As of Monday afternoon, more than 650 artists, curators, critics, designers, educators, musicians, performers, writers, and other arts professionals have endorsed Vermont Senator and Democratic frontrunner Bernie Sanders for president of the United States. Kevin Beasley, Nicole Eisenman, Juliana Huxtable, Nan Goldin, Martha Rosler, Hito Steyerl, Kara Walker, and Anicka Yi are among the visual artists who signed a statement in support of Sanders encouraging all cultural producers who want to unseat President Donald Trump to do the same.

Sanders won the Nevada caucuses as well as the New Hampshire primary and now has his sights on Super Tuesday. Among the priorities of his campaign are Medicare for all, eliminating more than one trillion dollars in student loan debt and introducing free tuition to public colleges, raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, expanding social security benefits, creating millions of new jobs to solve the climate emergency, and implementing a wealth tax.

The letter of support praises Sanders’s foreign and international policies, Green New Deal program, and his “unshakable ethics.” “Overall, we strongly feel that only Sanders represents the values and virtues which all of us as cultural producers have always hoped to strive for,” the document reads. “In the words of Sanders, ‘You have my promise that as president, I will be an arts president. I will continue to advocate strongly for robust funding of the arts in our cities, schools, and public spaces. Art is speech. Art is what life is about.’”

The Artists4Bernie campaign was launched by DIS, Mohammed Salemy, and Jennifer Teets. While its name is similar, it is not affiliated with the group Artists For Bernie, which creates unofficial artworks to boost his campaign.

[Update: February 26, 7:45 AM] As of Wednesday morning, 1,600 arts professionals signed the Artists4Bernie letter, endorsing Sanders as president.

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