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PRIORITY DEADLINE: July 1st, 2025

FINAL DEADLINE: August 15, 2025

The first frontline of the struggle against rising hate is in the imagination. As artists we know that this is a time when our gifts as dreamers, creators, inspirers, healers, clowns, conveners and provocateurs are urgently needed. But we also know how tempting it is to pour out our brilliance from an empty cup, or to struggle alone with our own thirst for inspiration, hope, community.

Jams are not retreats in a few important ways. We don’t retreat from the world (though that can be a valuable break!), we bring the world with us into jamming. And all of us gathered make it what it becomes. Writer Meg Wheatley says that amidst the collapse of empires, we can’t stave off all destruction but we can create sanctuaries of wholeness. What if, for a few days, we create vivid sanctuary for our full selves and each other – particularly the parts of ourselves that are marginalized, under attack, or minimized under a fascist state? What if we created the space to let our burning questions emerge and then linger? What if we played and cross-pollinated with people who begin as strangers and become co-conspirators? What if, for a few days, we filled up that creative cup?

That is the intention and the dream of the 2025 Arts for Social Change Jam. We are here as fellow artist-activists, committed to a vibrantly just future and enjoying our lives along the way – and we can’t do it without your particular brand of magic. Come and fill your cup. 

When and where is the Arts for Social Change Jam?

October 22nd – 26th

Santa Cruz, California

Hosted at The Ahimsa Collective

What is the Arts for Social Change Jam?

YES! Jams have been happening since 1999. YES! collaborates with other like-hearted peers around the world to co-create Jams where diverse visionaries and social change-makers combine their inspirations and skills to create something greater than the sum of their parts.

The Jam works on 3 three levels:

1. On the personal level, it is an open space for participants to reflect on our life journeys and what makes us who we are today. It is an opportunity to deepen our purpose, ask meaningful questions, eat nourishing food, unlearn our fears and blocks, access our hearts, and open our minds to move more boldly in the world.
2. On the interpersonal level, we come together to share our cultures, our creativity, our collaborative spirits, our stories and our struggles so we can deepen our understanding of, and connection to, each other.
3. On the systemic level, we become clearer about the importance of our work in the world and its potential for even deeper, more meaningful impact.

Every Jam is an open space for the gifts and needs of the people that show up to emerge. We literally build the agenda based on questions participants put in their application.Over the past 12 years of the Arts for Social Change Jam, here are some questions we’ve explored.

• How does my art or can my art be a force for social or environmental justice? 
• How are we to be sustainable and valued for our artistic gifts?
• How do we collaborate as artivists across mediums, modalities, and issue focuses?
• How do we create an enduring support network of people using their creative passions for social change?
• How do our diverse identities relate to us as artists and as activists, and how do we build bridges across those identities with each other?
• What feels like the purpose and value of artist-activists in these particular times?

Who comes to the Arts for Social Change Jam?

Because we seek to bring together as diverse a group of people as possible we are looking for a range in:

• Artistic Modalities: Musicians, Dancers, Visual Artists, Filmmakers, Creative Facilitators, Writers, etc.
• “Artist-ship” (leadership, from ‘person on the ground’ to ‘director’ and ‘founder’)
• Years of experience (from ‘a year into the journey’ to ‘been at it for a good part of your life’);
• Issue or work-focus (i.e. community media, local economies and globalization, indigenous issues, education, food sovereignty, cultural regeneration, interfaith, health and well-being, ecology, youth, sustainable living, human rights, etc.)
• Identity (i.e. class, ethnicity, race, religion, culture, sexuality, gender, age, etc.)

Who is organizing and facilitating the 2025 Arts for Social Change Jam?

We are lucky to have an amazing team of organizers and facilitators for this year’s Jam:

Location, Travel and Costs of Attending

The Arts for Social Change Jam will take place at The Ahimsa Collective in Santa Cruz, California. Participants will share rooms in doubles and triples, and delight in delicious and nutritious primarily vegetarian food for the Jam. We use a sliding scale model for this gathering. This is not like many typical “retreats” in that the facilitators are paid a small honorarium and almost all of your tuition goes directly to the cost of your stay. This is how we keep the cost accessible and maintain the spirit of the Jam as a peer-held, co-created space.

Travel costs are the responsibility of the participants, though we will help in arranging carpools from the Bay Area and nearby airports, like San Francisco, San Jose and Oakland.

Sliding Scale: $800 – $1800

The actual cost of the Jam is $1,125 per person, which breaks down into ~$500 for lodging, food, materials, and transportation and ~$600 for programming (childcare, stipends for organizers and facilitators).

We never want money to be a barrier to participating in a Jam, so we will do everything we can to make it work for you to attend. If cost is a barrier to you, contact us, and we will work together with you to find a way. Some partial scholarships and work trades are available. We can also create a flexible monthly payment plan that can be as low as $25 a month. We invite you to consider a $800 minimum tuition payment, which can be paid in monthly installments. If you have more resources, additional donations above the event price will help us provide scholarships to support the broad spectrum of participation. It is the diversity of the Jams that make them thrive. Donations above the tuition are also tax-deductible.

At Cost $1125: Consider paying this amount if doing so would be an investment, but not create hardship for you. You might choose this rate if you are regularly able to meet your basic needs*, have some expendable income, you can travel occasionally without burden, and you have some debt but are able to pay it regularly. This is the true cost of the Jam, what we need in order to cover lodging, food, childcare, and to pay the facilitators a stipend.

A Bit More $1125-$1800+: Please consider paying this amount if you are comfortably able to meet your basic needs*, own the home you live in or rent a higher end property, have access to financial savings and/or investments, have paid or pay for private education, have reliable work or do not need to work to meet your needs, have inherited wealth, and/or can afford to travel every year. This is a pay-it-forward rate and anything above $1125 is tax-deductible. It’s an opportunity to not only attend the Jam, but also support your fellow community members in doing so too!

A Bit Less: $800 to $1250: Consider paying this rate if it is sometimes a stretch to meet your basic needs*, if you have little savings, if your expendable income is tight, if you have experienced housing insecurity in the past but are currently in stable housing, and if investing in personal development and/or leisure travel is an occasional treat. This is a discounted rate.

Reparative Rate: Less than $800: Please consider naming what you can pay if you come from generational poverty, you or your ancestors have faced marginalization, or if you currently struggle to meet your basic needs*, have little to no savings, significant debt, and if you have little to no financial safety net or housing stability from family. We recognize the vast inequities that exist in our communities due to the realities of neoliberalism, colonialism, imperialism, and patriarchy. Our intention is to redistribute resources, and we consider the Jam to be a community resource that we wish to make available regardless of money. Our experience shows us that every participant contributing something ultimately contributes to your investment in this co-created experience. In that spirit, we ask you to consider what you can contribute toward your food and lodging at the Jam.

*Basic needs are defined here as food, housing, healthcare, transportation, childcare.

Covid Protocols

We ask all participants to take a covid test within 24 hours of arriving at the Jam. If you test positive, please do not come to the Jam. 

To minimize the possible transmission of COVID-19, we ask that you plan for your attendance mindfully. Especially in the week prior to the Jam, please take precautions, including limiting outings and masking in public spaces. We encourage masking on all public transportation and public spaces including airports, airplanes, trains, ride shares etc. 

We cannot wait to JAM with you!

Nandita, Chetna, Austin, and Annie-Rose

Participants from other Jams sharing their experience…

“I love the dear friendships and network of support that have been with me since the first Jam I attended in 2001. The people I met at Jams have become advisors, board members, funders, collaborative partners, and among my closest friends… I appreciate the safe space created at Jams that allows each person to take risks at their own pace and in doing so empower one another to take greater risks in our own lives and work.”

– Kavitha Rao, 35, Cofounder of Common Fire Foundation, Tivoli, New York

“Because art might be the most powerful healing force we have, along with its partner, love, I am massively grateful as an artist to have had this chance to discover, network, brainstorm new work, heal old wounds, meet amazing talent who shared their big brains, courageous hearts and powerful gifts every day.”

– Ruth Kirschner, 69, Playwright, San Francisco, CA

“(The Jam was) a time to question, pull off masks, center myself, be inspired, and love. I have never been surrounded by so many incredible young people who live and breathe their radical center. I felt gently and safely yet firmly and fiercely moved through an experience of reconnection with myself and a community of social changemakers for justice. The Jam brought me into focus for myself and the work I am doing in the world.”

– Lisl Schoepflin, 24, Co-founder, Santa Fe Museum of Languages, Santa Fe, NM

 “This work is so needed in these times. Bringing levity to the misery, courage to face the fears, love to confront the hate…these tools are what the world needs now more than ever, especially those of us trying to change it.”

– Jayeesha Dutta, 37, Multi-Disciplinary artists,  Cultural Organizer and Entrepreneur, Mind Power Collective, New Orleans, LA

 

“I could not have asked for a more nurturing and inspiring group… Thank you for creating a safe space for so many voices to speak their hopes, passions, struggles, pain and shame… I believe the Jam was a micro example of what should be possible at a macro level: nurturing, slow pace, warmth, abundant love and affection.”

– Shanti Ganesh, 41, PhD, research on creativity and resilience, UC Berkeley, California

“I attended my first Jam in 2006 and my life was changed… This Arts Jam was just as transformational. I feel like I’ve been to the mountaintop. Once again I had the honor of meeting diverse souls who shared my calling – Artivism! I leave this experience rejuvenated and grounded. I was given space to think, to plan, to question, to create and release.”

– Monica Raye Simpson, 34, Executive Director, Sister Song, Atlanta, Georgia

“Thank you for bringing together such a diverse and thoughtful group of souls with so much to give and so willing to receive. This experience has allowed me to open up and release years of gunky emotions that were consuming energy and getting in the way of my growth. To be given the opportunity to build such a community was new to me and I will never forget the time I spent here.” 

– Jose Cortez, 21, Multi-Disciplinary artist and student at Bunker Hill Community College, Boston, MA