communitas [ kuh-myoo-ni-tahs ]

Noun, from Anthropology. Usually referring to an unstructured state in which all members of a community are equal allowing them to share a common experience; also refers to the spirit or essence of “community.”

Communitas Arts + Culture, LLC (CAC) was founded in 2019 as a thought and action lab focused on building community, equity and social justice in and through arts and culture work. Building upon the experience of our founder and collaborators, we bring over 25+ years of experience in managing and facilitating community-engaged arts projects, program/project management and leadership in the arts and culture sector.

 We operate from a values driven perspective and an antiracist/decolonizing framework while specializing in three support service areas, including: artist coaching, consulting, and creative development of new work.

CAC maintains base operations in Philadelphia, PA, but works nationally through an established network of professional connections, including arts/culture collaborators and colleagues across a variety of sectors and fields.

LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We believe that truth and acknowledgement is critical to building towards justice and equity – not only in our field, but throughout our country and world. We choose to center mutual respect, radical imagination and bold transparency in an effort to facilitate healing, build trust and advance the dignity and potential of the individuals and communities we aim serve. In so doing, we believe it is paramount to begin from a place of firm acknowledgement when engaging in new collaborative work with partners.

We – the people who lead and power Communitas Arts + Culture, LLC – acknowledge, respectfully and with deep reverence – that we freely roam, reside, gather, create, and conduct business on the occupied and unceded territory of the Lenni-Lenape (Lənape Haki-nk) People. We pay respect to their elders, both past and present, and honor the people and descendants of the Lenape Nation who have stewarded this land and preserved their honorable culture throughout the generations.

It should be noted that, “Between 1776 and 1887, the United States seized over 1.5 billion acres from America’s indigenous people by treaty and executive order. We recognize our privileges in being able to navigate and operate on these lands (Honor Native Land: A Guide an Call to Acknowledgement produced by the US Department of Arts and Culture – a People Powered Department). This is our shared history as Americans – a history exploitation, genocide and displacement that continues at the hands of government and corporate interests to this day.

REPARATIVE COMMITTMENTS

Acknowledgement, however, is not enough. Action is required in order to advance the cause of equity. Communitas Arts + Culture, LLC commits to the practice of action beyond acknowledgement.

As a first step toward enacting reparations to Indigenous and POC communities directly impacted by white supremacy and colonization, we will commit to donating $100.00 received from each contracted, fee-based consulting project we undertake to Liberated Capital: A Decolonizing Wealth Fund.  

Liberated Capital describes itself as a fund that “…supports Indigenous and other people-of-color-led initiatives working for transformative social change. This fund—directed by the Decolonizing Wealth Project —aims to move untethered resources to help shape a future in which we can all heal from generations of colonial trauma and thrive in our cultures. Rooted in relationships of mutuality and equity, Liberated Capital gives through a reparations model that trusts and supports the leadership of those most impacted by historical and systemic racism. The fund welcomes support from individuals at all levels of giving who are committed to collectively healing the wounds of colonialism and white supremacy by using money as medicine to shape an equitable future.” Please visit the link to learn more about the incredible work of thought leader Edgar Villanueva and the amazing team at the Decolonizing Wealth Project.

We encourage all engaged partners of Communitas A+C to undertake similar commitments towards dedicating resources in reparative ways where they are able. We encourage partners to commit to boldly take up the work of decolonization by critically interrogating the ways in which the mindset and practices of colonization are upheld in their organizational missions, language, structures, policies and actions.

ANTI-RACIST APPROACH

Communitas A+C operates from an antiracist/decolonizing framework and we expect that any organization who wishes to contract our services has done the baseline work to acknowledge and name the realities of white supremacy and how these forces manifest in the nonprofit arts and culture context. Given the history of race in the United States, we operate in alignment with a “race and…” perspective, meaning we must talk about and acknowledge race first, and always in an intersectional context, here in the US.

We center, honor and uplift the voices, work and experiences of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) creatives and leaders, along with white allies, who have been systematically marginalized. Report after report in our field states that members of these communities are continually challenged, under-resourced, underfunded, underproduced, and under-represented in mainstream institutions – especially white-led institutions.

We acknowledge that the arts and culture sector operates within and continues to benefit from white supremacy and that many organizations continue to perpetuate many of the problems they claim to be solving through in their stated missions, values and EDI (equity, diversity, inclusion) initiatives. This pattern of harm is fueled by a refusal to shift past an outdated “equality” mindset, and work toward true equity. Funders, philanthropists, government bodies, nonprofit boards and individuals all have a role to play in remedying these realities.

We believe that this march towards equity happens on a spectrum. We advocate for concrete outcomes more than extended conversations and symbolic words. We advocate for organizations to ensure diverse representation, to engage in an ongoing strategic reallocation of resources and opportunities, and to strive towards ensuring that the individuals and communities served have an ever-greater sense of and ability for genuine self-determination.

We take inspiration from the work and teachings of some of today’s most innovative and visionary leaders – leaders like Adrienne Marie Brown, Edgar Villanueva, Ibram X. Kendi. – and aim to make these theories and ideals actionable through our collaborative work and learning.

We are continuously learning and striving. We hope you will join with us in the work.