Forecast is hosting weekly conversations for BIPOC artists who work in public spaces and/or in community
Forecast recognizes the economic crises facing artists during this pandemic. We’ve been talking to artists and have heard the need for a space to come together as we physically distance and projects have been halted.
In response, we are launching a series of conversations for BIPOC artists who work in public spaces and/or in community. These weekly conversations will have loose agendas and are open to BIPOC artists around the country.
About The Conversations
Join Forecast consultants and guests every Saturday evening, starting April 25 from 8:00 – 9:30 pm central time.
- April 25: Candida Gonzalez & Majo Tropical ~ space for artist connections and open conversation
- May 2: Felicia Perry & MN Melanated Artists Network ~ space for open chat and poetry with Joseph Michael Davis, Hawona Sullivan Janzen & Nikol Imani
- May 9: Tricia Heuring & Sarah White ~ space to check in on self-care and wellness
- May 16: Candida Gonzalez & Guest ~ space for artist connections and open conversation
- May 23: Felicia Perry & Roho Collective ~ open chat with Cara Deanes & Christopheraaron Deanes
- May 30: Tricia Heuring & Sarah White ~ space to check in on self-care and wellness
Conversations will vary each week and will bring in artists to share a performance, meditation, song, and more. Come to one, or come to them all.
About The Facilitators
CANDIDA GONZALEZ, a Puerto Rican native of South Minneapolis, is passionate about education, community engagement through the arts and equitable arts access. She approaches her work by centering at the intersection of art, activism, healing and personal/community empowerment. She is deeply invested in the concept of using art and community design as tools to wage love and healing. As a consultant, she is working with Forecast on Making It Public workshops around the country.
TRICIA HEURING is a Thai American curator, arts organizer, and educator. She is the co-founder of Public Functionary, a Northeast Minneapolis exhibition space, where she is building a curatorial practice and community platform focused on experimentation, equity and inclusion. She is an adjunct at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and the University of Minnesota. She currently serves as the Board Chair of the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council. As a consultant, she is working with Forecast on a variety of public art commissioning projects, including ones for the City of St. Louis Park, and Pentagon Village in Edina.
FELICIA PERRY serves as the Executive Director of the West Broadway Business and Area Coalition where she leads initiatives to bring businesses, non-profit organizations and neighbors together to create an inviting and vital West Broadway corridor that will transform the Northside into a thriving economic community. She manages projects such as the 3-day FLOW Northside Arts Crawl and Open Streets West Broadway. As an ARTreprenuer she specializes in fashion design, performance art, and curating spaces. She builds on her passion for journalism as an on air host of “DesignHER Life” at KRSM Community Radio station, where she interviews women and non-binary identifying ARTreprenuers about designing and creating their unique life and career paths. Felicia is a current Springboard for the Arts 20/20 Artist Fellow. Perry serves on the Executive Committee of the Association for Black Economic Power (ABEP), the May Day Council and is a Northside Awesome Fund Trustee.
SARAH WHITE is a Minneapolis-based mother of 2 loving hearts, soul sweetener and space holder, using everything from soundscapes to hands on healing arts, as a tool for Liberation. Working deeply for a decade on the exploration of different ways to get into the nervous systems and spirit body systems, Sarah White’s studies dive deep into trauma and the belief we all can heal and find pleasure. Music, Photography, Healing trauma (Massage and Biodynamic Cranial Sacral Therapy), Farming While Black, Holistic Mothering, Embodied Sensuality and Vulnerability are Sarah’s weapons of choice.
More Recent Initiatives From Forecast
A national initiative to support public artists and public art program administrators during this pandemic
On April 2 we began to offer pro bono consultations and technical support to any public artist or public art administrator based in the U.S. and the Native nations that share the same geography until May 31, 2020, as a response to the mounting effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
New mini-grants for artists
Forecast asked artists how we can best help them and their communities NOW. In response, we reallocated $10,000 of our own resources to quickly provide mini-grants to 20 public artists to safely create and share messages of hope within their communities. These twenty grantees began their projects on April 10. Because we received hundreds of incredible applications for our first round of 20 Mini-Grants, we raised funds to support additional artists, and are thrilled to able to fund 10 more projects, which will all be live be June 30.
A Toolkit on Creative Alternatives to in-person arts-based activities
We created a toolkit with artists, arts organizations, presenting organizations, and others collaborating with artists in mind. It contains strategies for adapting in-person arts-based activities during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Learn more about Forecast’s extensive public art consulting and artist support services.
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