Steve's Blog

Blogger Tram Nguyen offers some of her initial takeaways following the 2018 GIA Conference in Oakland, California:

Blogger Lara Davis reports on day one (Monday) at the GIA Conference in Oakland

Today’s post focuses primarily on young people and the arts, and artists, with a little bit of, well, everything that’s inspiring me.

GIA Conference blogger Lara Davis turns in her initial notes on the 2018 GIA Conference in Oakland, California.

When I walk the streets of downtown Oakland to attend various conference sessions, I think of Angela Davis who wrote about art on the frontlines, cultural organizing at the intersection of art and activism – people’s art as she deemed it, as exemplified by struggles for Black liberation which have always been steeped in musical, artistic, and cultural narratives.

GIA Conference Blogger Tram Nguyen reports from the preconference, Culture at the Intersection of Race, Space, and Place, that took place on Sunday, October 21, in Oakland, California.

GIA Conference blogger, Tram Nguyen reports from the conference, happening now in Oakland, California:

The preconference session on “Culture at the Intersection of Race, Space and Place” has my worlds colliding this Sunday morning in downtown Oakland.

Nia King interviews queer and trans artists of color about their lives and their work for her podcast We Want the Airwaves. In 2014, she self-published her first collection of interviews, Queer & Trans Artists of Color: Stories of Some of Our Lives, with co-editors Jessica Glennon-Zukoff and Terra Mikalson. She self-published Queer & Trans Artists of Color, Volume 2, edited by Elena Rose, in 2016. She is currently working on Queer & Trans Artists of Color, Volume 3. Nia’s freelance reporting and comics have appeared at Colorlines.com and the East Bay Express.

Tram Nguyen currently works as a management analyst leading housing and health equity policy at Alameda County Public Health Department. She was the executive editor of ColorLines magazine from 2001-2007, and has worked for racial equity through multiple initiatives, including authoring the book We Are All Suspects Now: Untold Stories from Immigrant Communities After 9/11 (Beacon, 2004). Tram holds a Masters in Public Policy from UC Berkeley’s Goldman School.

Lara Davis is an artist, arts administrator, and creative strategist working at the intersection of culture, public education, and social justice. She is the arts education manager for Seattle’s Office of Arts & Culture, and is part of the Visionary Justice StoryLab. Lara co-chairs A.R.E. (Artists for Racial Equity) Network, a National Guild for Community Arts Education network for artists and administrators of color and serves on the National Advisory Committee for the Teaching Artists Guild. She is a 2017-2018 Marshall Memorial Fellow, received the Guild’s 2017 Service Award, and is a 2015 recipient of the Americans for the Arts Emerging Leader Award.

Grantmakers in the Arts is pleased to have three bloggers covering the 2018 Conference in Oakland. Lara Davis (Seattle Office of Arts & Culture), Tram Nguyen (author, editor, and advocate for just and equitable policy), and Nia King (author, producer, cartoonist, podcaster, and public speaker), will be posting their comments and reactions beginning Sunday, October 21. We hope you enjoy their observations and that you join this conversation.

The Surdna Foundation has announced that Don Chen will serve as the new president of the foundation. Chen currently leads the Just Cities and Regions team at the Ford Foundation and has been with the foundation since 2008.