Creative Change Coalition, Community of Practice: Vision & Strategy: Artists in Advocacy

Artists and culture bearers can be powerful allies in advocating for policy change, movement building, and other economic and social justice efforts. How can we build equitable and reciprocal relationships that support artists to bring their skills to the work of advocating for more just and joyful communities? Join us to hear from leading organizations who are working with artists to build narratives, communicate policy impacts, and mobilize community members.

At the end of the session, for participants interested in continuing to connect with colleagues across the country, we will host an optional Open Hangout time.

Guest Presenters:

Sikowis Nobiss (she/her), Executive Director of Great Plains Action Society. Sikowis Nobiss is Nehiyaw/Saulteaux of the George Gordon First Nation in Saskatchewan, Canada and grew up in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada and now lives in Iowa City, Iowa. She is the founder and Executive Director of Great Plains Action Society, a grassroots and fully Indigenous-led organization working throughout so-called Iowa, so-called Nebraska and the Great Plains. Sikowis started her journey fighting for Indigenous rights when she was 19 working at the New Brunswick Aboriginal Peoples Council in Fredericton, NB, Canada during the Burnt Church Rebellion. She has a Masters Degree in Religious Studies and Graduate Minor in Native Studies from the University of Iowa. She is also a speaker, writer, and artist and believes that environmental and social justice work are inextricably linked and change will only happen when we dismantle corrupt colonial-capitalist systems and rebuild them with a decolonized worldview. She fights for a better future for her two children.

Sage Crump, Director of Racial Justice and Movement Building at National Performance Network. Sage Crump is a culture strategist, coach, artist and movement facilitator who expands and deepens the relationship between the cultural sector and social justice organizing. She is a Black Queer Socialist Feminist based in New Orleans but working nationally, she believes in leveraging art, creative practice, and the cultural sector to transform systemic oppressions Sage is a member of Complex Movements, a Detroit-based artist collective whose interdisciplinary work supports local and translocal visionary organizing. She is principal and co-founder of The Kinfolks Effect (TKE) with artist muthi reed. TKE is an incubation space for multimedia interdisciplinary artwork that examines the movement of Blackness through time and space. She has recently completed a 10 year initiative on the development of liberatory infrastructure and is Director of racial justice and movement building at the National Performance Network. She is a member of the Guild of Future Architects, Women of Color in the Arts, and a board member with the Center for Cultural Innovation, Art2Action and Mark-n-Sparks. Sage’s work incorporates complex sciences, emergent strategy and creative practice to deepen our analysis, imagine the world we want to live in and build strategies and practices that will get us there.

Nicole Kang, Creative Communications Manager at Asian American Advocacy Fund. Nicole Kang Ahn is a working artist and advocate in Atlanta, GA. She is a painter, a muralist, and children's book illustrator whose art touches on her Korean heritage and themes of grief, love, and hope. Nicole has worked closely with a number of Atlanta's grassroots organizations on a variety of campaigns and events supporting Asian American communities. Most recently, Nicole had her debut solo art exhibit called "Worth the Weight." Nicole's role at the Asian American Advocacy Fund combines her interest and her passions as she aims to uplift and empower Asian Americans and local creatives in the South.