2022 Arts for Social Change Jam
Apply Today!
PRIORITY DEADLINE: April 29, 2022
EXTENDED DEADLINE: June 1, 2022
As we begin to emerge from the ashes of the pandemic, we feel that we have the greatest opportunity of our lifetime to reimagine ourselves, our relationships, and the systems into which we are all woven. Artists have always been the visionaries who paint a picture of what is possible, planting the seeds for what can be manifested in the future. After several years of hibernation, the Arts for Social Change Jam is reconvening, and we can feel the potency and magic of what will be co-created when we come together in-person!*
We are so excited to invite you to this upcoming 2022 Arts for Social Change Jam, a creative gathering for people working at the intersection of arts and social change, to come together; share our challenges and breakthroughs; nurture ourselves; support and inspire each other; explore our identities as artists, activists and whole people; figure out ways to be more financially sustainable; find intersections for future collaborations; and build a more resilient network of artist-activists (artivists).
* We will continue to monitor the COVID-19 reality and will only meet in person if it is safe to do so.
When and where is the Arts for Social Change Jam?
Monday, June 27 to Sunday, July 3 — at a beautiful retreat center, in the Santa Cruz mountains, California, about 75 minutes from the San Francisco Bay Area.
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:
- 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.
- 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 in our understanding of, and connection to, each other.
- 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.
“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
Every Jam is an open space for the gifts and needs of the people that show up to emerge. When a number of Jam alumni hosted Arts for Social Change Jams in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019 we explored some of the following questions. This year, we anticipate deepening into them and adding yours!
- What is my story as an artist?
- How are we to be sustainable and valued for our artistic gifts?
- What does success look like for artivists? Where am I challenged as an artivist? What does it even mean to be an artivist?
- 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?
“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
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 couple years 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 and world view (i.e. class, ethnicity, race, religion, culture, sexuality, age, etc.)
“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
“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
Location, Travel and Costs of Attending
The Arts for Social Change Jam will take place at the Ben Lomond Quaker Center, near Santa Cruz, CA. Participants will share rooms in doubles and triples, and delight in delicious and nutritious primarily vegetarian food for the Jam.
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.
The tuition for the program is $1050 per person, of which $525 covers food, lodging and local transport and $525 covers program costs (materials, childcare, stipends for organizers and facilitators).
We never want money to be a barrier in participating in a Jam, so we will do everything we can to make it work for you to attend. Some partial scholarships and work trades may be available. We also can create a monthly payment plan (as low as $10/month) that works for you. Additional donations above the event price are welcome and help us provide scholarships to support the broad spectrum of participation on which this event thrives (they are also tax-deductible).
If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to write to us at <artandsocialchangejam[at]gmail.com>
APPLY today!
We cannot wait to JAM with you!
Austin, Gino, Nandita, Marielle, Natty, and Inez
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
Who is organizing and facilitating the 2022 Arts for Social Change Jam?
We are lucky to have an amazing team of organizers and facilitators for this year’s Jam:
Organizer
I am indigenous Mapuche, Jewish and second generation Chilean artist, muralist and educator. I grew up in Huichin Ohlone territory, Oakland California. My projects hold space to explore, remember, honor resiliency while braiding our collective stories into mural activism and hold space for healing and celebration.
I am a community facilitator, theatre artist, life-long learner and creative soul. I have spent the last 15+ years co-creating environments for reflection and learning – embracing a vision of solidarity, social justice and change from the inside-out. In weaving the threads of participatory, creative, embodied and play-based practices I invite the whole of our minds, hearts, bodies and souls in the process personal and collective transformation. I experience the arts as portals of transformation – making space for our souls to dance, breathe, heal and unleash the deep wisdom that resides within.
I am a freelance consultant as Weaving Connections (Toronto, Nova Scotia & Egypt) and currently collaborate with Bloom Consulting (Toronto), Branch Out Theatre (Toronto), Interplay (Oakland, CA), supporting processes of equity and inclusion; participatory leadership; conflict resolution and community healing. In my spare time I can be found in one of four homes – dancing ecstatically in Toronto, learning from the land in Madoc, playing in the waters of rural Nova Scotia or connecting with my ancestral roots in Egypt. I am grateful to the land, all my sentient relations and the ancestors of the places and spaces that have claimed me.
Marielle Amrhein (she/her) is a nature mystic, dancer, writer, and mama of two wildly creative kids. She recently moved to West Marin, Coast Miwok land to homestead and build beloved community in service of belonging and earth stewardship. She has worked extensively doing arts-based education for peace and justice for youth in the SF Bay Area, New York City, and New Delhi with the organizations Global Kids, American India Foundation, Katha, Stepping Stones, Berrett-Koehler Foundation and The Well Cafe (of which she Founded). Marielle has participated and created dance performances addressing incarceration, climate chaos, immigrant rights, ancestral healing, modern parenting and honoring the feminine. Marielle is a seeker of truth, vitality, and awakening for healing and liberation. She is a life-long student and practitioner in somatics, counseling, and embodiment, currently working with the modality of Bodynamics and focusing on intergenerational trauma. She can be found backpacking in high mountains, dancing at the edge of the ocean, telling bedtime stories to her kids, and crafting medicinal herbal remedies in her home kitchen.
Gino is a full-time father, a tree hugging hip-hop artist, and an aspiring yogi. As co-founder of Youth Impact Hub Oakland, he supported the launch of over 100 youth-led social enterprise projects. As the former president of the board at La Peña Cultural Center he co-organized hundreds of events to promote peace and social justice through the arts. He creates Hip-Hop music under the alias IM1 as an offering of gratitude for the ancestors, striving to connect unique, individual experience to universal Truth.
Austin Willacy is a veteran member of The House Jacks, an acapella group with whom he has produced 10 full-length albums and completed multiple world tours. For the past 25 years, Austin has directed ‘Til Dawn, Youth in Arts’ teen a cappella group that empowers youth to find their voices in many ways. Austin is also an award-winning singer/songwriter with 4 CDs and 2 EPs to his name. His music has been featured on NBC’s “The Sing-Off”, and on three feature film soundtracks, including Thrive, a documentary with over 100 million views. He’s appeared in Rolling Stone and has performed with icons such as Bonnie Raitt and Ray Charles as well as newer artists like Rachael Yamagata and Amos Lee. As an organizer and facilitant for YES!, Austin is a part of the North America Jam, the Arts for Social Change Jam, the Anadolu Sanat Jam, the India Arts for Social Change Jam, the Black Diaspora Jam, the Men Raised as Men Jam, and the nascent All Men’s Jam.
Nandita Batheja (she/they) is a facilitator, artist, question-asker and community weaver who works across sectors, advocating for justice, liberation and creative being. They believe imagination is crucial to change-work and that play is freedom’s underdog. Traveling between the worlds of education, nonprofits, artist residencies and decentralized movement spaces, Nandita has followed a life-long desire to tend to these questions: How do we build ecologies of right relationship and spiritual bravery in our relationships, actions, systems and creations? What is it to live the world we are dreaming, to every-day-it into existence? These questions and more are what guided Nandita to YES! and their current work in the world.
In addition to Jams, Nandita studies and practices the somatics of living, aging & dying to help herself and others navigate these tumultuous times. Nandita also facilitates with Equal Justice USA, leads InterPlay, and recently co-founded (with two other Jammers!) the Stingray Virtual Artist Residency – an international community art residency that encourages individuals to stand strong in their not-for-capital creative intelligence, and to mutually support each other’s artistic journeys. Nandita is currently based in San Diego, with roots reaching to New York, India, Indonesia, the-in-between and the sky.
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