Mapping Oakland

A baseline study of arts and cultural organizations in communities of color

Monday, October 22, 2:00pm – 3:15pm

Organized by Ted Russell, associate director of Arts Strategy & Ventures, Kenneth Rainin Foundation; and Vanessa Camarena-Arredondo, program officer, Akonadi Foundation.

Moderated by Adriana Griño, Arts program officer, Kenneth Rainin Foundation. Presented by Roberto Bedoya, cultural affairs manager, City of Oakland; Nkeiruka Oruche, artistic director of Afro Urban Society, co-founder of BoomShake Music, and interim creative and administrative director of Studio Grand; and Vanessa Camarena-Arredondo, Arts program officer, Akonadi Foundation.

Oakland has been a culturally rich city for decades. Many social movements, leaders, and artists call Oakland home and have extended the visibility of the city’s unique cultural brand. Considering this legacy, there was a need to capture the organizations and cultural leadership that nurture and maintain these legacies, especially those emerging from communities of color. Through the recently published report Mapping Small Arts & Culture Organizations of Color, a Bay Area arts funder and an Oakland place-based racial justice funder, set out to map cultural organizations in Oakland. The baseline report surfaced a large and varied set of cultural formations, collectives, and organizations who employ a wide range of strategies to sustain their work. Many of these groups have fallen outside of view from mainstream philanthropic arts funding but have managed to produce work and be engaged in communities for years, if not decades. Join us to learn about Oakland’s cultural legacies and assets. We will be in conversation with Oakland leaders, artists, and with the Rainin Foundation and Akonadi Foundation to discuss the value of visibilizing this work to funders, understand the needs of these formations, and how they have sustained their work.