In 2007, START SOMA will launch PROPAGANDA III, a political poster art show that will tour the world through 2008.

There will be no curation and absolutely NO censorship of any sort. Expressed political viewpoints, be they left, right, or center, will be displayed side-by-side, both online AND in the real world.

PROPAGANDA III will tour the globe through 2008, with dozens of one day art shows worldwide - the current schedule includes stops throughout north America, south America, Australia, Asia, Europe, and the middle east.

The exhibition will travel the world for at least one year, adding posters throughout the tour.

When the first START art show hosted in a SOMA living room in March 2003, John Doffing – the gallery owner- had absolutely NO IDEA what they were creating. START SOMA's inaugural show featured over 100 local emerging artists and over 1000 original works of art. About the time that the police + fire department arrived (after responding to reports of an illegal rave and a line stretching around the block!), They realized that they just might be on to something...

Over the course of their first THREE YEARS, they put together several dozen art shows. Thousands of folks came to their openings, they raised a bunch of money for some great local non-profit organizations, and we actually facilitated the creation of NEW ART through our unique artist in residence program. And we sold LOTS of great art!

Four years ago, START SOMA hosted an art show called PROPAGANDA, held in a barely above-ground gallery space to be just another platform for far lefties, Bush haters, and anti-corporate types, particularly in an ultra-lib town like San Francisco.That's why John Doffing, founder of upstart gallery space START SOMA, Propaganda's south of Market headquarters kept the show's submission guidelines, as well as the curating process, as loose as possible.

"I wanted to put together a show that people would walk into and just go, Wow" John says.

“ Politically, I disagree with probably 80% of the stuff on the walls but it wasn't about me, it was about freedom of expression and providing a real forum for open exchange."
"I wasn't purposefully trying to piss people off." he says. He pauses for a moment and smiles. "Or maybe I was. I don't know. I just wanted to make people think."

A few weeks after, police in Los Angeles shut down an art show in the middle of the opening, on the grounds that it was "offensive and aggressive in nature." The FBI recently seized equipment in New York from a renowned artist collective who produce multimedia work examining the role of technology in modern life. And a portrait by artist Christopher Savido created such a stir at the Chelsea Market, that the market's managers shut down the 60-piece art show that was scheduled to stay up for the next month. Even'ultra-lib' San Francisco has not been immune. Last year, a gallery owner shut her doors permanently after receiving death threats following the exhibition of an oil painting depicting torture at Abu Ghraib. Our own Hotel des Arts just received a CEASE + DESIST letter from a global multinational, demanding that we destroy one of the dozens of murals in the art hotel because it featured a corporate logo. John F. Kennedy observed that "the arts incarnate the creativity of a free people - when the creative impulse cannot flourish, when it cannot freely select its methods and objects, when it is deprived of spontaneity, then society severs the root of art." And concluded that "If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him."Taking this outlook as our inspiration, we have selected HUNDREDS of works of NEW ART created by artists from around the world. We hope that everyone who attends this show will see something that makes them think, and perhaps even act.....

Resource: PropagandaIII

And Finally… No-More-Ignorance is now there, in Propaganda III gallery, where we represented Eight posters for Six of our great artists and friends… Many thanks for all of them for giving us permission to present their arts there…