Programming @ Common Field
Convening Program Director March 2018- November 2022
As the Convening Program Director, I oversaw partner cultivation and facilitated on-going programming collaborations with local leader cohorts for national Convenings of 550-2500 attendees from the artist-centered organizing field. Lead local outreach efforts with prospective partners, session applicants, network members, and attendees. Manage logistics and budgets for hospitality and venues in support of all local programming, artist commissions, and Convening-related projects with a focus on accessibility. Develop roster of locally-based vendors, support staff, contractors, and volunteers to flesh out the support team for events, outreach, and Convening program efforts. Manage open call for sessions, curated programs, and support fund program request for funds application processes from outreach through payment. For Philadelphia 2019 Convening, developed summer 2018 Philly Field Conversation series event partnerships, produced events, and created outreach materials. For 2020 Convening, oversaw transition from planned sited Houston event to a virtual event, for 2021 redesigned gathering specifically for virtual platforms, and for 2022, imagined and produced a hybrid online and in-person regional gathering with local partners, Common Field team, and event production team.
More about Common Field
Upcoming:
WHAT NOW? Towards Artist-Led Movements
September 30 - October 2, 2022WHAT NOW? is a regionally-focused, 3-day hybrid event in Seattle, WA and online that envisions the transformative possibilities birthed in moments of uncertainty. This gathering, designed by a Seattle team of artists and organizers in partnership with Common Field, is organized to strengthen creative ecosystems by building collective power and mutual awareness towards activating shared visions and strategies to transform structural inequities. Programming with be holistic and interactive to maximize the engagement and utility of resources. Sessions will include peer-to-peer workshops, collaborative arts network mapping, facilitated conversations, and other embodied practices. A combination of virtual and in-person programs will bring local and national voices together across regions to share the work that’s working, and dream the models for our futures.
Programs will address:
- The Role of Artists: How are artists and cultural workers leading in this moment of recovery and reimagination? How do we come together to build relationships, heal traumas, and resolve conflicts, to better weave together artist-led movements?
- The Structure of Support: What strategies and resources are needed for economic sustainability and equitable growth? How do we amplify existing solutions and cultivate collective abundance in our artistic ecosystems?
Past:
Common Field Convening 2021: Sustaining Futures
November 4 - 13, 2021Common Field Convening 2020 Online
April 23 - May 3, 2020Common Field Convening Philadelphia 2019
April 25 - 28, 2019Friends Center, Philadelphia
Among the partner-planned programs: a Kick-Off Party at Christ Church Neighborhood House featuring the artists Marissa Johnson-Valenzuela, Alex Shaw, and DJ Precolumbian developed by partners BlackStar Film Festival and Vox Populi Gallery; a Closing Party at Icebox Project Space featuring SCRAAATCH, viDEO sAVant, DJ Rashid Zakat, among others programmed by Icebox, Grizzly Grizzly, Li Sumpter, and Vox Populi; a series of off-site programs such as the day-long program “Art, Displacement, and Intentional Community” developed by The Colored Girls Museum and a series of tours including “Tracing the Boundary: Chinatown North Walking Tour” co-presented by Asian Arts Initiative, Grizzly Grizzly, and Vox Populi to explore the spatial politics unfolding in a contested neighborhood. Commissioned projects included a participatory Mama’s Day Bail Fund Poster and Tee screenprinting project from People’s Paper Co-op, the Why Philly? booklet, and Ode to Philly opening performance by Valerie Gay and Ursula Rucker to welcome attendees and contextualize the Quaker space of the gathering.
Philly Field Conversations
Summer 2018One day only: Friday, June 21, 2018 | 4-10PM
Philly Field Conversations was a series of conversational events about the state of the artist orgainzing field in Philadelphia, co-presented by local partners and Common Field. Ulises co-founders invited discussion on a constellation of issues close to self organized spaces and arts initiatives: burnout, viability, and sustainability (June 11, 2018); Rafael Damast of Taller Puertorriqueño and José Ortiz Pagán of Fleisher Art Memorial asked what it means for longstanding and established organizations to continue to advance their programming and impact as the communities they serve and artist practices change (July 17, 2018); Rob Blackson of Temple Contemporary, Homer Jackson of Philly Jazz Project, and poet Trapeta Mayson joined in conversation facilitated by Nicole Pollard of Philadelphia Contemporary to discuss the role of partnerships in arts organzing, from collaboration across difference and how relationships change over time (July 18, 2018); and organizer and artist Daniel Park, introduced by Carol Zou of Asian Arts Initiative, invited conversation on the question of where Philadelphia is at in the national conversation for racial and cultural equity, and particularly what a national network like Common Field can do to build intersectional coalitions and advocate for a more equitable arts community (July 21, 2018).
