systemic illness in our culture that is hate.

We are cutting ties, effective immediately, as a show of solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community but also as a protest against institutions who perpetuate and use their powerful platforms for content of this nature. This leaves us vulnerable and sponsorship-less for our largest exhibit of the year, the Masters Exhibit, which will open in 7 weeks. However, we have faith in our decision, as well as our community, and know that love and acceptance will persevere. We’ve enabled a grass-roots fundraiser on our website for the Masters Exhibit programming. While we are not a non-profit, we prepare this exhibit–as we do each project–with research, educational, and community-oriented components (free to the public), which is why sponsorship is paramount. If you feel so inclined, please, make a contribution (link below), or to organizations advocating for LGBTQ+ rights, as we strongly consider this an important facet of Civil Rights for our generation."
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To contribute to Sager Braudis, please go here: 
http://sagerbraudisgallery.com/sponsor