Emerging Arts Professionals: Emergence 2026

Emerging Arts Professionals is hosting their 2026 annual convening, Emergence in the Blackbox Theater.

June 1, 2026

Emergence—the annual convening of the EAP network—provides a collaborative platform for Bay Area arts & culture workers.

In its 15th year, Emergence convenes an intimate group of arts workers for interactive sessions, alliance-building, and wellness practices—creating space for the exchange of ideas and strategies for a more equitable and sustainable arts ecosystem.

Inspired by the current pulse of our network and EAP’s Cohort XV Fellowship focus— Cultural Equity— this year’s convening invites Arts & Culture workers and emergent leaders to share, reconnect, and activate our alliances and blueprints for wellness.

SESSION HIGHLIGHTS:

• State of the Arts Keynote: Julie Baker, CEO of CA for the Arts

• EAP Fellows Group Presentations: Cultural Equity, Arts & Capital, Creative City and Regenerative Practices

• Plenary Panel: Active Coalitions & Alliances in the Bay

• Breakout Sessions:

  • Create Your Life Blueprint: Personal Strategic Planning

  • Peer support for Arts Administrators: Navigating Budget Changes
  • Peer Support for Arts Workers on the Ground: Creative Solutions for Culture Bearers, Teaching artists, Artists Working in Communities
  • Alchemizing Grief: Expressing Grief Through Creative Practice
  • Dance Workshop: Embodying Alliances & Wellness

SCHEDULE:

9:30 – 10:00 Check-in & Breakfast

10:00 – 10:30 Opening Program: Keynote “State of the Arts”

10:30 – 11:30 Fellows Presentations: Arts & Capital,

11:30 – 11:40 BREAK

11:40 – 12:30 Breakout session 1

12:30 – 1:10 LUNCH

1:10 – 2:00 Breakout session 2

2:00 – 2:10 BREAK

2:10 – 2:40 Shout outs & Award

2:40 – 3:40 Plenary Panel: Active Coalitions & Alliances in the Bay

3:40 – 4:00 Closing, Fellows Commencement & Toast

About EAP

Emerging Arts Professionals (EAP) is a network of Bay Area arts workers advancing a more equitable, sustainable, and connected arts industry. We empower individuals through professional development, peer learning, and collective action while developing new models that shift systems of power in the field. Grounded in cultural equity and regenerative practice, we center marginalized voices, expand who is valued in the arts, and foster an industry that supports artists and arts workers as whole people.

Our end goal is an arts industry that is equitable for all people, is a valued and sustainable career sector, and honors the individual arts worker as a creative and whole person.

About Emergence

Emergence is the annual convening of the EAP network of arts & culture workers and provides a collaborative platform for the Bay Area workforce to connect, share ideas, and elevate their work and voices. EAP is committed to curating Emergence as a participatory experience that encourages deep connections and inquiries that are omnidirectional through generations, career levels, business models, and disciplines. Our goal is for you to leave with actionable next steps, as well as tangible tools and a strengthened network to support your work.

Covid Safety & Expectations

We are very excited to gather, but please stay home if you feel sick! We keep each other safe. We encourage but do not require participants to mask, to accommodate immunocompromised folks.