We believe that Rochester, NY should be a City FOR the Arts.

Our mission is to improve the social and emotional health of our community and grow Rochester’s creative economy by advocating for the following:

  • ROCHESTER NEEDS AN ARTS COMMISSIONER. A paid, integrated position in city government will help drive Rochester to one of the top 5 positions in the country as a national city of the arts.
  • ROCHESTER NEEDS TRANSPARENT, ACCESSIBLE, AND INCLUSIVE ARTS FUNDING. Funding streams need to be cultivated at the city, county, and state level to be channeled to artists, small groups, and small to mid-size orgs throughout the city, that better reflect the diversity and variety of our arts and culture offerings throughout the calendar year.
  • ROCHESTER NEEDS A COMPREHENSIVE SURVEY AND UNDERSTANDING OF THE CREATIVE ECONOMY. We want to expand public understanding of exactly what the creative economy is. A formal mapping of the creative economy and assets will demonstrate the power and range of arts and culture work in the Rochester region. With this comprehensive understanding we’ll be able to better determine what the overall economic impact of the creative economy is regionally; better inform the distribution of support and the impact of that support.
  • WE WILL MODEL INCLUSION AND DIVERSITY WITH TRANSPARENCY, HUMILITY AND ACCOUNTABILITY. It is important that we engage in activity that hold us aware of our positions, our privilege, and who the creative economy can best serve in the Rochester community. We hope that by modeling behavior that includes training on racial diversity, having interpreters and translators available at events, and increasing awareness of the diversity of communities in the area, that other organizations will do the same.

How we’re doing it:

We want to harness the energy and passion of our community towards accomplishing these goals. We’re looking to build a coalition throughout the “formal” Rochester Arts & Culture Community as well as reaching out to makers, crafters, creatives and performers who don’t necessarily identify as an Arts & Culture workers throughout the community and getting them together through informal meet-ups* and committee work. (*Bonus: creative people feed on interaction and learning about different materials, processes, and experiences. Just the act of getting everyone together may inspire something new!)

Our current committees that work with the Steering Committee:

  • Commissioner/Centralized Planning
  • Funding for the Arts
  • Assets & Facilities
  • Diversity & Inclusion
  • Communications & Strategy

Steering Committee

Albert Abonado
Jason Barber
Don Bartalo
Elizabeth Cameron
Bleu Cease
Kelly Cheatle
Amanda Chestnut
Shelancia Daniel
Quajay Donnell
Luticha Doucette
Hannah Lightbody
Taurus Savant
Mona Seghatoleslami
Thomas Warfield

How you can help:

We’ll have more coming soon, we promise! For now…

ONLINE SOCIAL MEDIA: Start tagging images of you at work, things you create, performances etc. on social media with the hashtag: #rocFORarts This may seem insignificant, but it will actually allow us to track the impact of not only our efforts, but your work!

LIKE EMAIL?: Sign up for totally not-annoying and useful emails. Find out when upcoming social meet-ups, open committee meetings, updates, and even calls for information/etc. We hate spam. It’s evil. We won’t do that to you, so it will probably only be once/month or so.

LIKE FACEBOOK? YOU CAN LIKE US ON FACEBOOK. We’ll be sharing some of the same information there, but sometimes interesting discussions can pop up.