Office for Public Art and Springboard for the Arts present Artists Working in Community

Pittsburgh, PA — The Office for Public Art (OPA) is pleased to announce the return of its Winter Intensive training series for artists and arts administrators. Artists Working in Community is a three-part, bi-weekly series led by Springboard for the Arts’ Community Development Director Ricardo Beaird, and Community Development Program Manager Amanda Cortés.

Using Springboard for the Arts’ Handbook for Artists Working in Community as a guide, Beaird and Cortés will push artists to think about their own passions and goals when it comes to working with communities in the public realm. Honoring the handbook’s open definitions of public art and artist, this series will demonstrate how artists can facilitate community-led projects, share best practices for community engaged work, and develop their collaboration skills.

“The Handbook for Artists Working in Community is a great tool for helping creative individuals find their place in community-based work,” said Rachel Klipa, OPA’s program manager for Education and Outreach. “Springboard has done an excellent job of developing a resource that assists artists in self-reflection and evaluation to find the most effective community engagement methods that align with their artistic practices. We are thrilled to have them sharing their expertise and insights with our audiences through this three session workshop.”

Registration

Artists Working in Community will take place online via Zoom from 4:00 – 6:00 PM EST on Thursdays, January 26, February 9, and February 23, 2023. Registration is $45 (includes a hard copy of the book Handbook for Artists Working in Communities) or $30 ( includes PDF download) for the three-part series. No individual sessions may be purchased for this series as each session will be building upon information from the previous session. Registration information can be found here: https://opapgh.org/event/artists-working-in-community/. These sessions will not be recorded and shared with registrants; please plan to attend accordingly.

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Ricardo Beaird, Community Development Director

Ricardo Beaird is a theater maker, teaching artist, and cheese curd enthusiast originally from Nashville, Tennessee. Their recent work is informed by the unfinished business of ghosts, dis/connection through the internet, and sometimes Beyoncé. In addition to performing with Pangea World Theater, Park Square Theatre, Red Eye Theater and Ten Thousand Things Theater, Beaird is a Core Artist with Full Circle Theatre, advisory council member with the queer-led theater collective Lightning Rod, and an Artist Council member for the 2021 and 2022 Northern Spark Arts Festival. Ricardo brings deep experience in collective visioning, workshop facilitation, and community organizing. Currently at Springboard for the Arts, Ricardo supports and co-facilitates the Creative Community Leadership Institute, a cohort-based learning space for artists, culture bearers, community organizers, and other leaders who want to deepen their impact through creative community building.

Amanda Cortés, Community Development Program Manager

Amanda works at the intersection of racial justice, grassroots community development, art, and culture. She is the proud daughter of Mexican immigrants and draws inspiration from her upbringing in working class, Latinx communities on Chicago’s southwest side. Her practice includes cultural organizing, civic engagement, artist career coaching, and audio storytelling. Amanda’s independent work explores alternative models for community-owned real estate property with the Pilsen Housing Cooperative, a limited equity co-op for artists and working families on Chicago’s Lower West Side. Amanda is a board member of the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council in the Twin Cities Metro, and is a member of the Chicago ACT Collective. In her work at Springboard for the Arts, Amanda supports logistics for the Creative Community Leadership Institute, a cohort- based learning space that serves Minnesota, South Dakota and North Dakota artists, and Art-Train, a virtual technical assistance training for artists and staff at government agencies, community non-profits and arts councils.

About Springboard for the Arts

Springboard for the Arts’ mission is to support artists with the tools to make a living and a life, and to build just and equitable communities full of meaning, joy, and connection. Founded as an independent nonprofit in 1991, Springboard for the Arts has an innovative 30-year history of supporting artists making a living and a life and artist-led community development work.