LEADERSHIP THROUGH MENTORSHIP
WOCA’s Leadership Through Mentorship (LTM) Program is an initiative which holistically addresses the needs of cultural workers and arts administrators of color. By holistic, we mean that we understand that "leadership development" is predicated on personal development; and acknowledging the diverse roles and identities the members of our community have and hold is tantamount to their success in the world. It is significant to note that the WOCA Leadership Through Mentorship program is the first of its kind in the field (celebrating eight (8) years in 2023) designed for women of color,* by women of color. This leadership development program is exclusively aimed at supporting and empowering self-identified women leaders of color, addressing their specific needs as people with intersectional identities, and imparting tools to help navigate institutionalized systems of oppression and mitigate harms often caused by inequitable environments.
*WOCA uses the term “women” to encompass all those that self-identify as women or with womanhood including non-binary, transgender, and cisgender women. Our intention is to uplift and address the very specific ways in which this particular group of people are impacted by various forms of oppression, notably sexism and racism. WOCA uses the term “women of color” as an organizing tool, acknowledging the expression is a political designation, not a biological one, and borne out of a solidarity movement originating from the labor of Black women.
COLLECTIVE CARE CIRCLES
Almost three years into these pandemics (the pandemic of COVID and the pandemic of racial injustice), we're dealing with all the things - more deadly variants of a still present virus, increased/decreased public safety measures, climate change that has generated cataclysmic natural disasters, unabated social and political unrest, and the reopening of an arts industry that vowed to do better/more for people of color but is seemingly back to business as usual. As the country returns to "normal" WOCA understands there is no returning to the systems which were made to break us. How do we counteract the capitalist-driven world that calls for its worker bees to show up despite the seemingly now forgotten calls for more equitable systems?
In the spirit of our WOCA Community Gatherings, and our series, Thriving!: Community and Self Care for Women of Color, WOCA has created the Collective Care Circle (formerly the WOCA Virtual Community Gatherings) a virtual space where women of color can be reflective, be supported, and can just be. These care circles are about leaning into community as we collectively work to navigate the debilitating physical, mental, and emotional fatigue we regularly experience as women of color, now overwhelmingly compounded by an ongoing pandemic. In these gatherings, we hope to source some sustainable practices for our health and well-being, including strategies for resistance.
WOCA COMMUNITY GATHERINGS
Women of Color in the Arts (WOCA) is in the business of holding space for women of color* and that's why we’ve designed WOCA Community Gatherings – a grassroots platform with a purposeful vision of coalescing power and helping to create circles for leaders of color to organize across the country. Hosted by local WOCA member leaders, these intentional convenings serve to connect arts leaders and cultural workers of color and spark dialogue about how women cultural workers can collectively work to strengthen their communities while sustaining a broad participation of women of color in the arts field. WOCA helps map communities and assess who is doing what work. We focus on community and coalition building and how to work to harness our collective power and resources even as we navigate intersecting oppressions like racism and sexism. We listen to fellow women, learning how our communities have been shaped by unjust legacies of policy and privilege and how, as women of color, we’ve equally been redefining them through individual and collective work.
The goals of the community gatherings are multifold:
To bring together the community of women of color working in the arts field; particularly where there may have been limited opportunity to do so
To identify and assess members of each community and determine where those points of intersections for work, collaboration, and partnership may lie for WOCA members
To begin to lay foundation for deeper community engagement on the local level
To help connect local leaders to the national network of women of color arts administrators
To understand how WOCA can help support and/or be of service to local (and burgeoning or already existing) initiatives
To recruit new members into the larger WOCA community encouraging professional and personal development
All of the WOCA gatherings are grounded in community and many are intentionally enhanced by meetings held in physical spaces that are led and/or operated by phenomenal leaders of color.
Past Community Gathering Dates + Cities
Wednesday, July 24, 2019 – Houston, TX – El Dorado Ballroom @ Project Row Houses
Monday, August 5, 2019 – Washington, DC – TheARC
Wednesday, August 7, 2019 – Newark, NJ – Newark Symphony Hall
Thursday, August 8, 2019 – Philadelphia, PA – Rush Arts Gallery
Monday, August 19, 2019 – San Antonio – The Carver Community Cultural Center
Thursday, August 22, 2019 – San Francisco, CA – San Francisco Arts Commission & Gallery
Tuesday, August 27, 2019 – Los Angeles, CA – Self Help Graphics & Art
If you are interested in hosting a WOCA Community Gathering in your community, please email membership@womenofcolorinthearts.org.
*WOCA uses the term “women” to encompass all those that self-identify as women, or with womanhood, including non-binary, cisgender, and transgender women. Our intention is to uplift and address the very specific ways in which this particular group of people are impacted by various forms of oppression, notably sexism and racism. WOCA uses the term “women of color” as an organizing tool, acknowledging the expression is a political designation, not a biological one, and borne out of a solidarity movement originating from the labor of Black women.
WOMEN'S LEADERSHIP FORUM
The Women’s Leadership Forum addresses pressing issues for all women* and ignites dialogue around the meaning of leadership for women – dissecting the mechanisms which allow the systems of patriarchy and white supremacy to operate, exploring race and gender and how they impact position and power, and uncovering the ways in which women can work to collectively support one another and create a more equitable arts and cultural field. The inaugural Women’s Leadership Forum, Leveraging Leadership: Addressing Bias in the Arts, took place in 2017 during the annual APAP (Association for Performing Arts Professionals) conference in New York City and unpacked implicit gender and racial bias, focusing on the challenges and success faced by all women leaders in the field.
The Women’s Leadership Forum has traveled across the country in an effort to coalition build among all women striving for a more equitable field and world. Some notable forums were held in 2017 and 2018 including those that took place in Columbus, OH as part of the annual Arts Midwest Conference and in Orlando, FL as part of Performing Arts Exchange. Pre-pandemic, the most recent iteration of our Women’s Leadership Forum, Positioning Power, was held during the annual APAP (Association of Performing Arts Professionals) conference in New York City on January 9, 2020. This day-long forum facilitated understanding around the framework of oppression – which allows power and privilege to exist – and encouraged a dialogue about what all women can do to both mitigate the impact and utilize the advantages of power to support and encourage one another.
If you are interested in bringing the Women’s Leadership Forum to your community, please contact info@womenofcolorinthearts.org.
*The Women’s Leadership Forum is open to and encourages the participation of both white women and women of color. WOCA uses the term “women” to encompass all those that self-identify as women or with womanhood including non-binary, transgender, cisgender women. Our intention is to uplift and address the very specific ways in which this particular group of people, and their multiple identities, are impacted by various forms of oppression, notably sexism and racism. WOCA uses the term “women of color” as an organizing tool, acknowledging the expression is a political designation, not a biological one, and borne out of a solidarity movement originating from the labor of Black women.