Letters to Billionaires
An Art Fundraiser

Letters to Billionaires is a creative writing project that I began in 2023. It is a social critique on the wealth gap and current state of economic disparity, having increased exponentially since the covid-19 pandemic began (sources: World Inequality Report, Oxfam and The Economist).

I chose four billionaires to write personal letters to: Galen Weston Jr. (CEO of George Weston Ltd., former president of supermarket franchise Loblaw Companies Ltd.), Sherry Brydson (largest shareholder of investment firm Woodbridge, heiress to the Thomson family fortune, owner of Elmwood Spa), Chip Wilson (founder of lululemon athletica, owner of Vancouver based holding company ‘Hold it All Inc’) and Mark Cuban (investor, minority owner of the Dallas Mavericks NBA basketball team, personality on Shark Tank tv series). The combined net worth of these four individuals is a staggering 38.7 billion dollars.

These letters are an irreverent and sometimes humorous request for $1.2 million dollars from each billionaire. The content leans towards the absurd, mirroring the status of billionaires as living beyond the bounds of reality that the vast majority of people experience, but whose manoeuvres impact this same vast majority.

Each letter can be personalized and mailed to said billionaire by anyone, or kept as an artwork. There were only 50 printed copies of each letter, and they can be purchased for $50 each. Each copy will be numbered and signed by hand. If you wish to participate but cannot afford to, please email amspaziani@gmail.com for free pdfs.

Letters to Billionaires is also a fundraiser for my current choreography projects. Specifically, an artist residency at the Emily Harvey Foundation in Venice, Italy, and an accessible web application/ creative tool called DoppelTone that transforms dance into spatialized sound, designed with and for individuals living with vision loss. The $50 cost of each letter will be put toward these projects, inclusive of printing and postage.

These letters were written from the perspective of an artist writing on behalf of a community of other artists experiencing crushing budget cuts and increasing costs of living. However, if you are not an artist please don’t let this dissuade you from participating. Anyone who has cause to request $1.2 million dollars from one of these billionaires is encouraged to participate, or add content to these letters as they they wish.

In any case, I hope that you are stimulated or even entertained in some way, or perhaps inspired to reach out for direct funding in your own way.

If you would like to purchase a letter for $50 or request a free pdf, please email me at amspaziani@gmail.com.

LETTER GALLERY (click to enlarge)