In the face of our current permacrisis, it can feel daunting to figure out ‘How can I In the face of our current permacrisis, it can feel daunting to figure out ‘How can I be of best assistance? How can my organization be most effective?’ The needs are great, the crises keep coming, and the levels of inequity and injustice keep growing. However, there is hope! Through informed collaboration, you can develop a response that is both appropriate and impactful. With Puerto Rico as our learning setting, this day is a conversation among artists, funders, service organizations and trainers/coaches. Together, we’ll examine recent disasters, and uncover how the arts and creative communities can both prepare and respond in tangible ways.

Providing support to individual artists looks different from funder to funder, and we can all agree that there isn’t “just one way” to fund equitably. However, as we seek to improve and expand our juxtaposing strategies for support, can we collectively address the issue of underfunding, and build greater sustainability for artists? How do worker co-ops and collaboratives fit in? Are there policies that funders can advocate for, what does it look like to organize around this?

As we move beyond the racial, reckoning, and pandemic experiences of 2020, we know the very fabric of our world has been altered and our sector has leaned into racial justice and equity in unprecedented ways. This session is an opportunity to make meaning of the many initiatives, funds, practices etc. that have come about. This is an interactive session in which attendees will share the goals, practices, and lessons of their equity/racial justice initiatives in which we will be in dialogue and principled struggle to understand our collective impact. Let’s move beyond counting the numbers as measurement and into a deeper understanding and meaning making that clarifies where we are now so we can be thorough and strategic about our role in turning the world towards justice.

The landscape of cultural policy and advocacy work has shifted dramatically in the past three years, with new actors, coalitions, and opportunities to engage for both GIA and its members. Simultaneously, there continue to be limited spaces for public sector practitioners to deepen their work and find networks of practice. This pre-conference session seeks to: 

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• Explore and amplify new pathways and organizing structures within cultural policy for local, state arts agencies and allied public sector leaders 

•  Identify and prioritize future opportunities, programs, and policy issues for GIA and the broader advocacy community 

• Connect with and identify key players and potential collaborators for local, regional, and national work focused on trans-sector collaboration and public policy 

• Create space for collaborators in non-arts sectors to work in coordination with arts leaders on equitable cultural policy • Initiate action items for GIA’s cultural policy committee work for 2024 (and beyond!)

Who are the Puerto Rican people? What is the Puerto Rican experience about? Who is represented? How should cultural institutions contribute to collective narratives? To collective histories? To advocacy and social policy? The museums and exhibition spaces of the Island continue to engage with these questions today. Don’t miss out on this half-day cultural tour throughout San Juan’s museums and cultural institutions, to learn about their approaches to multiple histories, visiblizing plurality, and how each engages with their charge to represent Puerto Rican culture.

As many communities and neighborhoods come together to heal and recover from the inundating health, economic, political, and environmental crises facing the Island, artists have emerged as central advocates and activists for community self-management and resilience. Anchored in the diversity that characterizes Puerto Rican identity and environment, grassroots community arts collectives are shaping new futures that center solidarity and thriving. Don’t miss out on this half-day cultural tour through the neighborhoods of San Juan’s to learn about the embedded practices of these grassroots cultural communities.