Call and Response Goes Live at Startup Art Fair LA
- kristineschomaker
- 4 days ago
- 3 min read
Hi everyone,
Something big is happening.
After five years of digital exchanges connecting artists across six continents, Call and Response is going physical for the first time.
Startup Art Fair LA | February 27 - March 1, 2026The Kinney Venice Beach | Room 202
THE PROJECT
In October 2025, we randomly paired 190 artists to create collaborative books together. Four months later, we have approximately 90 unique collaborative works—oracle decks, teabag weavings, painted photographs, sculptural volumes, accordion books, visual puzzles.
Each book represents a creative conversation between two strangers who had never met. From India to Iowa, Germany to the United Arab Emirates—artists navigated time zones, shipping logistics, language barriers, and completely different creative approaches to make something neither could have conceived alone.
This is Call and Response at its core: random pairing, radical trust, real collaboration.
THE EXHIBITION
Location: The Kinney Venice Beach, 737 Washington Blvd, Venice, CA 90292Room: 202
Hours:
Friday, February 27: VIP Early Access 5-7pm | All Access 7-10pm
Saturday, February 28: 12pm - 9pm
Sunday, March 1: 12pm - 7pm
The intimate hotel suite setting allows visitors to interact closely with each work—books displayed throughout the space on beds, tables, and dressers. This is a selling exhibition with works split equally between the two collaborating artists and Shoebox Arts.
Get Tickets: www.startup-art.com/los-angeles
LIVE: EXQUISITE CORPSE ZINE MAKING
Throughout the weekend, fair visitors can participate in collaborative exquisite corpse zine-making sessions. Create art together with strangers, experience the Call and Response philosophy in real time.
All completed zines will be auctioned off for charity.
WHY THIS MATTERS
Call and Response started in April 2020 when everything shut down. Artists needed each other but all the structures for connection had disappeared.
What began as a pandemic response—pairing artists randomly for two-week digital exchanges—became proof that meaningful collaboration doesn't require institutional permission. No fees. No applications. No gatekeepers. Just artists supporting artists through creative exchange.
Twenty rounds later, the model has facilitated lasting partnerships, gallery exhibitions, and creative community across cultural and geographic boundaries. Artists like Jody Zellen and Lorraine Bubar met through Call and Response and went on to exhibit at Proxy Gallery.
Others discovered new techniques, explored different media, found creative community during isolation.
This exhibition at Startup Art Fair marks the next evolution: collaboration that exists in three dimensions, works you can hold in your hands, partnerships that produced physical objects through radical trust.
FIRST ARRIVAL
Last week, the first book arrived on my doorstep. From India. Created by Shloka (India) and Stacey (United Arab Emirates). Two artists who've never met in person. Four months of collaboration across continents.
Safe and sound. And it's beautiful.
89 more coming from around the world.
FOLLOW THE PROJECT
Instagram: @callandresponseart Facebook: Call and Response Email: callandresponseart@gmail.com
Want to bring Call and Response to your organization? We're developing curriculum and training for institutions interested in facilitating collaborative programs.
ABOUT SHOEBOX ARTS
Shoebox Arts connects artists to opportunities and builds creative community through programs like Call and Response and Perceive Me. Operating from the Brewery Arts Complex in Los Angeles, we eliminate barriers to meaningful artistic exchange.
Instagram: @shoeboxarts.la Email: shoeboxartsla@gmail.com
Come see what happens when 190 artists trust the process across continents.
Kristine Schomaker Shoebox Arts
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