Community / Transparency / Programming / Resources
Audience / Participation / Impact / Collaboration
The WCCW announces Rethinking: a process-driven initiative lead by Programming & Outreach Coordinator Nicole Kelly.
Rethinking: is a collaborative process, a way to invite our members to participate in new ways, and a way to seek all new perspectives and experiences. It’s a season of research & experimentation, an internal and external investigation. It’s a reaction to the urgent need that we see in our communities. It’s a way to do better at holding ourselves accountable. Rethinking: is a new phase of our organization— one in which we re-envision our relationship to the local arts and social justice communities, as well our own Elysian Valley neighborhood, and take the necessary steps in order to show up.
With this project, we’re creating more opportunities to engage with the communities in which we live and work. We’re working to bring more opportunities, more programs, and more material resources to a wider audience. Through this process, we hope to shape the WCCW into a space where learning, organizing, creating, work, conversations, and collaboration towards a more equitable neighborhood, feminism, and city can happen in real life.
Rethinking: Community
We’re starting off with a community survey, a multifaceted information-gathering process designed to help us assess our impact. The survey will help us to find out more about our audience, member participation, and transparency.
Who comes to events? Who takes advantage of our space and of grant opportunities? Who feels excluded and why? How can we better serve our own neighborhood & feminist LA? What urgent social justice causes could benefit from our networks? Our goal is to build a community where a diverse variety of perspectives and identities are included, where participating & taking ownership is encouraged, and where meaningful collaboration and dialogue are possible.
In the spirit of accountability, transparency, and collaboration, we’ll discuss what we learn at monthly community meetings and publish the results on this blog.
Rethinking: Programming
Until now, the WCCW’s programming format has been generated via a quarterly open call for proposals, which are then reviewed by a programming committee. This method was intended to avoid a singular curatorial voice, and to eliminate the kind of unnecessary hierarchy that can often occur in programed space. While our previous programming method has produced a near nightly line-up of interesting, diverse and exciting events, we’d now like to compliment that programming with WCCW-hosted events that reflect our mission, core values, and political position.
Starting in the Fall of 2017, we’re working to form a Programming Board — a mix of artists, activists, people who are involved with WCCW, and Elysian Valley residents (our neighborhood) — to review program proposals & create programs to take place at Women’s Center and in collaboration with other spaces. The Programming Board will use the information collected by the community survey to determine what programming and space use is most urgent.
Rethinking: Resources
In 2017, the WCCW distributed more than $80,000 to marginalized people in need of emergency health care; we’re particularly interested in discovering more ways to (re)distribute material resources. In addition to continuing to meet urgent financial need, we also aim to make more people aware of existing opportunities for programming and artist grants and residencies, fiscal sponsorship, and the space itself. The community survey and your input will help us to cultivate a more multi-use, collaborative, and accountable space.
We invite Elysian Valley residents; feminist and social justice organizers; and women, nonbinary, and GNC creative practitioners in L.A to join us in this process!
Past Programming
Rethinking: Community
Wednesday, Sept 20, 2017 // 7-9pm
Join WCCW directors, new Programming & Outreach Coordinator Nicole, and the WCCW community at the first open meeting of the Rethinking: project! This month, we’re Rethinking: Community. Who is the WCCW for? Who would you like to see here? How do we create the community we imagine? Nicole will introduce our Rethinking: process, and community members will have a chance to provide feedback and share ideas about the future of the space.
Rethinking: Resources
Wednesday, Oct 18,2017 // 7-9pm
At the second open meeting of the Rethinking: project, join WCCW directors, Programming & Outreach Coordinator Nicole, and the WCCW community to talk about new approaches to resources: How is the WCCW already a resource? Where is there need, and how can we collaborate to meet those needs? Where does our funding come from and how do we distribute it? How can we share better, and redistribute more strategically? What is the value of our growing network? What resources are needed that we haven’t thought of yet? How else could we be supporting each other?
Come find out about grant opportunities & other resources that are already available, suggest new ways to use existing resources, including a more multi-use & collaborative workspace, and work towards a more collective future! Managing director Sarah Williams will present this year’s budget and answer questions, followed by an open discussion lead by Nicole.
Rethinking: Programming
Wednesday, Nov 15, 2017 // 7–9pm
Join WCCW directors, Programming & Outreach Coordinator Nicole, members of the new Programming Board, and the WCCW community at the final meeting of the Rethinking: project!
What programming would you like to see at WCCW next year? Join us at the next meeting of the Rethinking: project to weigh in on the existing programming model (including payment for event facilitators), suggest programs you would like to see, and hear from our programming board members about their plans for the next year.
The Programming Board includes Patricia Perez, Kenyatta AC Hinkle, Kora Colasuonno, and Ami Montevalli. An additional Board position is reserved for a WCCW member.