EAP fellowship Cohort XV is comprised of incredibly dedicated and passionate arts and cultural workers. Their work crosses multiple disciplines including visual arts, performing arts, music, technology, literary, and media, and represents different points along possible career paths in the Bay Area.

This Fellowship program intends to hold space for arts and culture workers to conduct research in our field, participate in hands-on learning, and develop a project that shares our learnings over the course of our time together! It is our goal to offer opportunities for both professional and emotional development throughout the process, while supporting our fellows in conducting research in the arts & culture field to inform their publication or tool to offer our network. During the program fellows will meet on average twice per month in-person or on zoom and will spend one weekend in January on a community building camping trip. This year’s fellowship activates one of our four affinity topics (Creative City, Cultural Equity, Arts & Capital, and Regenerative Practices):

Cultural Equity: No single racial or ethnic group forms a majority of California’s population, making the state a minority-majority state; with that dynamic in mind, consider how arts workers advance the conversation on cultural equity across the sector and beyond; how do we tackle institutional or systemic oppression or rethinking creative place keeping strategies? How do we re-center systemically marginalized experiences and decolonized practices?

Goals for EAP’s 2024–2025 Fellowship

– For Arts & Culture Workers –

To have a space for emotional support and wellness, to engage in peer problem-solving, to create opportunities for individuals to gather resources for personal and communal development. To continue leadership development through centering decolonized leadership practices in Cultural Equity. 

– For EAP –

To support the professional development and empowerment of our network of arts and culture workers and leaders through training in EAP’s Equity Framework, cultural protocols, methodologies, and curriculum. To expand our ability to build our network and produce offerings to gather and support the arts and culture sector. To dive into one of EAP’s four affinity topics, Cultural Equity.

– For the Field –

To work toward an arts industry that is equitable for all people, is a valued and sustainable career sector, and honors the individual arts worker as a creative and whole person. To organize together and mobilize towards creating sustainable structures for arts and culture workers to thrive in the Bay Area.

– For the Community –

To practice working with others to mobilize around a specific issue impacting our lives. To reap the fruits of utilizing EAP’s tools and practices in communal and work environments. To collaborate across organizations to build stronger alliances.