Wednesday Roundtables: Forging Connections
Developing Anti-Displacement Strategies through Organizing and the Arts: A briefing for funders
Wednesday, October 24, 7:30am–8:30am
Pro Arts, Studio | 150 Frank H Ogawa Plaza
Co-hosted by the San Francisco Foundation and organized by Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society.
Speakers:
- Ciera-Jevae Gordon, Staying Power fellow and current media, arts, & culture manager at the RYSE Center
- Shasha Graham, Staying Power fellow and grassroots leader at Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE)
- Evan Bissell, Staying Power fellowship coordinator, and arts and cultural strategy coordinator at Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society
- Tamisha Walker, executive director, Safe Return Project
- Melvin Willis, vice mayor of the City of Richmond
- Maisha Quint, fellow at The San Francisco Foundation
An innovative strategy integrating arts, community organizing, and policy change is helping Richmond, California move towards a more equitable future. Join a funder briefing with representatives from the four lead organizations: Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society, RYSE Center, Safe Return Project, and Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE). Attendees will learn from approaches to integrating arts, organizing, and policy development, with practical examples from the Staying Power project, and participate in a conversation about how this model and lessons learned may apply in other contexts. Staying Power was an arts, policy, and participatory action research fellowship for young adult residents directly impacted by housing instability, racial inequities and displacement. The fellows met weekly to engage in a wide variety of activities including: creative work such as root cause and personal history mapping, photo-stories, tableaus, and collective writing exercises; readings on local history and structural forces; skills trainings including project planning, video training, and interview question development; and project work and group feedback. The group held interviews and informal conversations with current and former Richmond residents about the topics of housing and belonging, and used these activities to identify overlaps, disconnects, core themes, and needs in their own communities' narratives and experiences. Through this process the fellows designed and implemented public arts and culture projects.
Impact Investing in the Creative Economy
Wednesday, October 24, 7:30am–8:30am
The Lab, 3rd Floor | 1330 Broadway
Organized by Upstart Co-Lab.
Speakers:
- Laura Callanan, founding partner, Upstart Co-Lab
- Sam Marks, executive director, Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) NYC
The arts receive 5% of US philanthropic giving, roughly $22 billion annually. If the arts received 5% of all impact investment assets under management in the US, that would be $435 billion more in capital for creativity and culture. Impact investing also ensures that as the creative economy grows, the investment will be shaped by the values of equity, sustainability, and inclusion; will prioritize the needs to diverse communities; will continue to be an on-ramp to opportunity for women entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs of color; and will grow as a source of quality jobs for middle skill workers. Hear from Justina Lai of Weatherby Asset Management about the basics of impact investing and current trends; from Sam Marks about the LISC NYC Inclusive Creative Economy Fund, the first impact investment vehicle of its kind; and from Brian Murray about Shift Capital’s investments in Philadelphia’s Maken Studios Art District. Moderator Laura Callanan will share the latest research from Upstart Co-Lab about how to bring a Creativity Lens to impact investing, the impact funds that are including the creative economy as part of their strategy already, and the pipeline of 100 investable opportunities for impact investment in the creative economy today.