Navigating Systems of Power
A program offered by Vital Spaces designed to educate and empower artists, culture-bearers, and aspiring arts leaders of color to navigate systems of power across creative, cultural, and institutional contexts—particularly those shaped by structural inequity, exclusion, and harm by design.
Participants will gain strategies for engaging with organizational cultures, relationships, and decision-making structures within arts organizations, cultural institutions, public agencies, and other ecosystems. The series offers strategies for remaining grounded in one’s authentic voice and values; cultivating mutual respect and accountability; and communicating to reduce risk and increase agency. Its broader aim is to support leaders of color to feel seen, resourced, and confident as they navigate and influence these spaces with clarity and care.
This series is intended for individuals seeking community, advocacy and communication tools, and a deeper understanding of how power operates across systems—and how to engage those systems with integrity, imagination, and self-trust. Strict confidentiality will be honored by the presenters and expected of all participants.
Session 1: Relationships, Ceremony & Grounding
– Establishing a cohesive cohort via a series of listening and sharing exercises.
Session 2: Authentic Leadership
– Expanding participants’ capacity to respond to challenges via self-awareness.
Session 3: Code Switching and the Language of Systems
– Deconstructing the language of systems in the workplace that are designed to be exclusionary.
Session 4: Summary/Closing
– Goals and strategies for moving forward
The program is co-taught by Cristina González (Chicana) and Raashan Ahmad; artists, leaders and advocates for BIPOC communities.
Dates:
Session 1 – February 21, 2 – 4:30 PM
Session 2 – February 28, 2 – 4:30 PM
Session 3 – March 7, 2 – 4:30 PM
Session 4 – March 21, 12 – 2:30 PM
RSVP Here
