The Culture + Climate Exchange: Taking Action on Climate Change

Join the effort to make the cultural sector of California carbon-neutral by 2030!

October 23, 5:00-7:15PM PST
Cost: FREE

The Culture + Climate Exchange: Taking Action on Climate Change is a community Zoom event for community building, peer learning, and knowledge exchange related to climate change’s impact on arts and culture organizations, groups, and collectives.

This is an opportunity for the cultural sector to hear from peers on how they’re lowering their carbon footprint and learn about how artists are creating work and engaging in narrative change around climate issues.

Not sure where to start? This is a great entry point, especially for small to mid-sized frontline organizations serving communities of color, who are the most vulnerable and least resourced when it comes to climate change.

Learn from your peers and climate change experts, share your needs and thoughts around climate change, and get inspired and engaged so that you can begin to tackle the impacts of climate change, in small ways, for your organization, community, and business.

Programming includes:

Mingle at the Culture + Climate Cocktail Lounge
Learn how to make a climate-conscious cocktail/mocktail with mixologist Anne Marie Ceralvo.

Introduction to the Arts & Climate CA Project
Featuring Marcelle Hinand and Susan Misra of Arts & Climate CA and CEO Ken Ikeda of CAST

Cultural & Ancestral Practices in Climate Change with Denise Fairchild of Emerald Cities Collaborative and Sterling Cunio
Learn about the Ubuntu Climate Initiative, which weaves traditional, ancestral, and innovative African and pan-indigenous communal world views, values, and practices in the climate justice movement.

Cultural Communities in Dialogue with Favianna Rodriguez in conversation with The Women’s Building and The Cultural Conservancy
Hear about the work they’re doing to educate and build climate resiliency in their communities.

The Community Exchange
Meet others in your community engaging in this work. Share your story, thoughts, questions, and concerns regarding the impact of climate change on your community.

Come learn from your peers and exchange ideas on how we can lower our carbon footprint and build narrative change!

About the Speakers:

Favianna Rodriguez
Favianna Rodriguez is an interdisciplinary artist and social justice activist whose art and praxis addresses gender justice, climate change, racial equity, and migrant rights. Her work centers joy and healing, while challenging entrenched myths and dominant cultural practices. As President and co-founder of The Center for Cultural Power, she has played a pivotal role in shaping a cultural strategy ecosystem that uplifts BIPOC artists in the U.S.

Tania Estrada
Eexecutive Director of The Women’s Building Tania Estrada is a bilingual and multicultural nonprofit leader with extensive experience in expanding community based programs, increasing revenue, and developing cohesive and effective teams. Tania is passionate about women’s empowerment, gender equality, social justice and community work. Her work and leadership helps The Women’s Building address social injustices and challenges faced by women, especially immigrant women and their families.

Redbird Willie
Redbird Willie is a native ecologist, educator, and a Land Steward at The Cultural Conservancy. After graduating from UC Berkeley with a degree in Native Studies, Edward (Redbird) Willie has worked in various fields of education, while at the same time continuing to enrich his personal education – an education fueled by his desire to uncover and rekindle the cultural earth-based knowledge of California Indians. He teaches Traditional Ecological Knowledge, fire ecology, permaculture, and ancestral skills, to people of all ages. He has in recent years been a core organizer of the annual Buckeye Gathering, a gathering in support of ancestral arts. He has been an adjunct instructor for Weaving Earth, an organization dedicated to reconnecting humans to each other and to the Earth. Also an artist (drawing, painting, and sculpture), he has recently illustrated a children’s book, The Adventures of Two Coast Miwok Children.

Denise Fairchild
Denise Fairchild is president emeritus of Emerald Cities Collaborative and currently a ClimateBreakthrough 2021 Awardee, the largest individual award of its kind and only the second U.S. awardee to date. Her 3-year $3 million grant focuses on designing a cultural response to the root cause of climate change – unsustainable economic growth – production and consumption policies and systems.

Sterling Cunio
Sterling Cunio is the Ubuntu Climate Initiative Navigator for Emerald Cities Collaborative. Cunio is an award winning author, playwright and poet. He is also an Oregon Literary Arts Fellow, Pen America Arts for Social Justice Fellow, and a World Yes Jam Jammer whose work has been published in The Marshall Project, L.A. Book review and performed by various artists. Sterling sits on the board of Directors of Oregon’s Transformative Justice Community and acts as lead facilitator for Regroup, a support and empowerment network of Returning Citizens that played an instrumental role in abolishing the authorization of slavery from Oregon’s constitution. Sterling’s primary work is now with Ubuntu Climate Initiative, a global climate resilience movement focusing on Reuniting people and planet through joy, art and sustainability.

Ken Ikeda
CAST CEO Ken Ikeda has led a range of organizations, including BAVC Media, The Association of Independents in Radio, the International Documentary Association, Public Radio Capital, and Public Media Company. Organizations under Ikeda’s direction have leveraged private equity for nonprofit capital, managed loan funds, and navigated mergers and acquisitions to sustain and grow the reach of arts and media. Ikeda is also a co-founder of Oakland-based media strategy and production studio StudioToBe and co-authored the National Public Lightpath white paper as a blueprint for a public service internet for public media. He also co-architected the video streaming service, Vuhaus that is now NPR Live Sessions.

Marcelle Hinand
Marcy Hinand has over 30 years of experience in the nonprofit sector, serving as a grantmaker, consultant, and leader of multi-year initiatives for foundations such as Wallace, Ford, Knight, Rainin, and Rockefeller. She was the Arts Program Director at the Irvine Foundation and previously managed the Nonprofit Finance Fund’s first San Francisco office, overseeing grants and loans for cultural facilities. Marcy has conducted research and evaluations for organizations including the NEA and San Francisco Foundation and co-authored two books on cultural participation. As a consultant for 17 years, she has worked with clients like the Annenberg Foundation and Arts for LA, leading initiatives to create living-wage jobs in LA’s creative sector. She currently works as the Philanthropy & Nonprofit Consultant for Arts + Climate CA.

Susan Misra
Susan Misra is the founder of Aurora Commons and a well-known DEI consultant, managing grantee cohorts focused on systems change for the Ford and Packard Foundations, among others. She has worked with over 400 organizations to promote equity, sustainability, and strategic growth. A thought leader, Susan has written extensively on equitable systems change and shared leadership, with her recent article featured in the Stanford Social Innovation Review (January 2024). Previously, she was Co-Director of Change Elemental and held roles at TCC Group. Susan holds an MPP from Harvard’s Kennedy School and a B.S. in Psychology from Lewis & Clark College.

Adriana Griñó
Adriana Griñó is a Bay Area arts and culture consultant. Most recently, she served as the Arts Program Officer at the Kenneth Rainin Foundation, where she worked on grantmaking and new initiatives. Adriana has held leadership roles, including co-chairing the Arts Loan Fund at Northern California Grantmakers and serving on the City of Oakland’s Funding Advisory Committee. A former fellow of Justice Funders’ Harmony Initiative, she also managed curatorial programs at Galería de la Raza. Adriana holds a BA in Art History and Archaeology from Tufts University.

Questions?
Contact Tyese Wortham, CAST Director of Community Engagement

Presented by the Arts & Climate CA: San Francisco Bay Area Project Team and Partners, Community Arts Stabilization Trust, Emerald Cities Collaborative, The Center for Cultural Power, SPUR, Stanford ARTS