CONVENINGS AND PRESENTATIONS
Arts & Democracy Project regularly brings together artists, organizers, funders, and policymakers for workshops, presentations, roundtable conversations and networking events across the U.S.
Muslim Women Write the Body
Muslim Women Write the Body was a series of workshops organized with writer Roohi Choudhry (Nov-May, 2022), focused on Muslim identity and the gray areas of faith, particularly for women. Participants explored their identities in relation to past, present, and future, considering gender, culture and more. Choudhry and guest artists Nsenga Knight, Demo Ibrahim, Hala Shah, Aizzah Fatima led workshops on Zoom with follow up debrief and coaching sessions. The creative work was presented live at our annual Community Iftar on the Avenue C Plaza.
Community Iftar
Storytelling in Crisis
The virtual dialogue, Storytelling in Crisis, presented by Storyline, Arts & Democracy, The Laundromat Project, Naturally Occurring Cultural Districts NY (NOCD-NY) and US Department of Arts and Culture (USDAC) explored strategies for crafting storytelling responses that center care and connection, amplify resistance, and support resiliency. We heard from storytellers who have learned from their experience of making work grappling with pandemics; epidemics; and natural, social, political and economic disasters. Michael Premo (Storyline) facilitated a discussion with Steven Thrasher (Northwestern University), Nick Slie (Mondo Bizarro, Cry You One, I -10 Witness Project), and Regina Campbell (Rikers Public memory Project).
Midwest , Northeast , Southeast , Criminal Justice , Health , Human Rights / Social Justice , Film / Video / Audio / Digital , Theater / Performance / Spoken Word , Multi / Inter-disciplinary , Alliance / Movement / Field Building , Community Engagement , Political Engagement , Policy / Law Change
Program
Story Circle on the Right to Belong
Creative Transformation: Arts, Culture, and Public Housing Communities
Recognizing an opportunity to further integrate arts and culture into the transformation of public housing communities, NOCD-NY brought together a diverse range of tenant leaders, residents, elected officials and staff, city agencies, artists, cultural institutions, advocates, funders and community organizations in an Arts, Culturem and Public Housing Roundtable on July 27, 2015. Drawing on interviews carried out in the field, the roundtable was designed to:
• Showcase exemplary partnerships that illustrated equitable, long-term approaches
• Identify barriers and challenges
• Develop recommendations and discuss how to move them into action
• Identify pilot project(s) that could be supported
• Build and strengthened relationships amongst participants.
Animating PB with Arts & Culture
Valuing the Intersection Between Arts, Culture, & Community
From the Neighborhood Up: A Citywide Forum on Culture and Community
Spacing Out: Innovative Urban Uses of Cultural Space
Northeast , Cultural / Media Policy , Multi / Inter-disciplinary , Community Engagement
Program
SEIU artist residencies
National , Midwest , Southeast , Southwest , Economic Justice / Labor , Multi / Inter-disciplinary , Alliance / Movement / Field Building
Program
(Photo: Dave Sanders)
Home-buying With Artists in Mind
Image from Housing is a Human Right
Artists in a Movement Moment
Up From the Roots: Economic and Cultural Equity in Naturally Occurring Cultural Districts
Cultural Organizing and Collaborating Across Sectors at the National Rural Assembly
Jeremy Frey Porcupine basket c/o Maine Indian Basketmakers Association
Rural Cultural Roundtable
Cultural Organizing for Social Justice Idea Forum
How we can further our work by connecting with one another and with sustained strategies for social justice and movement building? This Idea Forum at the 2010 National Performance Network meeting in Dallas, Texas explored this questions with examples of creative activism and cultural organizing. (December, 2010)
Breaking out of a Bifurcated World
Activist Artist and Media Justice Networking Dinner
National , Urban , West , Cultural / Media Policy , Human Rights / Social Justice , Alliance / Movement / Field Building
Program
Chicago Networking the Networks Dinner
A Rural Conversation
- Part 1: http://vimeo.com/15508085
- Part 2: http://vimeo.com/15508267
Taking Over and Talking Back
Brooklyn Networking the Networks dinner
White House Briefing on Art, Community, Social Justice and Recovery
Cultural Organizing at the Pedagogy and Theater of the Oppressed Conference
This multiracial, intergenerational, and multidisciplinary dialogue between civically engaged artists, cultural organizers, and scholars focused on the intersection between art, culture, and organizing around social change. It addressed both tensions as well as synergies in this work and offered examples of different approaches – some generated by artists and some generated by community organizers. (Minnapolis, May, 2009)
Cross-Sector Partnerships and the Role of the Arts in Policy and Systems Change
By Erik Takeshita and Anusha Venkataraman
In April of 2009, 27 participants from the arts, community development, education and other diverse sectors around the country met at California State Monterey Bay as part of the Community Arts Convening and Research Project to discuss “Cross-Sector Partnership and the Role of the Arts in Policy and Systems Change.” This is the report from that session.Arts and Activism Convening in partnership with Nathan Cummings Foundation
Cultural Organizing for Progressive Change session at the National Organizers Alliance Gathering VI
Cultural Organizing for Progressive Change at Michigan Policy Summit
The session explored the power of cultural organizing to expand who is included in organizing and how they are included, creatively frame and communicate visions of change, encourage critical thinking, break down fear, and humanize polarized issues. (Lansing, May 2008)
From Activist Art to Cultural Organizing at Intersection V conference
An interdisciplinary dialogue between artists and organizers, co-organized with New World Theatre, that provided frameworks and went deeper into examples and issues related to cultural organizing. What's the difference between issue-based art and cultural organizing? What are some of the successes and challenges artists and organizers have experienced in working together? Where does your work fit in the spectrum? (Amherst, MA April 2008)
Learning Community Gathering
Hip Hop artist and activist gathering
In this strategic conversation, cosponsored with the League of Young Voters, Hip Hop artists, presenters, and activists shared their plans for 2008 and how they might collaborate in their work.
State of the Nation Gathering
Highlander 75th Anniversary Celebration Gathering
This gathering took place as part of the Highlander Center’s 75th Anniversary and followed a one-day institute on cultural organizing that was also part of the celebration. The goal of Highlander was and is to provide education and support to poor and working people fighting economic injustice, poverty, prejudice, and environmental destruction. Presenters at the gathering included: co-facilitators Anasa Trautman, Highlander Center; Caron Atlas and Javiera Benavente, Arts & Democracy Project; Amelia Kirby, Appalshop; Carlton Turner, Alternate Roots; Michelle Miller, SEIU; Mathew Jones, SNCC Freedom Singers; and Baldemar Velazquez, Farm Labor Organizer Committee.
Imaging the Frame, Framing the Image
In the first years of the Arts & Democracy Project we co-convened small conversations to learn about the needs and interests of artists and activists across the country. Our first one, cosponsored with the New Progressive Coalition, took place at la Pena in Berkeley, bringing together over twenty Bay Area artists, activists, and cultural organizers for a discussion about the relationship between framing, community cultural development, arts, and organizing. (March 2007)
