WHO WE ARE
MISSION
To examine the social and economic landscape of our city. Using the arts as a means to analyze structural racism and poverty, we strive to build community through lifting up stories of people-power, solidarity, and social change.
VISION
To examine the social and economic landscape of our city. Using the arts as a means to analyze structural racism and poverty, we strive to build community through lifting up stories of people-power, solidarity, and social change.
VALUES
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Art as Activism. Using art as a means of examining racism, poverty, and inequity in St. Louis, fostering hope and solidarity to strengthen community bonds.
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Accessibility. Site-specific community-engaged art by and for St. Louis. We're creating space for everyone.
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Innovative Producing Model. We're divesting from old structures that do not work and building a new and imaginative producing model that is intensional, restorative, and community-based.
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Process Over Product. We're putting process over product in all producing and creative work.
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Continuing the Work. Whenever possible, we'll use our art and our organization to further the mission of local organizers, activists, and organizations within the St. Louis social and economic justice movement.
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Uplifting the Work. Amplifying local legacy of resistance, organizing, social change, witnessing community elders, working with historians, and current members of the movement.
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Community Building. We're forming a coalition of multidisciplinary artists dedicated to using their talents for social change, including visual artists, musicians, writers, and theatre professionals.
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Fair Compensation. Artists are an essential contribution to the economy and the betterment of society. Therefore, all artists, collaborators, and consultants will be fairly compensated and credited for their contributions to the play and to the Action Art Collaborative.
OUR NAME
The Action Art Collaborative's name is a nod to our first project, our new play Action, named after Percy Green's organization 'Action Committee to Improve Opportunities for Negroes'. The central question of this collaborative is "How do we increase our awareness without losing hope?"
As artists, we know that the stories we tell have a direct impact on the culture of our city. We use community art to facilitate opportunities for people to act on their core values, and in doing so, build hope within and around them. The five of us are dedicated to building new spaces and producing more projects of this nature, but we have assembled first and foremost to do justice to this play.
The central question of the play was "how do we maintain hope in times of despair?". We live in a time when the forces of greed and hate are very powerful, and in St. Louis, very visible. The characters in our play answer this question through their actions. Perhaps acting on one's core values, striving for justice and peace, is an anecdote to despair.
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