Artist Matthew Nadel will join Transforming Lives in New York City. Working alongside documentary filmmakers and public defense organizations, this collaboration will create advocacy videos for justice-impacted people across New York State. The videos argue for less traumatic criminal-legal outcomes for defendants—no jail time, diversion, resentencing/commutation—and insist on their humanity.

Artists Laura Cerón Melo, Russell Craig, and Jenny Polak will join The Fortune Society in New York City to provide opportunities for healing and community building for individuals with justice histories. Engaging with formerly incarcerated people from across the five boroughs, including those who are currently detained on Rikers Island, the collaboration will center visual arts (painting, murals, printmaking), documentation (bookmaking), and social practice art.

Composer Anthony Vine will join the Filomen M. D’Agostino Greenberg Music School (The Fil) as a teaching artist, bringing contemporary and experimental composition to The Fil’s comprehensive, sequential music curriculum for students of all ages who are blind or visually impaired. Additionally, Vine will compose music for the annual “The Fil at the Met” concert, translating the visual, spatial, and tactile nature of art objects at The Metropolitan Museum of Art into the auditory realm.

Songwriter Everett Bradley will join SAY: The Stuttering Association for the Young in New York City and SAY’s summer program in Columbia County, New York. The collaboration will provide life-changing songwriting programming and emotional support for children who stutter. Through a series of workshops and public performances, the collaboration will create a space for social cohesion and artistic expression.

Artists Tyler Morse and Willie Kearse will join the Parole Preparation Project in New York City to develop an interdisciplinary, archive-based creative workshop series for formerly incarcerated people and for people currently incarcerated in New York State. The collaboration will additionally compensate former workshop participants to produce a book-length text and image-based publication, incorporating themes and findings from the workshops.

Artists Julian Goldhagen, Ryan J. Haddad, and Ife Olujobi will join The Public Theater in New York City. Working alongside the Public Theater staff and its network of community organizations in all five boroughs, this collaboration will provide the artists resources to create new work and leverage their skills to empower shared communities at the intersection of art and activism—elevating narratives about disabled people’s complex identities; the social, emotional, and mental health needs of artists; and the importance of transparency, fair pay, and collective action to better support artists.

Theater artists Jess McLeod and Brandon Michael Nase will work with New York Civil Liberty Union’s (NYCLU) Education Policy Center and Field Department on active social justice campaigns, deepening the model for the NYCLU and other ACLU chapters’ collaboration with artists. McLeod and Nase will specifically work on the NYCLU’s Youth Survey Project to bring New York City high school students’ concerns over school safety to light through artistic representation and expression.

Jesse Jae Hoon, with Ma-Yi Filipino Theatre Ensemble, Inc., will conduct research and interviews within AAPI communities across Queens, Brooklyn, and Manhattan on issues of AAPI violence and public safety. Ma-Yi will expand their reach and address the immediate needs of the AAPI community across New York City while creating a model for supporting artists organizers. The collaboration will culminate in six “learning plays” to be rehearsed and performed around New York City, one full-length play manuscript, and a series of community forums based on Hoon’s research.

Visual artist Andrea Arroyo will join Mano a Mano: Mexican Culture Without Borders in New York City. Working alongside Mexican immigrants, survivors of domestic violence, undocumented immigrants, and a broader community of New York City families, the collaboration will offer a host of bilingual programs and cultivate partnerships with community organizations and institutions around the city. Activities include art workshops, professional development for emerging artists, public exhibitions, memory circles, culture walks, and an online directory of Mexican culture makers.

Artists Leana Lopez, Nelson Mateo Gonzalez, Alex Apolo Ayala, and Yesenia Lebron-Romero will join Los Pleneros de la 21. Engaging with Puerto Rican community throughout New York City, this collaboration will serve as a supportive professional workshop for these individuals to continue evolving as artists, solidifying their footing as musicians, educators, and traditional arts practitioners. They will also learn the ropes of community-based work in order to preserve, celebrate, and cultivate Puerto Rican music, heritage, and culture.

Artist Alexa Dexa will collaborate with Experiments in Opera to create a series of one-on-one virtual performances for the Deaf and Disabled community throughout New York City. Bewitch Yourself, an opera that Alexa co-creates with Deaf and Disabled individuals, is a love letter to the community, which has often been left behind as COVID restrictions are lifted—and as the health of many Deaf and Disabled individuals remains at risk.

Dance artists and master teachers Myna Majors and Sandra Rivera will join Dances For A Variable Population (DVP) to expand dance education and performance opportunities for older adults in low-income communities of color in Manhattan and the Bronx. Building on DVP’s  and partners’ experience, these dance programs will support often-isolated seniors to find community and improve their physical and emotional health.

Filmmakers Andrew Siedenburg and Karlis Bergs will join Staten Island Urban Center in Staten Island, New York. Working in tandem with Black, Brown, and marginalized voices of Staten Island’s North Shore waterfront, this collaboration will make a documentary film that addresses issues of climate justice faced by marginalized communities in the area.

Artists Dylan Giangrande, Omari DeJesus, and Javon Brewster will join NYC Arts Cypher, Inc. in the North Shore of Staten Island, New York. This collaboration will provide mentorship for local youth participating in the M.U.R.A.L., Hip Hop Dance, and Audio Pro programs–ultimately supporting North Shore youth in their future career goals.

Artists Maggie Gavin and Roque Rodriguez will collaborate with Woodside on the Move, Inc. to serve the residents of Woodside in Queens, New York. Both artists will engage communities hard hit by COVID isolation: Gavin will work with seniors and youth through dance, and Rodriguez will work with residents of Woodside Houses through writing and performance.

Master Korean pungmul drummer Vongku Pak will join the MinKwon Center for Community Action in Queens and Brooklyn, New York to preserve the critical traditional Korean art form. Together with local Asian (especially Korean) youth and community members, the collaborators will reconstitute the original pungmul drumming troupe, Binari. They will also facilitate community and cultural events in Flushing as a part of efforts to address rising anti-Asian violence, and work to preserve the heritage of traditional pungmul through collaborations with several traditional Korean American pungmul masters.

Musicians Mary Courtney, Allen Gogarty, Jeff Lum, and Abdoulaye Alhassane Toure; filmmaker Erika Gregorio Lopez; and visual artist Alejandro Pinzon will join Emerald Isle Immigration Center (EICC) to cocreate a series of programs and events that integrate artistic expression into EIIC’s extensive range of legal and social services for immigrants in Queens and the Bronx. Each artist will bring their artistic skills and vision—as well as direct experience as immigrants who relied on EIIC when they first came to the United States—to the collaboration with EIIC staff and community members.

Artists Kharon Benson, Linda Ricard, and Lashawn Marston will collaborate with Echoes of Incarceration to develop three short film series at the intersections of mental health, criminal justice, and youth. Each series will tap into Echoes of Incarceration’s pedagogy of youth-centered collaborative filmmaking, as well as its network of partners and media outlets for distribution.

Artist Kendry Martínez will join Colectivo Intercultural TRANSgrediendo in Jackson Heights, Queens. Working alongside LGBTQ+, Trans sex worker, and migrant communities, this collaboration will create artistic workshops in dance, acting, and performance as means of artistic expression and healing.

Artists Annie Ferdous, Zarrin Maisha, and Nadeem Ahmed will join Bangladesh Institute of Performing Arts in Queens. Engaging with intergenerational Bangladeshi immigrants in Queens and Brooklyn, Annie Ferdous and Zarrin Maisha will each teach workshops and create performances that concentrate on different branches of traditional dance, and Nadeem Ahmed will create a multidisciplinary performance celebrating LGBTQIAP+ stories within the Bangladeshi community.

Social practice artists Aaron Landsman, Jahmorei Snipes, and Tiffany Zorrilla will bring their practices in theater and interdisciplinary arts to a collaboration with Abrons Arts Center, Henry Street Settlement in New York City. This collaboration will engage communities in the Lower East Side, with a focus on survivors of domestic violence, to create a series of nine workshops and a culminating artistic presentation that help community participants express and address their own stories. The collaboration also seeks to create a framework for embedding social practice artists that other practitioners and institutions can use.

Artists Chris Carr, Terrence Campbell, Pedro Ramirez, Joel Knopf, Olga Elliot, Libby Lee, Krystal Renee, Jamie Parganos, and Richard Guerzon will join Creative Muse Inc. in the East Village neighborhood of New York City. Engaging with residents of the Campos Plaza housing development, this collaboration will provide comprehensive arts programming to transform the community center and broaden its reach as a hub of art and education.

Artist SaMi Chester will collaborate with Cooper Square Committee to create arts programming for seniors and local residents alongside the development of a multi-purpose community space in the rapidly changing East Village neighborhood of Manhattan. Chester will further integrate theater into the housing organizing work of Cooper Square over the course of two years.

Artists Janio Marrero, Darrel Alejandro Holnes, Nelson Diaz-Marcano, Alisha Espinosa, and Rebecca Aparicio will join Latinx Playwrights Circle in New York City. Working alongside a community of Latinx playwrights, the collaboration will create an archive of Latinx/e plays and create workshop productions of their plays. The effort will serve to provide Latinx/e playwrights nationwide access to pipelines for new play development.

Multidisciplinary artist Tomie Arai, founding member of the Chinatown Art Brigade, will work with the Committee Against Anti-Asian Violence, Inc. (CAAAV) to bring cultural activism to CAAAV’s powerful neighborhood-based organizing efforts. They will collaborate closely with the Chinatown Tenants Union on issues related to housing, gentrification, and community safety, building on their longstanding, close partnership to establish a cultural model for artists and communities to reimagine the future of their neighborhoods together.

Playwrights Fedna Jacquet and Ngozi Anyanwu will join the National Black Theatre (NBT) in New York City for a professional playwriting residency. Engaging with the Black community in Harlem, the collaboration will focus on developing, producing, and workshopping original plays. The artists will create new work, host fellowship opportunities, train current NBT resident artists, and advance community engagement for the organization.

Choreographers Lissette Aquino Aguayo and Yahael Torres will join Keep Rising to the Top, Inc. (KR3T) to expand KR3T’s programs and community services in East Harlem. The artists will develop choreography and content for KR3T’s dancers, lead instruction in all dance styles at KR3T’s weekly classes, provide organizational support—including marketing, fundraising, and event management—and receive support to pursue their own dance and choreography projects.

Artists Singha Hon, Juliet Phillips, Denise Zhou, Joy Mao, and Lorraine Lum will join the W.O.W. Project in the heart of Manhattan’s Chinatown to incubate and pilot a series of art programs that engage the intergenerational Chinatown community in each artist’s medium—visual arts, ceramics, film, and fashion design. These programs will center alternative models of artmaking that prioritize community growth and learning, building foundations for an arts and culture center that will provide safe spaces for arts and activism to negotiate challenges of identity, culture, and displacement during a critical time of rapid change. By using the arts as a point of connection, the collaboration seeks to create and sustain communal practices that bridge generations, honor cultural legacy, and sustain collective ownership over Chinatown’s future.

Artists Tzami Rios M., Estrella Norteña, Anhelo Escalante, Priyanha Nadanasabesan, and Galle will work in collaboration with the bookstore, Mil Mundos, in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Creating a cultural hub, the artists will form the Mil Mundos Artists Collaboration for Bushwick’s working class, queer, transgender, BIPOC, and displaced communities, working to restructure their local economy so that it centers on healing, non-extractive labor and radical love through resource distribution and intergenerational educational and cultural programming.

Visual artist Crystal Clarity and musician Sebastian Angel will collaborate with Mayday Space to offer culturally-affirming and accessible arts programming to immigrant and working-class communities of color in Bushwick. Together they will support residents and neighbors in healing, connecting, and contributing to the vibrant cultural landscape of North Brooklyn, while also deepening Mayday Space’s role as both a neighborhood resource and citywide destination for engaging in social justice movements.

Artist Tracey Dixon will join Opus Dance Theater and Community Services, Inc. in Brooklyn, New York. Engaging students in the Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn, this collaboration will provide quality string music education (violin, viola, and cello) in hopes of providing a space for healing and growth for the Brownsville community.

Artists Khuent Rose, Ricardo Jerome, Odie Franklin, Brian Nicholas, and Valerie McLeod-Katz will join The Carlos Lezama Archives and Caribbean Cultural Center (CLACCC) in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn. Working alongside the densest population of Caribbean immigrants in America, this collaboration will create intergenerational educational activities to teach folk and traditional dance and steel band performances for the diaspora, and provide a sense of purpose for youth in the community.

Artists Jana Lynne Umipig, Sylvia Hernandez, and Jorge Luis Berrios will join El Puente in Brooklyn, New York. Working alongside El Puente’s Community Artists’ Development & Resource Exchange (CADRE) network, this collaboration will create dynamic and nurturing spaces for young people, their families, and their community to process trauma both within the pandemic and inherited over time.

Artists Kenn Pan, Oladotun Amu, and Olutoyosi Oyelowo will collaborate with Oko Farms, a Black-owned aquaponics farm and education organization in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Collaborating with each other and with Oko Farms, artists will create a community clothing restoration project. The work will include the growing of dye plants and a correlated documentary film that will explore the preservation and reinterpretation of fiber and natural dye techniques, as derived from the artists’ collective ancestral traditions. Local youth and community members will acquire the skills to cultivate plants for natural dye extraction and fiber processing.

Performing artists Carolyn Hall and Clarinda Mac Low (also a marine biologist and biochemist, respectively) will work with Genspace NYC to realize a vision for integrated art-science programs at the Genspace lab in the Sunset Park community of Brooklyn. Hall and Mac Low will organize workshops and public programs, engage youth leaders and artists at the lab, and assist in developing an artist-in-residence program. The collaboration will expand Genspace’s capacity for equitable community partnerships and deepen its mission to connect science to the lived experiences, interests, and needs of the community.

Teaching artist and playwright Cheyenne Mesura will join Treehouse Shakers to expand Branching OUT, the organization’s after-school program dedicated to supporting LGBTQIA+ youth. Mesura will also write and direct “The Deepest Breath,” a new play adapted from Meg Greehan’s book depicting a coming out story for young people ages 12-14. Treehouse Shakers will workshop and present the play in New York City and support its tour throughout New York State, expanding the canon of stage work that truly reflects LGBTQIA+ youth.

Artists Christine Lewis, Vanessa Bretas, Faith Harper, and Olivia Murphy will join Domestic Workers United (DWU) to create a devised theater project in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. Working alongside domestic workers (predominantly immigrant women of color), the initiative will provide a healing, artistic space for the community to explore joy, suffering, and solidarity in a profession at the intersection of racism, classism, and sexism. The collaborative process will be documented on film to archive DWU’s past, present, and visions for the future.

Dance, social practice, and interdisciplinary artists x senn-yuen, L Tuthall, and Audre Wirtanen will work to sustain and expand Hyp-ACCESS’s programs and infrastructure in Brooklyn, New York. This disabled-led artist-organizational model will increase community access to Hypermobile art, disability culture, and care resources. Artists’ care practices will guide the expansion and stabilization of Hyp-ACCESS in community.

Dancer Peniel Guerrier and drummer Jean Mary Brignol join Flanbwayan Haitian Literacy Project in Brooklyn, New York to enhance the lives of Haitian immigrant youth. Through a rigorous program in traditional Haitian dance and wrap-around social and educational support services, this collaboration connects Haitian immigrant youth to their culture and helps them adjust to their new lives in New York City. The collaboration makes art accessible to them in their community while likewise preserving their identity and language.

Taij Moteelall will join Jahajee Sisters: Empowering Indo-Caribbean Women to engage with Indo-Carribbean survivors of domestic violence and the larger Indo-Caribbean community in southern Queens and the Bronx. This collaboration will use their theater production “Jahajee Rising” as an organizing tool to tackle the issue of gender-based violence in order to activate the community and co-create long-term systemic change.

Dancer and choreographer Paloma McGregor will join Bronx Academy of Arts & Dance (BAAD!) as Resident Artist to develop a dance, environmental, and community-based piece entitled A’we deh ya (“All of us are here”) and to curate and conduct a series of performances, dialogues, story circles, and workshops that celebrate Dancing While Black’s 10th Anniversary. Both projects will be integrated into BAAD!’s ongoing festivals, deepening the organization’s community engagement initiatives in the Bronx and beyond.

Photographer Parris Whittingham will partner with DREAM! (Dare to Revitalize Education thru Arts & Mediation) to create “DREAM! Studio,” a nurturing space for Bronx youth to expand their artistic curiosity through self-discovery, mentorship, and positive affirmation. Students will design and lead a photography studio they own, a first of its kind in New York City.

Artist Hatuey Ramos-Fermín will join THE POINT Community Development Corporation and Naturally Occurring Cultural Districts NY in the South Bronx. Engaging with cultural practitioners across New York City, the collaboration will develop, implement, and cross-pollinate cultural strategies and practices for the environmental and social justice movements in the South Bronx.

Artist Journei Bimwala will work with the Bronx River Alliance to develop programs that communicate traditional knowledge and cultural practices around plants, foraging for food, nutrition, and the historical significance of the Foodway—the only edible food forest and sustainable food landscape integrated within a New York City park. The program will engage BIPOC community members from the surrounding neighborhoods in creative and healthful cultural practices, creating a model for community-based practices in other parks throughout the city.

Artists Oxil Febles, Bobby Sanabria, and Eric Aviles bring their expertise in music, dance, and theater to a collaboration with the Women’s Housing and Economic Development Corporation (WHEDco) in the Bronx, New York. The collaboration will build the operating and programmatic capacity of the Bronx Music Heritage Center as it transitions into its permanent home in the newly constructed Bronx Music Hall. Engaging with Bronx youth and emerging playwrights, the collaboration will create opportunities to grow local artistic talent while supporting the development of the artists’ original work.

Artist PJ Starr will collaborate with the Black Sex Worker Collective to support Black sex workers across New York City to document their perspectives on climate change and gender justice in the wake of COVID-19 social isolation. This project will empower Black sex workers as artists who own and control their work, culminating in an exhibition in New York.

Poet Karla Robinson will join Sadie Nash Leadership Project to pilot a collective boutique printmaking press to disseminate a press for young women and gender-expansive youth of color in the Bronx. Working in partnership with youth at a Bronx-based community organization, Karla will spend one year researching and learning about Black feminist presses and printmaking to develop curricula that will both transform Karla’s creative and teaching practice while supporting youth in their creative activism.

Music, film, and dance artists Ankh Ra Amenhetep, Charles Duke, Ryan S Burvick, Jocelyn Gutierrez, and Hilda Willis will join Mind-Builders Creative Arts Center in the Bronx, New York. Engaging with local youth, young adults, and formerly incarcerated individuals, the collaboration will feature a children’s chorus, a music production program, songwriting workshops, dance master classes, and a theater pedagogy for at-risk teens. The goals of the collaboration are to share social capital and bring artists into the year-round life of the community.

Artists Cynthia Rivera, Salvador Espinoza, Ricardo Partida, Sean Sirota, Kalada Halliday, Belinda Gallegos, Maria Galindo, Jesus Emmanuel, and Michael Young will join the Bronx Documentary Center in the Bronx, New York to provide workshops and programs to build documentary photography skills among local youth, parents, and seniors. The artists will additionally present public exhibitions that foster social cohesion and artistic expression among the community.

Artists Kobina de Graft Johnson, Alba Garcia, Kervin Peralta, Paola Poucel, Jasmine White, Willie Roberts, Marthalicia Matarrita, Jon Frier, Trish Gianakis, and Ana ‘Rokafella’ Garcia will join Bronx Community Cable Programming (aka Bronx Net) to provide opportunities for community cable viewers in the Bronx and beyond to experience, learn, and create art as a means of encouraging exploration into artistic, creative careers. The collaboration will additionally incorporate art as a tool for personal growth, healing, and expression, as well as a mechanism for preservation and appreciation of the diverse cultural histories and stories of the community.

Muralist and social practice artist Sarah C. Rutherford will join Willow Domestic Violence Center in Rochester, New York to present “Stories of Strength,” a multifaceted public art project that directly engages and works alongside survivors of domestic violence. The work will honor survivors’ journeys of healing while simultaneously bringing attention to the pervasiveness of domestic violence in the Monroe County community.

Artists Karla Slack, Julio Pabon, Carlos Chediak, Thalia Pabon, and Jessica Pereyra will join Grupo Cultural Latinos En Rochester, Inc. Engaging with marginalized communities in Rochester and migrant workers in surrounding rural areas, this collaboration will deliver showcases, dance and music classes, and health and percussion workshops in hopes of encouraging pride in the roots of Western New York immigrant and minority communities.

Culture bearers Ayishetu Mamudu and Gibril Ceesay, along with filmmaker Hamidu Yussif, will join the Global Deaf Muslim Federation in Rochester, Syracuse, Buffalo, and New York City. Engaging with Deaf Muslim immigrant communities, the collaboration will help individuals access interpretation and community services, as well as create videos to support this work. The goals of the collaboration are to provide translation services for Muslim religious and community events, and to create connections between immigrants and the resident Deaf community in New York State.

Dancer and choreographer Nicolette Ferguson will join Garth Fagan Dance (GFD) to develop and lead two new GFD programs for Black youth and young adults in Rochester, New York. The Community Artist-in-Residence Program will serve students from six schools and/or cultural organizations that are in need of arts programming, and the Aspiring Performers Pre-Professional Dance Group will train Black young adults, ages 18-25, in the Fagan Technique and provide mentorship, skills and a path for young dancers who wish to pursue careers in dance.

Artists Thomas R. Porter, Douglas George, Jamie Jacobs, Daniel C. Hill, Tonia Loran-Galban, Lauren Jimerson, Marissa Manitowabi, and Angela Ferguson will work with Friends of Ganondagan in Haudenosaunee territories across upstate New York. Engaging with Indigenous youth and elders, this collaboration centers Haudenosaunee artists and culture bearers working across Haudenosaunee communities to share their artistic practices with youth, elders, and other community members. Artists and culture bearers will provide demonstrations, workshops, and presentations at Ganondagan; have opportunities to sell their work; and collaborate with one another through cultural exchange weekends that will include foodways, traditional arts, storytelling, and writing.

Social practice artist Nashiru Abdulai, physical theater artist Avi Pryntz-Nadworny, and filmmaker Stacy Lawrence will collaborate with Deaf Refugee Advocacy in Rochester to help Deaf new Americans and Deaf Americans born in the U. S. to identify, develop, and own their stories. Engaging with Deaf immigrants from a variety of communities in the region, the artists will benefit from the organization’s infrastructure and the unique opportunity to grow and learn together, fostering inclusivity.

Dance artist Ebony Vazquez and theater artist Jayme Bermudez will join Borinquen Dance Theatre to cultivate the leadership skills of Black and Latinx youth in Rochester through training, structure, and cultural education while balancing the demands of academic success with the methods of a disciplined program. 

Literary artist Victor Hdez Jaime will join the Worker’s Center of Central New York to gather the stories of migrant workers in multiple regions of upstate New York. Engaging migrant farm workers who are predominantly low-income Latinx immigrants, this collaboration will generate a book of non-fiction narratives. Never transcribing, the artist will weave the gist of these powerful, memorable narratives into art through his own craft and literary skills. In addition to giving voice to nuanced and often unheard stories, the collaboration will promote worker solidarity and political activism in the region.

Griot and fiber artist Vanessa Johnson will join the Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation in Onandaga County, New York. Working alongside low-income rural youth and low-income Black youth from Syracuse, this collaboration will create bridges between these two segregated communities. The collaboration will create art and performances that will make the Gage Foundation’s feminist-centered social justice work and women of color histories more accessible to Syracuse’s low-income urban communities and the county’s rural communities. 

Visual artist Ellen Blalock will work with the Schweinfurth Art Center in Auburn, NY to document African American family stories using video, quilt making, photography, and mixed media. The project will engage underrepresented communities throughout Cayuga County and result in a multi-media exhibit. As an artist-in-residence, Blalock will also work on her own narrative textile pieces for future exhibitions. 

Artists Faye Lone, Diane Schenandoah, Adriana Poulette, Jolene Patterson, Joshua Sargent, Marnie Billie, Afton Lewis, Caryn Miller, Emma Shenandoah, and Roger Perkins will work with Rematriation across the Haudenosaunee confederacy in New York State. Rematriation is defined as “returning the sacred to The Mother.” Engaging with Indigenous communities in Onondaga county and beyond, this collaboration showcases, supports, empowers, and uplifts Indigenous women in their work, their personal lives, and in their community contributions. The artists will work across a variety of disciplines, including foodways, traditional arts, craft, oral traditions, media arts, film, photography, and comedy. 

Visual artist and art therapist Bennie Guzman and literary artist Kofi Antwi will join the Pan African Community of Central New York (PACCNY) in Syracuse, New York. Engaging with and learning from middle and high school Black and Brown youth, as well as immigrants from Africa and Latin America, the collaboration will focus on creating programs that emphasize the mental wellbeing of community members and support the realization of self-identity, his/herstory, and culture through creative writing and art. 

Photographer Janna Stephens will join the Good Life Youth Foundation (GLY) to engage at-risk middle school and high school youth in Syracuse in the process of shooting, designing, and curating an exhibit focused on highlighting the social issues impacting the local area.  The collaboration will highlight themes such as concentrated poverty and efforts to reshape the narrative surrounding system-involved youth.

Artist Natasha Smoke Santiago will join the Everson Museum of Art of Syracuse and Onondaga County to build public programming and educational initiatives surrounding Haudenosaunee art, culture, and heritage. Engaging with artists and community members within Mohawk nation, this collaboration will expand the Everson’s reach into Indigenous communities, educate about cultural traditions, and expose younger generations to practices of oral histories, cultural practices, and the self-examination of genealogy and history. 

Visual artist Rachael Lorimer and performing artist and educator Justin Relf will partner with Troy Rehabilitation & Improvement Program, Inc. (TRIP), Rensselaer County Housing Resources, Inc. (RCHR), and Oakwood Community Center to amplify residents’ voices as they reclaim, tell, and envision their relationship to their community. Artists will explore a set of questions about home, belonging, and their community’s future with youth and adults in the Hillside North neighborhood of Troy.

Artists Bianca Dilella, Maya Lewis, Lisa James-Polite, Lumumba Ansah, Jermaine Wells, Arriama Matlock-Abdullah, and Jordan McClendon will collaborate with the Hamilton Hill Arts Center to teach the arts and culture of the African diaspora to families in Schenectady. Deepening Hamilton Hill Arts Center’s mission to promote the knowledge, preservation, and continued development of African and African Diasporic art and culture, the artists will collaborate to form a media team focusing on storytelling through acting and film; an African dance and drumming team focusing on teaching their craft; and a craft and visual arts team focusing on murals and three–dimensional art for the Center’s sculpture garden. 

Artist Danielle Schenandoah will join the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute in Utica, New York as Cultural Liaison, leading work in education, engagement, and public programming. The collaboration will advance the presence and living role of Native American perspectives, culture, and creations throughout the organization and the broader region.

Mohawk filmmaker and media artist Raienkonnis Edwards will collaborate with the Kanatsiohareke Mohawk Community to conduct audio-visual interviews and capture oral stories of Haudenosaunee elders who hold cultural knowledge that is critical to the preservation and future of the Six Nations tribes. Recordings about their traditional upbringing—shared online and via a community archive—will modernize and make more accessible the sharing of traditional teachings and storytelling.

Artists Craig Harris, Christopher Dean Sullivan, Neil Clarke, and Mala Waldron will join TRANSART and Cultural Services, Inc. in Kingston to provide jazz instructional opportunities and mentorship to artists living in marginalized areas of the Mid-Hudson Valley. The collaboration seeks to open a broad community dialogue and to help young Black artists develop an understanding of ways to navigate New York State’s cultural ecosystem.

Sphynxx Deity and Christina Picciano will join The LOFT LGBTQ+ Community Center in White Plains, New York. Engaging with and working alongside LGBTQIAP+ community members and grassroots organizations directly in their communities, this collaboration will create LGBTQIAP+ advocacy efforts, mutual aid networks, and supportive programming for those most marginalized.

Artists Douglas Shindler and Michael Davis will join the Hurleyville Performing Arts Centre in Monticello, New York. Engaging children and adults, this collaboration will create The Black Library—a lending library and community art space to learn and celebrate Black history and culture.

Artist Zakiya Harris will join The Gloria Eve Performance Foundation in Nassau County, New York. Working alongside dance teachers and dancers committed to West African Dance, this collaboration will create a West African Dance Teacher Certification program for the instructor to create a baseline for dance techniques and music specific to West Africa.

Artists Mariana Lima, Segundo Orellana, Jonathan Romero, Daniel Jimenez, and Margarita Espada will join Teatro Experimental Yerbabruja Inc. in Suffolk County, New York. Working alongside the BIPOC community on the south shore of Long Island, this collaboration will create murals, music, theater, creative writing, and social dialogues reflecting and giving visibility to the marginalized communities that Yerbabruja serves.

Artists Sage Cotignola, Melissa Keenan, Jeffrey Espinoza, Christophe Lima, Annalisa Pena, Audreiana Lesty, and Minna Djafari will join Saint-Cyr Art Studio in Long Island, New York. Working alongside special needs students and other public school students throughout Long Island, the collaboration will beautify spaces and engage local communities.

Artist Virgilio (Vee) Bravo will work with S.T.R.O.N.G. Youth program participants, ages 14-17, to create a digital community mapping project that explores Nassau County’s relationship to the prison industry. Participants will produce short-format videos that feature interviews with diverse stakeholders affected by incarceration including, but not limited to, families, schools, businesses, and law enforcement.

Artists Wunetu Wequai and Christian Scheider of the First Literature Project will join Guild Hall and the Padoquohan Medicine Lodge in Suffolk County, New York. Engaging with and working alongside Shinnecock Nation’s culture bearers within the Padoquohan Medicine Lodge, and working with Guild Hall through their Community Artist-in-Residence program, the First Literature Project will enshrine 3-5 of the Shinnecock Nation’s culturally significant stories, histories, and orations into virtual reality/video works.

Artists Denise Silva-Dennis, Brianna Hernandez, Jeremy Dennis, and Hunter Begun will join Ma’s House & BIPOC Art Studio Inc. in Suffolk County, New York. Engaging local BIPOC artists and communities, this collaboration will host communal art workshops, curate BIPOC artists, and video/audio document and broadcast events via podcast—as well as promote these initiatives using photography.

Artist Vincent Wright will join Energetic Enterprise Youth Community Studio to work alongside at-risk youth in the Uniondale, Hempstead, Roosevelt, Baldwin, Freeport, and Westbury School Districts in Nassau County, New York. The collaboration will teach songwriting, singing, music engineering, D.J. skills, podcasting, and photo and video editing in order to create a dialogue about gang and violence prevention, non-violent conflict resolution, substance abuse, and health concerns.

Artists Harper Bella and Jose Tutiven will join Babylon Citizens Council on the Arts, Inc. (BACCA) in Long Island, New York. Working alongside residents of the Town of Babylon, this collaboration will create interactive, immersive outdoor public art installations designed to generate opportunities for cultural exchange and education. The work will highlight local artists and create a framework for future community engagement.

Artists Timmy Gleen and Lucas Lloyd will join VOICE Buffalo on the east side of Buffalo. Working alongside the Black community and youth, this collaboration will use film and theater to support community organizing and bring about policy and narrative change.

Artists Max Collins and Alisia Glasier will collaborate with the Springville Center for the Arts to guide community visioning and planning through the arts. The artists will create new programs for underserved community members, including working with youth in their Public Art Corps paid internship program, activating an unused downtown space and turning it into a public art studio, and elevating the current, community-driven programming to increase community engagement and heightened investment in the downtown area of Springville, New York.

Artists Mary Jacobs, Samantha Jacobs, Darelyn Spruce, and Peter Jones will join Seneca Nation of Indians Stanley “Sully” Huff Heritage Center in Irving, New York. The artists will develop a performance group that teaches young people traditional song and dance, how to conduct a show, and how to create their own outfits for the performances. Additionally, Peter Jones will develop a pottery apprentice program.

Artists and culture bearers Patrick Redeye, Maurice John, Jr., Tami Watt, Penny Minner, Jocelyn J. Jones, Leeora S. White, Brett Maybee, Olivia Sanford, Hilton Johnny-John, and Cliff Redeye will join the Seneca Nation of Indians to create a heritage corridor in Salamanca, New York at the Seneca Nation’s Allegany Territory. Engaging with artists and non-Indigenous community members, storefronts will be transformed into art spaces, and artists will be able to sell their works, create new art, and interact with the public by teaching classes and holding exhibits to educate, connect, and inspire the community.

A diverse group of practicing community-based artists—Alexa Wajed (jewelry designer, visual artist, chef), Edreys Wajed (jewelry, graphic designer, sound artist, muralist, teacher), Marquis Burton (teaching artist, freestyle poet, web developer), Jillian Hanesworth (poet laureate of Buffalo), Muhammad Zaman (Bangladeshi immigrant, freestyle calligrapher), Rashaad Holley (fashion artist, designer, teaching artist), Deon Thedford (audio engineer, hip hop artist—YNX Sevenonesix), and Laura Chenault (photographer, filmmaker, installation artist, book binder, community organizer)—will join Say Yes Buffalo to deepen its youth enrichment programming. The artists will be integrated as educators and mentors within public school and community-based programs in order to remove barriers to educational attainment, workforce participation, and economic mobility for public and charter school students in Buffalo.

Artist Unai Reglero will work in partnership with Partnership for the Public Good (PPG) to provide a network of 325 community partners across the Buffalo Niagara region with research, policy, and advocacy support to build a more just and equitable region. Unai will offer creative services to PPG’s partners—applying arts, marketing, storytelling, and narrative work to their collective policy change goals.

Artists Charity Jones and Kaycee Colburn will join SUNY Jamestown Community College (JCC) in Cattaraugus County and Jamestown, New York. Working alongside JCC’s faculty and students, as well as local public schools, community groups, and the broader public, this collaboration will enable the artists to share their perspective and expertise in their craft, as well as knowledge of their culture and traditions.

Artists Dan Butler, Ted Canning, Annette Daniels Taylor, Susan Ferrari Rowley, Ruben Ornelas, Jill Pettigrew, Rashaad Santiago, Gaitrie Subryan, Paul Thomas, and Keith Walters will join Genesee-Orleans Regional Arts Council, Genesee Valley Council on the Arts, and the Arts Council for Wyoming County. Engaging rural youth and families in primarily rural areas of Western New York, the collaboration aims to bring more arts opportunities to this underserved, rural region, and to expand the diversity of those experiences. This collaboration will involve a series of artist residencies and arts education programs, with a focus on storytelling—through dance, poetry, and film.

Artist Nicole Chochrek will partner with CEPA Gallery to create micro-plastic clean up initiatives and neurodiversity awareness workshops for communities in Buffalo and Niagara. The collaboration will invite community members to both remove litter from the environment and partner to create public sculptures. The social practice work, entitled “Reading Landscapes,” focuses on environmental stewardship and neurodiversity while fostering awareness around pollution and civic engagement.

Multidisciplinary artist Aitina Fareed-Cooke will join Buffalo Arts Studio to tell the stories of artists of color in and around the East Buffalo community through prose, photography, and video to increase awareness and visibility for creatives while mentoring a new generation of storytellers. The collaboration will engage students covering literacy, technical, and communication skills through poetry, photography, and video workshops, deepening Buffalo Arts Studio’s commitment to and support of artists of color.

Artists Sullivan Harris, Sammie Werkheiser, Mia Hause, Yohance Bailey, Dustin Tang Chung, Michael Rudolph, and Mick Thomas will join Truth Pharm in Broome County, New York. Through photography, videography, public art, and community workshops, the artists will work alongside staff and volunteers to provide therapeutic art making opportunities that elevate the issue of drug fatalities locally and nationwide. The collaboration will take Truth Pharm’s annual Trail of Truth Memorial March to Washington, DC, further utilizing art to educate a national audience and to heal those who have been impacted by substance use and overdose.

Classical choral composer Will Wickham will join the Cantata Singers in Chemung County, New York as an artist-in-residence. Through this residency, the Wickham will create music that gives voice to diverse stories of area residents. These stories will be drawn through outreach to diverse K-12 schools, community groups, organizations, and care facilities that deal with dementia cases.

Artists Alan “Fe” Nunn, Resana Malone, Harry Smith, Cyepress Rite, Nicole Bethany Onwuka, Annemarie Zwack, Maryam Adib, and Daraisi Marte will join the Community Unity Music Education Program (CUMEP), Southside Community Center, Black Hands Universal, and the Community Arts Partnership of Tompkins County in Ithaca, New York. Engaging with Black youth and college students in Ithaca and surrounding suburbs, the collaboration will lead revolutionary youth performing arts and Black consciousness programming while documenting and packaging curricular frameworks to disseminate widely. The partnership will yield children’s books, a documentary, and a new musical, co-created by the artists and the youth community.

Artists Dan Duggan, James Gonzalez, Cassie Helman, Matthew Mazzotta, Karyn Crispo, Andrew Norrell, Josh Barkley, Catherine LaPointe Vollmer, and Sharon HJ Cheng will join Traditional Arts in Update New York (TAUNY) in Canton and SLC Arts in Potsdam to build a bridge between the people with generational connections to this place and those who are new and looking to find community in the area. Bringing a variety of artistic and cultural disciplines and projects, this collaboration will work to build a more robust, sustainable creative economy in the North Country by improving access to arts and culture in the under resourced rural region.

Graphic artist Karen Davidson Seward and choreographer Tiffany Rea-Fisher will work with John Brown Lives!—the Friends Group of the John Brown Farm State Historic Site—to illuminate the history of freedom and human rights in the Adirondacks as a prism to inform and inspire civic action, addressing some of the most pressing issues of our time. The collaboration will grow the circle of artists in this region who draw inspiration from the Black freedom and abolition histories of this landscape.

Poet Erin Dorney will collaborate with The Adirondack Center for Writing to offer programming to reach each of the 12 counties located within the Adirondack Park. The first Adirondack teen writing anthology, a broadside series, and traveling installations will provide access points to the literary arts throughout this rural region.

Artist Christina Hunt Wood will work in collaboration with the Prattsville Art Center, Youth Clubhouses of Columbia-Greene Counties (MHACG), and Community Action of Greene County, Inc. to create “The Living Archive” via arts and storytelling. “The Living Archive” will collect and represent inclusive histories across the Catskills, from slavery to the present. Celebrations, workshops, exhibitions, festivals, workforce projects, and a web archive will build an empowering communal space connecting largely white local communities with Black and increasingly diverse residents of Green County.

Photographer and filmmaker Tony Ramirez will join Columbia County Sanctuary Movement to create short video productions that expand access to services and resources for immigrants in the Capital Region. Ramirez’s work will enable immigrants who live in rural areas or who are uncomfortable with written language to share personal stories, collective victories, and vital information for navigating complex and often hostile institutions.

Artists Theresa Bear Fox, Katsitsionni Fox, Tsitowe Billings, Bruce Boots, Brandon Lazore, Jack Johnson, Aronhiahies Herne, Margie Skidders, Alicia Cook, and Carrie Hill will work in collaboration with Akwesasne Boys and Girls Club to provide afterschool and summer arts and cultural education for youth across the Saint Regis Mohawk Reservation. The goal of this collaboration is to use education to fight the oppression of the Akwesasne people by providing a cultural foundation for the next generation of youth.