Annually we run art auctions to raise funds for immigrant families as Artists in Solidarity, a proud Oceanside, CA 501(c)3 nonprofit (EIN 85-2372771). In 2025 we’re celebrating the patron saint of immigrants, St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, with the theme Big Mother.
Keep reading to learn more. Our 2025 auction supported three individual families in Oceanside with emergency grant funding and ran from 8/23/25 to 9/6/25, raising over $4000 in funds and exhibiting over 50 artists in our sixth online fundraiser. To read our September 2025 statement, click HERE.
Click HERE to learn more about our 2025 Grantees.
All our efforts are focused on the same goal regardless of our personal ideologies: supporting immigrants, who by nature deserve a chance to safely begin their American story and to be treated with humanity and dignity. This deservedness is inborn.
The peoples’ plight in the US remains untenable, and we raise money in any legal and creative way we know how to bring decency, compassion, and respect to the process of thriving under oppression.
We are second responders, as artists and as donors and supporters. We cannot prevent the suffering caused by the US government’s terrorist tactics, but we can help ease that trauma through immediate need and legal funding.
We believe no person is “illegal”.
We believe being neighborly and looking out for your community is not illegal, either.
We are proud Americans with foreign cultural and religious heritages that believe in the constitution, particularly the Fifth Amendment, ensuring any and all PERSONS on this (stolen) land “…shall [never] be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.”
The law of the land applies to all persons, civilian or not, documented or not. We are angered to see law enforcement officials ignoring their oath to the Constitution. We are not proud to be subjects of an oppressive state; we are proud of the people who fight for what little rights we have left in this land. We are proud of the true stewards of this land, the first people.
We do not advocate for violence, lawlessness, or revolution. We believe the revolution begins in our minds and hearts, when we put our egos and bias on the shelf and start empathizing with one another. That revolution will not be televised, either. We are peaceful and promote motherly love.
We believe in the tireless efforts of our fellows who work in the legal profession to uphold these rights for all persons in the United States through the (flawed) justice system in this country. We believe in the perseverance of the organizations who risk their lives to ensure that suffering human beings can find water and food in the desert and survive. We believe in the workers, the ones getting shit done and we support the efforts of unions working to harness the incredible power we carry.
With every bag of carrots we open, we remember you, our beautiful friend. We remember the day you had to keep working in spite of the horror you experienced. We see there’s no other farm selling them in the grocery store and we’re shopping at the farmer’s market. You inspire us to work harder and smarter. We grow things together and we persevere.
For the cheap seats, artists unite.
In the Summer of 2020, in response to the lack of arts-focused organizations supporting migrant families, Artists in Solidarity was formed as a nonprofit association. The first auction was a success, prompting our association to incorporate. Our first auction hosted 133 artists, many emerging and having their own migration stories. We raised over $5300 and donated the funds to Raices Texas and Border Angels.
Our second auction in August of 2021 hosted 88 artists and raised over $5200 to benefit Al Otro Lado and Minority Humanitarian Foundation. Our third annual Auction for Migrant Families in July 2022 hosted 89 artists and raised over $6800 to benefit Border Kindness and No More Deaths/No Mas Muertes. Our fourth annual Auction for Migrant Families in July 2023 hosted 123 artists and raised over $8300 to benefit Casa Del Migrante and Casa Lulu. Lulu herself texted us pictures of moms getting ultrasounds with the money we raised, together, all of us, as Artists in Solidarity.
Shiiit, our Fifth Annual Auction for Migrant Families, hosting 84 artists in 2024 brought in over $4600 Al Otro Lado and Border Kindness’ “Migrant Moms” program. Even in our sleepiest year, the real ones showed up. In April 2025 our collective, along with most adjacent organizations in San Diego County, received racist pressure and we had to quickly shut down and regroup for safety.
Big Mother emerged. Who is Big Mother? We look to our spiritual mother the most high Virgin and her reflected grace in the work of Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini, patron saint of immigrants. Not only was she the first US citizen to be cannonized, she was an Italian immigrant herself. As we watch thugs slam sons, daughters, adults, children, fellow human beings to the ground, we meditate on all these things in our hearts, as mothers.
Big Mother IS watching, and she’s pissed.
As we navigate the strange waters of the current political climate, we are shielded by the grace of the Star of the Sea who guides us as we follow the mission. In 2025, Big Mother will be the patron saint of the Artists in Solidarity Auction to give our organization safety.
We’re grateful for our supporters who reached out on the side to ask if we were okay. We’re sorry to see it took armed terrorists roaming our beloved SD streets to get numbers on the bandwagon, but here we are. Fuck divisions, fuck policing each other. We’ve found in each other a solid community beyond the bandwagon and we make change. That’s all that matters: Community.
We are grateful and humbled by the tidal wave of support we’ve received over the years and we take pride in our impact – both in supporting migrant families and uplifting the artists who love them. In fact, we take this as our duty: to use what privilege our ancestors fought to give to us, however tenuous that privilege might be as US citizens, to help our brothers and sisters make their journey where they need to be with respect, dignity, and support. To raise funds to ease the trauma of having our windows smashed and our daughters disappeared. The struggle appears now through racist tactics, but we know, they separate us to divide us. Whatever you were born as, who fucking cares? Human beings deserve dignity and mutual respect regardless of any of the bullshit.
AS ARTISTS WE ARE UNITED AND WE WILL NEVER BACK DOWN.
(this document was crafted by human hands and hearts and was in no way generated using AI tools.)
RESOURCE LINK LIBRARY
(contact us with more!)
ARTISTS IN SOLIDARITY/BIG MOTHER SPECIFIC:
https://artistssolidarity.betterworld.org/
https://www.cabrininationalshrine.org/timeline-and-her-life-s-work
https://www.instagram.com/13igmother/
ICE alerts/Immediate Info
https://www.facebook.com/hrcoside/
Legal/Know Your Rights for Immigrant populations:
(remember kids, don’t talk to the cops!)
https://www.nilc.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/rights-card.pdf (printable eng/span)
https://www.ilrc.org/red-cards-tarjetas-rojas#item-4475 (order some for free to give out)
https://www.nilc.org/
https://www.chirla.org/
First Amendment/Artist Rights:
https://pressbooks.cuny.edu/landmarkcases/
https://artistrightsalliance.org/about_us
https://www.calawyersforthearts.org/
https://www.artslaw.org/
Recovering from immigration involvement:
https://www.immdef.org/
Undocujoy/Positivity:
https://ufw.org/research/history/education-heart-cesar-chavez-words/
Artist Professional Resources
Mexicanos 2070 - Palabras del Pueblo Writing Workshop