Advancing Arts Forward’s strategic planning training is back in full force this 2021 with a 3-part series held virtually this March at Mayday Space.

AAF’s Strategic Planning Institute aims to cultivate visionaries who are creating transformative projects and plans for themselves and their communities. Participants will be asked to focus on either a) a plan for themselves or b) a plan for a project they will be creating (or revitalizing).

This series is for those who want to create and follow through with a plan for a new (or transforming) organization, collective, initiative, movement, practice or project. This series is also for those who want to create and follow through with a plan for their life path, work/career, learning investments, next steps, and overall personal and community goals.

Participants will be guided through scaffolded exercises that create a foundation for their plan of action. These include reclaimed concepts of mission, vision, and values; SWOT analysis; social location; transformative justice; creating a strategic plan; and identifying accountability partners. After completion of the institute, participants will have the option to join AAF’s new Network of Visionaries, which provides support to those who are envisioning and producing a new world.

Advancing Arts Forward’s Strategic Planning Institute
Part I - Sunday, March 7, 3-5 PM ET - Setting the Foundation with Your Mission, Vision & Values
Part II - Sunday, March 14, 3-5 PM ET - Identifying Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities & Threats
Part III - Sunday, March 21, 3-5 PM ET - Creating Your Strategic Plan & Accountability Partners

As an artist, activist, arts leader, entrepreneur or beyond you will be offered various strategies for development to create your strategic plan for yourself or your next big project alongside others like you. You will leave this workshop with a personalized plan to take forth into your life journey. This will be a decolonized and liberated space.

Participant Feedback
“It was nice to hear other people speak and it made what can be felt at times as siloed work into community based intentions.”

"The specificity of the exercises allowed me to quickly, deeply access areas I needed to focus on and consider. I was able to identify areas where I was stuck, areas where I'm weak and areas of strength. I came out of it with a blueprint for actionable steps. It was the catalyst I needed!"

"The Social Identity exercise regrounded me in realizing the privilege that I do have and how that can be a superpower moving ahead in this \\\[activist\\\] work."

“The worksheet and the break-out session helped clarify things and the sample worksheet itemizing \\\[my\\\] goals, vision and steps is very helpful for me to put my dreams into action.”

"This session has helped me hone in on my mission and goals giving myself solid deadlines for achieving each goal. I'm so grateful to have worked through this in the environment I did and with people surrounding me who have similar values. What a great place to share my project while also digging deep into how to move forward with it."

Facilitator Bios
Advancing Arts Forward is a movement to advance equity, inclusion and justice through the arts by creating liberated spaces that uplift, heal, and encourage us to change the world. We are cultivating anti-racist futures, afro-indigenous futures, melanated futures, gender queer futures, non-binary futures, multicultural futures, disabled futures, fat futures, decolonized futures, non-english futures, anti-oppressive futures, and so, so much more. We value abundance over scarcity and collective liberation. We are here for Black liberation and Indigenous sovereignty.

The institute’s lead facilitator, Yura Sapi (Viviana Vargas Salvatierra) is the founder of Advancing Arts Forward and BALISTIKAL, an LGBTIQ+ healing and arts space serving community in so-called Latin America based out of Bogotá, Colombia. Yura Sapi is a Native (Kichwa) and White non-binary Colombian, Ecuadorian and U.S. American artist, activist, healer, facilitator, educator, and arts manager working at the intersection of the arts, social justice and healing. They hold a BFA in Theatre Arts from Boston University and an MFA in Performing Arts Management from CUNY Brooklyn College; however, they value even more their education from the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Insitute’s Innovative Cultural Advocacy Fellowship Cycle IV and artEquity’s 2018 National Facilitator Training. Yura Sapi actively considers their role in the fight for liberation beyond the U.S. borders thinking specifically about anti-racism, decolonization, disability justice, and collective liberation. They are a member of the Latinx Theatre Commons steering committee and are co-championing a 2023 summit on celebrating Blackness and combating colorism within the Latinx community. They are an ASL and Kichwa language student learning from the Sign Language Center NYC and Paulina (Pacha) Santillan of Cotacachi, Imbabura. Yura Sapi is also currently developing restorative/transformative justice based processes to repair relations affected by racism and white supremacy with the BU SOT Anti-Racist Student Initiative (SARSI). They teach Managing in Arts Environments at CUNY Baruch College.

Co-facilitator, Christiamilda Correa is an impact strategist with a passion for entertainment, media and education. She is an award winning and seasoned event marketer, fundraiser and professional actress. With over a decade of experience in the corporate and non-profit sectors, she has conceptualized, directed and promoted clients for over 250 high profile celebrity parties, intimate dinners, brand launches, gala receptions, community convenings, and signature programs in the NYC metro area, the Hamptons and Houston, TX. Most recently, she consulted for a virtual prom with a cause in response to COVID-19 produced by 4AM Entertainment and iHeartMedia. Christiamilda is invested in improving equity, access, and economic mobility for all, especially the next generation of leaders. She is a Founder of The Movement Theatre Company (TMTC) and has supported hundreds of emerging artists’ new works across the East Coast. Christie serves as the inaugural Co-President of NYU Latinx Alumni Network, VECINOS ERG Leadership Council, Latinx Theater Commons Advisory Board Member, McNair Academic H.S. Alumni Association and is an alumna of the National Association of Latino Arts & Cultures (NALAC) Leadership Institute. She is the recipient of the Prospanica New York Top Latinx Leader of 2020. Christie is a first-generation college graduate of NYU Tisch School of the Arts (B.F.A. Drama).

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Exchange & Participation
$150 per participant for access to the three-part series.
Sliding scale rates ($100 + $50) available for Black, Native, Asian and other melanated creators of color who require this scholarship to participate.
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The interactive exercises and feedback offered to each participant are best received through live video sessions. However, we’re in multiple pandemics (!) and parts of each session will be recorded for those who experience emergencies and cannot attend synchronously. We will respect confidentiality of participants on recording/not recording during breakout or shareback moments.