“When it comes to cultural organizations and their critical potential to expand our
experience and understanding of the world, the IAO is in a league of its own.”
– Todd Lerew (IAO Donor; Program Manager, Library Foundation of Los Angeles)

 


WHY SUPPORT THE INSTITUTE FOR ART AND OLFACTION?

I don’t need convincing. I love you guys and I know what you do. Take me to the donation page

The mission of the Institute for Art and Olfaction is to make scent materials and education accessible to the people who have traditionally not had access.  We use the lens of scent, but we believe that through scent you can reach many fields – sociology, for instance, not to mention history, chemistry, technology, conceptual art, social justice and much, much more.

Experimental transmedia art spaces like the IAO encourage connections between disparate concepts, facilitate the exploration of gray areas, support artists and emerging perfumers, and help people engage in science, creativity, curiosity, and good old fashioned experimentation.

As a non-profit, we invest back into the community that we serve. Any income we have at the IAO is paid forward into the programs we develop – programs like the Bienial Scent Fair, the Experimental Scent Summit (which we produce with Klara Ravat), Perfume on the Radio, Open Source Smell Culture, our ongoing Scent and Society program, our gallery space, and – of course – the Art and Olfaction Awards.  There’s more.

In the past nine years of activity (and counting!), we’ve hosted hundreds of events – many of the free, most of them public – that invited visitors into the wild, woolly world of scent. We did this on site at the IAO, and also in partnership with institutions such as Hammer Museum, Getty Institute, Danish Film Institute, the National Media Museum in the UK, amongst others.

In this way we promote scent as a viable creative medium, we provide access to the tools and materials and knowledge of scent (and dismantle some exclusionary practices along the way), and we enhance visibility for artists and perfumers working outside the mainstream.

All this, to us, is worth supporting. These lovely people seem to agree!

 


HOW TO SUPPORT

 

ATTEND AN ONLINE CLASS

The single best way to help us keep going is simply to sign up for our many classes and events as you can. With a breadth of programming at eminently reasonable cost levels – and now online thanks to the pandemic-that-shall-not-be-named –  we do our best to give you good reason!
> Check out our calendar, we update it all the time:.

 

MAKE A DIRECT DONATION

And then, there’s money. We hate it. And we need it. We’ve made it easier to make one-time or recurring donations direct from your credit card or bank account, with our partner at Flipcause. You can visit our donation site, or just use the nice widget, below. All donors go on our wall of fame.

 

SHOP FOR THE IAO ON AMAZON SMILE

Finally, you can help with little drips of income by using our Smile account on Amazon. They, in turn, donate 0.5% of the price of all eligible AmazonSmile purchases to the charitable organization of your choice – that’s us! AmazonSmile is the same Amazon you know: Same products, same prices, same service. Note that you have to shop at Smile.Amazon.com for this to work, so bookmark the link below, and shop, shop, shop.
> Check it out + Spread the word: http://smile.amazon.com/ch/46-3012493

THANK YOU!