Institute for Unpopular Culture

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Institute For Unpopular Culture (also known by the acronym, IFUC) is a nonprofit alternative and outsider culture organization based in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 1989 by David Ferguson who established IFUC as a means of discovering and promoting artists in various creative enterprises whose work defied mainstream sensibilities. 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. It also provides artists with grants and other funding for their projects.^[1]

IFUC embodies Ferguson's particular strain of arts patronage, an approach he calls 'New Philanthropy'. This 'new' model in fact draws from a traditional source of philanthropic principles, the Gospel of Wealth, an influential essay written in 1889 by American businessman Andrew Carnegie. As a modern avatar of Carnegie's treatise on philanthropic responsibility, IFUC puts a premium on volunteer administration and seeks to avoid the inertia sometimes found in more professionalized nonprofit infrastructures. This emphasis on a more flexible, less-bureaucratic approach has allowed IFUC to form relationships with a network of unconventional sources of financial support -- the money from which finds its way to satisfying the publicly announced mission of the Institute rather than paying off administrative expenses^[2]

By default, sponsoring 'unpopular' culture courts a certain amount of risk. Since its inception, IFUC has welcomed those whose art proved sufficiently polarizing to scare away more traditional arts organizations and foundations. 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 inmate at California's San Quentin State Prison.^[3]IFUC has also been associated with performance artist Holly Hughes, one of the infamous NEA Four, a quartet of artists who saw their NEA funding cut off because of concerns of indecency.^[4]Other less controversial but provocative talents have also benefitted from IFUC backing including graffiti artist Barry McGee (a.k.a. "Twist")^[5]and installation artist Joe Mangrum. The Institute helped launch the Punk Rock Orchestra, a San Francisco Bay Area music group which performs orchestral arrangements of punk rock classics.^[6]

IFUC has also worked closely with Creativity Explored, the groundbreaking San Francisco non-profit visual arts studio and gallery that teaches and exhibits artists with disabilities. IFUC sponsored the short film about the school which was broadcast on PBS.