Community Initiatives

The Teaching Artists Guild, a fiscally sponsored program of Community Initiatives, is now in its sixth year as a membership organization of 300 individual teaching artists and institutional members in the Bay Area, and works to provide programs to support the professionalization of the teaching artist field. Striving to move beyond its start-up phase, the project is transitioning from its founder-led beginning to a member-driven organization focused on supporting professional development for teaching artists. With two new part-time staff members, Teaching Artists Guild is strengthening a statewide network of communication between teaching artists and hiring organizations as it develops programs to support the field. Renewed support would assist the growth and enhancement of this important group of arts education providers.

The Intertribal Friendship House supports the cultural preservation, connection, reconnection, and identities of Native peoples living in the Bay Area. Located in the Clinton Square neighborhood of Oakland and drawing participants from as far away as San Jose and Napa County, Intertribal Friendship House reaches more than 800 youth and adults each week through a wide array of cultural programs that include drum and dance classes, community celebrations, storytelling workshops, and language classes. With this grant, Intertribal Friendship House proposes to further diversify its cultural programming, increase participation using new outreach methods, and develop more robust monitoring and evaluation systems to track its impact.

Teaching Artists Organized is a fiscally-sponsored project of Community Initiatives, and is now in its fourth year as a membership organization of 400 individual teaching artists as well as organizational members, and strives to provide programs where arts and education programs meet. These programs include low-cost professional development workshops, an annual Teaching Artists Institute, and services to teaching artists such as a job fair and networking and sharing meetings.