2025 Was a Year of Growth, Depth, and Possibility
As I reflect on 2025, one word keeps coming up: growth — the kind that happens when you commit to building something sturdy, values-aligned, and real. The kind of growth that requires patience, experimentation, trust, and a tremendous amount of behind-the-scenes work that rarely gets seen.
This year was an incredibly full and meaningful one for the Arts Administrators of Color Network. We revived foundational programs, piloted new strategies, deepened national and local partnerships, strengthened our infrastructure, and continued showing up for our community with care during a deeply demanding moment for the arts sector.
At a time when so many of us have been feeling demoralized, isolated, and profoundly burned out, especially within an increasingly hostile political climate, we kept going. We continued the work and even managed to create pockets of joy along the way. We amplified resources to help our community face the challenges of our time, stayed connected both virtually and in person, and kept building the capacity needed to be even more impactful as we look ahead.
What we accomplished in 2025 makes me incredibly proud. As we approach AAC’s 10-year anniversary in 2026, I’m reminded that this work didn’t start with us. We’re building on generations of determination, community care, and resilience and what we’re creating together for our futures is still just getting started.
Growing a National Community — With Intention
2025 was a year of meaningful expansion. We launched new programs, piloted new strategies, deepened partnerships, and showed up in more spaces while staying grounded in what makes AAC work: connection, support, and showing up consistently.
Our monthly newsletter reached ~15,000 subscribers, connecting arts leaders across the country to opportunities and resources like our Staying Grounded, Staying Ready blog which aggregates useful knowledge to navigate times of uncertainty. Across virtual and in-person offerings, we had nearly 1,000 program registrations from 245+ unique participants, reflecting strong repeat engagement throughout the year. We also offered a mix of paid and no-cost programs to ensure that financial barriers did not prevent participation.
AAC programs engaged participants from 20+ states and Washington, DC, with representation across the West Coast, Midwest, South, Northeast, and the DMV region. Participants reflected the full career spectrum — from students and early-career professionals to executive directors, CEOs, founders, and senior administrators — strengthening AAC’s role as an intergenerational leadership pipeline within the arts sector.
We experimented with Community Connectors, an emerging strategy designed to support local leadership without replicating traditional chapter models. In March, we held our first regional pilot gathering in Detroit, testing how local connection and national infrastructure can work together in practice.
We also launched a Community Spotlight blog series, amplifying the voices, experiences, and leadership of our community.
Another highlight was our collaboration with Dance Place, launching a Praxis cohort that convened cultural leaders in the DMV region through facilitated gatherings grounded in dialogue, relationship-building, and shared meals. This partnership reflects AAC’s commitment to place-based work that complements our national reach.
Additionally, AAC was proud to be selected to participate in Race Forward’s Weavers Lab for Solidarity Narratives Cohort, deepening our capacity to engage narrative strategy, movement storytelling, and cross-sector collaboration.
Across programs, participants consistently named community, connection, professional growth, and care as the most meaningful outcomes of their engagement.
Revitalizing AAC’s Mentorship Program
We launched The Greenhouse, a reimagined version of AAC’s original mentorship program and a return to our roots in relationship-based leadership development. The Greenhouse reflects AAC’s long-standing commitment to leadership that is nurtured through connection rather than hierarchy.
This year’s cohort included 34 BIPOC arts leaders, matched across 17 Cultivator–Seeker partnerships, representing disciplines, regions, and career stages from across the country.
Rooted in Care, Rising in Joy
In November, AAC hosted its first-ever West Coast Convening in Los Angeles — Rooted in Care, Rising in Joy.
More than 200 artists and arts administrators of the global majority gathered from across the country, with 65% attending an AAC convening for the first time. We awarded 54 scholarships to support access, and participants traveled from 15+ states, including CA, WA, TX, MI, FL, NY, NJ, NM, IL, KS, UT, and the DMV region.
The convening was:
Co-hosted with Creative West’s Leaders of Color Initiative
Curated and produced with Blackbird Collective
Hosted across Nate Holden Performing Arts Center (via Ebony Repertory Theatre) and LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes as well as hosting site visits at BIPOC arts and culture spaces around the city
Supported by: Wallace Foundation, ArtsFund, Amalgamated Bank, American University Arts Management Program, and Deliasofia Zacarias
Attendees expressed strong support for the Convening:
“It was my first convening and I had such a great experience. I’ll be making this convening a priority to attend in future years.”
“This was a truly transforming and generative experience for me, and I’m SO grateful that AAC exists!”
Affinity Spaces That Sustain Us
In 2025, we revamped our virtual Affinity Spaces to better meet the moment our community is navigating. These quarterly gatherings create space for role-based peer coaching, resource sharing, and relationship-building
We also launched a new series of virtual co-working sessions, offering low-pressure opportunities to work alongside peers and stay connected across distance and time zones.
Across the year, these virtual spaces reached 300+ participants, with one Affinity Space welcoming 142 registrants. Co-working sessions consistently brought together 30–40 arts leaders at a time, reinforcing the value of regular, accessible connection.
AAC also hosted in-person affinity spaces at national convenings in 2025, including:
Americans for the Arts Annual Conference - Cincinnati, OH
Arts Education Partnership National Convening - Denver, Co
National Performance Network Conference - New Orleans
And we partnered with Diaspora dNA to co-host an in-person affinity space in Philadelphia at the Philly Festivals Mixer: Celebrating Philly’s Creative Economy & Community Influencers.
These moments allowed our community members to find one another inside larger national spaces and experience connection and belonging in real time.
Showing Up in the Field
In addition to holding our own spaces, 2025 was also a year of showing up in the field — sharing our work, learning alongside peers, and staying connected to what the arts and culture sector is navigating in real time.
Speaking Engagements & Dialogue Spaces (2025)
Wallace Foundation Grantee Cohort Call — sharing AAC’s work, research, and community-based strategies
artEquity — panelist for BIPOC Surviving Predominantly White Institutions series
DMV Dance Community Town Hall — panelist on tools, resources, and pathways forward
Farnsworth Museum / Eddie C. & C. Sylvia Brown Institute Internship Program — guest speaker for HBCU curatorial interns highlighting career pathways in the arts
Joe’s Movement Emporium — co-hosted in-person and virtual workshops on networking for introverts
Black Orchestral Network — panelist on leadership, growth, and equity in arts organizations
OneTenth Consulting - Empowering Social Justice Advocacy: Tools for Impact and Action
Investing in the Next Generation of Arts Leaders
Another important — and often unseen — part of our work in 2025 was investing in emerging leaders through internships and service-learning partnerships.
We were grateful to collaborate with students from:
University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance — Leading & Managing Global Majority Cultural Organizations service-learning course
American University — Arts Management Department
Howard University — Dance Program
These students were not observers — they were contributors. Their insight, care, and commitment strengthened our work and reinforced the importance of investing in the next generation of arts leadership.
Introducing The Bridge
We launched The Bridge, AAC’s Job & Opportunity Board, connecting artists and arts workers to jobs, freelance opportunities, fellowships, and residencies through an equity- and access-centered platform. The Bridge is free to browse, requires no account, and features live postings with required salary transparency and filters by modality, sector, and opportunity type.
We Can’t Do This Alone — And We Don’t Want To
As proud as I am of what we built this year, I want to be clear: none of this work can happen without dedicated people and steady resources.No organization in this political climate can do this alone.
As we approach our 10-year anniversary, the question before us isn’t whether this work matters, it’s whether we will collectively invest in sustaining it.
If you believe in what we’re building, I invite you to join our movement.
Becoming a monthly donor is one of the most powerful ways to help us continue and expand this work. Just $10 a month helps sustain programs, grow community-led strategies, keep spaces accessible, and build the infrastructure needed for 2026 and beyond.
Will you join us?
Together, we can keep growing something that lasts.
In community,
Erika Hawthorne
Interim Executive Director, Arts Administrators of Color Network