The Inaugural celebration of the Southern Arts and Culture Coalition!

Graphic note taking by Emily Robinson

Two weeks ago we were proud to host the inaugural celebration of the Southern Arts and Culture Coalition here at our studio in Richmond, Virginia. This event came together after three years of dreaming, scheming and strategizing, centered around a basic premise: we can do things together that we can’t do alone.

This work began in April 2020, when a group of 13 organizations came together to advocate for the survival of Southern grassroots arts and culture in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our organizations were doing frontline work–– gathering food and supplies for community members in need, sewing masks by hand for essential workers and creating meaningful educational opportunities for youth and adults–– yet we saw no lifeline to support our survival through the pandemic closures. We talked for hours about the struggles that united us, primarily related to lack of funding, lack of solidarity across our sector and a real issue with mid-sized and anchor organizations using our work to fundraise for their own efforts.

On September 8-10th we reunited beyond the screen (with some of us connecting to the work for the first time) to reflect on this primary question: What would 2020 have looked like if we had an established coalition of organizations across the South, working together, struggling together and advocating on each others’ behalf? And more importantly, how can we look toward the future together, strategically, to imagine a coalition that provides the support we needed then and that we’ll need when the next crisis arises?

We danced, screen printed, sang, ate and dreamed together, centering joy in our process of imagining a coalition that is both bold and tangible enough to have a real impact and meaning for already-short-staffed-and-busy grassroots arts and cultural organizations across the region.

Altogether, we celebrated with over 100 people representing over 48 organizations from across the regional South. Some folks traveled from as far as Florida, Mississippi, Tennessee and Kentucky, while many others were based here in Virginia. Our collective work supports hundreds of thousands of Southerners every year, from cultural organizing to gallery walls. And while the room felt expansive, big and bustling, we know that there are at least 1,800 grassroots arts and cultural organizations across the South. So we need a concrete organizing strategy to continue to grow and build this network.

So what’s next? We have been pulling together all of the notes, insights, ideas and concrete next steps that were collaborative envisioned at our convening. From there, we will begin breaking this work up into working-group-sized-pieces. If you joined us for this big leap–– thank you! And if you’d like to join now, please do. We can do it better with you by our side. 

With gratitude and excitement for what’s next, 

Kate, Ashley, Tiffany & Emily