2023 Arts Administrators of Color Network Annual Convening

CHICAGO / NOVEMBER 11 + 12, 2023

The Arts Administrators of Color Network warmly invites you to join us for our two-day 2023 Annual Convening taking place on November 11 & 12, 2023 in Chicago, IL.

Our theme for this year's Annual Convening will be:
We Will Flourish: Building Our Table, Defining Our Legacy

We're gearing up for a transformative weekend full of enriching sessions designed for and by artists and arts administrators of the global majority. Join us to learn, connect, and celebrate! As always, we will have an abundance of networking and community building opportunities built in to our time together. We can't wait to see you there!

Stay tuned for our session announcements and more exciting news in the coming weeks.  

Saturday, November 11

Time: 9:00 am - 5:00 pm CT / Location: The School of the Art Institute 

8:00 am: Registration Opens

9:00 am: Networking Breakfast + Affinity Group Meet-ups 

10:00 am: Welcome Remarks

Karla Rivera, AAC Executive Director and Special Guest Erin Harkey, Commissioner of Cultural Affairs and Events for City of Chicago

10:30 am - Opening Plenary

Keynote speaker Tracie D. Hall, the tenth Executive Director of the American Library Association. 

11:20 pm: Grab and Go Lunches

12:05 pm: Meet Buses for Site Visits 

12:15: Buses Depart 

1:00 - 5:00 pm: Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Site Visit Experiences 

Site Visits

Attendees will sign up to visit one of the following sites to engage with local arts and culture organizations organizations and artists to learn about their work. 

  • 5:00 pm: Meet buses return to the main conference hotel or choose to stay out and explore your site’s neighborhood for dinner and local activities. 

Dinner on Saturday evening is on your own. Attendees are encouraged to explore Chicago and meet up with others for 1-1 or small group happy hours, dinners, or other outings. We will offer recommendations for local restaurants, bars, events, etc.

Sunday, November 12

Time: 8:30 am - 6:00 pm CT / Location: Chicago Cultural Center 

8:00 am: Registration/Welcome Desk Open 

8:30: Breakfast Buffet 

9:15 am: Opening Inspiration + Welcome Remarks 

9:45 am: Interactive Plenary led by Beryl Briane Ford and Jordan W. Carter:
“I tried to work it away,” Attending to our Collective Grief

The trauma, grief, and spectacle of the last 3 years has been world-shattering. COVID-19 & anti-blackness endures, inflation outpaces costs of living, and as a collective workforce of arts administrators of color we continue to navigate our mental health and well-being alongside increased expectations around output and productivity. 

This Sunday workshop will address this reality and create an intentional container for attendees to collectively: 

  • Understand the cultural nuances of grief and its various manifestations at the personal & community levels for people of color

  • Explore the intersection of grief, racial disparities, & systemic challenges through discourse and art-making

  • Cope with pandemic-related losses, including personal, professional, & community losses while working in the sector

The ultimate goal of this workshop is to create a community-designed manifesto that articulates creative strategies to: 

  • Shift the culture of shame around experiencing grief at work 

  • Imagine what institutional support structures are necessary to uplift our well-being and quality of life as arts administrators; and 

  • Action these aspirations in order to hold cultural institutions accountable to the harm that is derived from hyper-professionalism. 

This workshop is a living testimony to our collective lived experiences as arts administrators of color working in this field. We aim to provide the healing medicine that is necessary for our collective care. We cannot flourish if we are not well. We cannot build our table if we are doing so in isolation. We cannot define our legacies if we are intentionally suppressing certain aspects of our past – our traumas and our grief. The only way through is together.

11am / Breakout Sessions

  • Redefining Leadership: A candid conversation with LoCF participants

  • Out of The Woods: How to Engage with BIPOC Artists in Rural Communities

  • Restorative Practices for BIPOC Arts Administrators

  • The Call’s Coming from Inside the House

12:10pm / Breakout Sessions

  • ELEVATE: 8 Guiding Principles for BIPOC-led/serving organizations

  • Workplace Democracy 101

  • Philanthropy For and By People of the Global Majority

  • Redefining Service: Advancing Racial Equity Through Arts Service Organizations

1:20pm / Breakout Sessions

  • Drawing Connections with Community

  • One Wall Movement: A Case Study in Centering the Narratives of BIPOC Street Artists

  • Building Your Own Table: A Conversation with Founders of the Global Majority

2:30pm / Closing Reception, Vendor Fair, Dance Party Featuring DJ Jesse De La Pena