Artists’ Adaptability Circles (AAC)
A granting & leadership development program for Bay Area artists + arts workers
Art by Todd Berman
Artists’ Adaptability Circles (AAC)
A community-driven granting and leadership development program designed to put Bay Area artists, culture bearers, and arts workers to work– centering mutual aid to creatively address the issues arising in their lives and communities.
ABOUT
The program began its development in June 2020 with deep, sustained conversation among Bay Area arts leaders responding to artists’ needs during the peak of the Covid pandemic. Through consensus-based decision making, our goal was to empower Bay Area artists, culture bearers and arts workers to grow their skills and capacity and to dream past their current realities.
The AAC also created a shared learning environment for historically under-resourced artists, culture bearers and arts workers (specifically, Black, Indigenous and People of Color, LGBTQIA2S+ people, individuals with disabilities, and other historically under-resourced communities) to come together.
This program was offered in collaboration with Diamond Wave, Emerging Arts Professionals / San Francisco Bay Area (EAP), La Peña Cultural Center, MACLA/Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana and SOMArts Cultural Center, and was supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the San Francisco Foundation, Zellerbach Community Foundation, Walter & Elise Haas Fund, Castellano Family Foundation, and the Phyllis C Wattis Foundation.
PREVIOUS CIRCLES
In our 2022/2023 iteration of the program, we supported five circles of artists and one individual arts leader working on specific issues:
Alma Landeta & Tricia Rainwater-Tutwiler addressed the gap in resources and representation for BIPOC queer and gender-expansive artists.
Chris Evans & team are addressed the health, wellness, and self care of Black women in Oakland.
TEAM: Chris Evans (Lead), Keisha Turner, Sheila Russell , Tobe Melora Correal, & Yvette Aldama
Hector Lugo is created safe, open, accessible physical and social spaces for Afro-Latin music and dance community jams, in collaboration with a bilingual education public school in Oakland.
Elizabeth Jiménez Montelongo & team explored and expanded opportunities for under-served communities of color in the Bay Area to create, present, publish, experience, and engage with multi-disciplinary creative works that inspire conversation on important issues and celebrate shared culture. Their emphasis was on supporting women of color and Indigenous people whose heritage is rooted in areas that are now Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, and South America.
TEAM: Elizabeth Jiménez Montelongo (Lead), Adriana Garcia, Josiah Luis Alderete, & Laura Diaz
Tossie Long & team amplified Black voices and Black sounds of San Francisco.
TEAM: Tossie Long (Lead), Crystal Sanders-Alvarado, Jamil Nichols, Maria Judice, & Miles Lassi
Xtal Azul & team (re)established spaces / systems of support and mutual aid for Indigenous artists, specifically 2 Spirit and Indigequeer artists, cultural bearers and practitioners, for visioning individual and collective projects that decolonize creative practice, sexuality and gender expression and supports the sovereignty of their work, shared cosmologies, and embodied spirituality. Their vision specifically addressed the lack of in-community, dedicated, sustainable ritual-art spaces for 2 Spirits and Indigequeers.
TEAM: Xtal Azul (Lead), Edgar Fabián Frías, M. Zamora, Ruth Villasenor, & Tlahuizpapalotl (Angel) Fabian
PROCESS
AAC lead artists were selected through an invited nomination process centering trusted relationships between participating organizations and community-based artists. Once lead artists and their areas of focus were selected by advisor consensus, lead artists were entrusted to select up to four Bay Area artists to join their circle.
Over the course of the 2-year program, artists met independently and attended cross-circle meetings centering tools and trainings from EAP’s community-created curriculum. Lead artists also attended monthly meetings to check in with AAC administrative leadership and to problem-solve any issues that arose during the process. All artists received a stipend for their participation ($2,000, with lead artists receiving $4,000) that reflected the estimated hours of participation at a Bay Area living wage of $50/hour, and each circle received $10,000 of flexible funding to support movement on their issue.
There were no anticipated events or outputs from AAC circles. Rather, circles were encouraged to use the time and funding to support self-directed movement on their issue (which may have resulted in group retreats, equipment purchase, additional artist stipends, community actions/events, etc.).
ADVISORY TEAM
The AAC was overseen by an advisory team of administrative, funding and organizational partners who collectively guided and supported the initiative. This group included:
Alyssarhaye Graciano
Visual Arts Curator, MACLA/Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana
Carolina Quintanilla (she/her/ella)
Curator, Educator & Gallery Director, SOMArts Cultural Center
Esailama G. Artry-Diouf, Ph.D. (she/her)
Program Officer, Arts and Culture, San Francisco Foundation
Faiza Bukhari (she/her)
Program Lead of Arts Build Resilient Communities and Racial Justice, Walter & Elise Haas Fund
Margot Melcon (she/her)
Playwright, Parent, & Program Staff, Arts and Culture, Zellerbach Family Foundation
Reyna Brown (they/she)
Artist, Activist, Network Coordinator, Emerging Arts Professionals San Francisco Bay Area (EAP)
Rhiannon Evans MacFadyen (she/they)
Artist, Curator, & Director, Emerging Arts Professionals San Francisco Bay Area (EAP)
Tara Dalbo (she/her)
Deputy Director, La Peña Cultural Center, Berkeley
Vin Seaman (they/them)
Artist & Artistic Director, Diamond Wave