Artists’ Adaptability Circles (AAC)
A granting & leadership development program for Bay Area artists + arts workers
Art by Todd Berman
Artists’ Adaptability Circles (AAC)
The AAC is 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 is 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 creates 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 is 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 is 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.
CURRENT CIRCLES
In our 2022/2023 iteration of the program, we are supporting five circles of artists and one individual arts leader working on specific issues:
Alma Landeta & Tricia Rainwater-Tutwiler are addressing the gap in resources and representation for BIPOC queer and gender-expansive artists.
Chris Evans & team are addressing 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 creating 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 are exploring and expanding 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 is 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 are amplifying Black voices and Black sounds of San Francisco.
TEAM: Tossie Long (Lead), Crystal Sanders-Alvarado, Jamil Nichols, Maria Judice, & Miles Lassi
Xtal Azul & team are (re)establishing 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 is to specifically address 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 are selected through an invited nomination process centering trusted relationships between participating organizations and community-based artists. Once lead artists and their areas of focus are selected by advisor consensus, lead artists are entrusted to select up to four Bay Area artists to join their circle.
Over the course of the 2-year program, artists meet independently and attend cross-circle meetings centering tools and trainings from EAP’s community-created curriculum. Lead artists also attend monthly meetings to check in with AAC administrative leadership and to problem-solve any issues that arise during the process. All artists receive a stipend for their participation ($2,000, with lead artists receiving $4,000) that reflects the estimated hours of participation at a Bay Area living wage of $50/hour, and each circle receives $10,000 of flexible funding to support movement on their issue.
There are no anticipated events or outputs from AAC circles. Rather, circles are encouraged to use the time and funding to support self-directed movement on their issue (which may result in group retreats, equipment purchase, additional artist stipends, community actions/events, etc.)
ADVISORY TEAM
The AAC is overseen by an advisory team of administrative, funding and organizational partners who collectively guide and support the initiative. This group currently includes:
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