An Artist and a Muise: for me and MAMAS
Donation protected
Hello!
My name is Jess Muise and I am an artist, educator, arts advocate and community builder living in Somerville, MA. I am raising funds to cover tuition and travel for the Executive Program in Arts & Culture Strategy at The
University of Pennsylvania I completed in 2019.
Twenty percent (20%) of the funds I raise through this platform (plus anything raised above my goal) will be donated to MAMAS: Mutual Aid Medford and Somerville to help people in my community get through the COVID-19 crisis. Part of being in community with others is asking for help, and giving back when we have more than enough.
Thank you so much for your support of me and the community in which I live.
Links
About Me
About MAMAS
About the Executive Program in Arts & Culture Strategy
About Me
I am passionate about helping people make the world they imagine through transformative experiences in creative community. I have always been drawn to creation as pedagogy which, as an act of transformation, helps us better understand ourselves and each other. I believe this understanding is critical to building our capacity to care for our communities and our planet. In addition to working and volunteering for arts communities for the last decade, I am a master gardener, permaculturalist, and systems thinker. My most recent work includes supporting a community of vibrant artists and craftspeople at The Umbrella Arts Center and the Artisan’s Asylum, curating public art and residency programs at the intersection of the arts & environment, and exploring embodiment practices for radical welcome and belonging. You can learn more about my work at my website.
About The Executive Program in Arts & Culture Strategy
The Executive Program in Arts & Culture Strategy is an actionable, skills-based curriculum for working early to mid-career professionals offered by National Arts Strategies (NAS) through The University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy & Practice. NAS builds and supports a diverse community of cultural leaders who drive inspiring change for the future. In addition to a year of engaging coursework in strategy, fundraising, financial management, governance, and marketing, our cohort came together for two in-person gatherings to transfer knowledge, learn alongside one another, and expand our network.
Photo caption: The 2019 Executive Program in Arts & Culture Strategy Cohort at our gathering March 2019.
What I have been able to do because of this program
This investment in my skills and experience has confirmed my commitment to serving the people and communities I care about - artists, craftspeople, and the creative in all of us. Because of this program I was able to immediately apply new skills and experiences to my work in the arts. I have included a video project I did for class as well as an interview with the new podcast Arts & Emergency , covering some of the examples of program innovation I was able to help implement at The Umbrella Arts Center.
This program has also helped me take the next steps in my career. I recently accepted a new position as the Creative Economy Program Administrator for the New England Foundation for the Arts starting in August 2020. I am thrilled to share these new skills in service of the broader ecosystem of arts and culture in the region and beyond.
I continue to meet with members of my NAS cohort regularly and participate in various NAS programs that continue to support my professional development and personal growth.
Photo caption: Me shaking NAS Staff Royce Hodnett, with NAS Staff Deryn Dudley at the podium.
Photo caption: Me with UPenn professor Peter Frumkin.
Breakdown of Costs
I am grateful to have secured a partial scholarship to attend this program through National Arts Strategies. Costs above and beyond the scholarship amount I am paying out of pocket (on a credit card), and I have not yet been able to afford those payments. My employer was not able afford covering costs of this program.
Tuition: $5,950
Travel, Accommodation & Food: $1,250
Subtotal Program Costs: $7,200
Less Scholarship: - $1,000
Total Costs: $6,200
Fundraising Goal: $1,000
Giving Back
20% of the total funds raised here, and anything above my fundraising goal, will be donated to MAMAS: Mutual Aid Medford and Somerville. https://mutualaidmamas.com/
If I meet my goal, I will be able to donate $1,240 to people in my community. Additionally, anything I raise above my goal of $6200 will be donated to MAMAS. Somerville has been my home for the last 7 years, and happens to be where my grandparents met and fell in love (bowling at Saco’s!). Mutual aid networks are a powerful way for neighbors to connect with each other and build relationships of support on a variety of levels, and I believe in the power of our communities to grow with each other through this crisis.
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR SUPPORT!
About MAMAS
From their website: "In these fast moving and uncertain times, it’s important that we show up for each other and remember that we are not alone. This mutual aid network has formed out of the COVID 19 crisis, but we come from and honor a long history of mutual aid organizing that looks different in different places and at different moments. We believe:
Everyone has something to offer and everyone has things that they need. No one knows everything but together we know a lot. Needing things is not a personal failure - we are living in a profoundly unequal society without safety nets. This is not our fault but we believe in taking collective responsibility for getting everyone through times of crisis. Every person deserves dignity and stability in their lives. No matter why someone is reaching out, we do our best to support them. All flourishing is mutual: individual well-being is collective well-being.
This is an experiment, and we are flexible: learning from our mistakes, redesigning our systems as we go, and building our muscles of decentralized organizing. We remain committed to each other, even when we mess up.
We have to trust in and fight for people we don’t know. This kind of work moves at the speed of trust (a learning from the Movement for Black Lives) and we choose to slow down, through urgency, in order to build trust and maintain accountability to each other and our network.
Mutual aid will only get us so far- we are in solidarity with organizers making large-scale demands of our community and our politicians for an equitable world. We are just one community in a long history of mutual aid committed to collective surviving and thriving."
---
Project & Outcome examples:
Class project video pitch
Art & Emergency Podcast Interview
Thanks to cohort members Robin Gordon and RJ Thompson for inviting me to this conversation!
My name is Jess Muise and I am an artist, educator, arts advocate and community builder living in Somerville, MA. I am raising funds to cover tuition and travel for the Executive Program in Arts & Culture Strategy at The
University of Pennsylvania I completed in 2019.
Twenty percent (20%) of the funds I raise through this platform (plus anything raised above my goal) will be donated to MAMAS: Mutual Aid Medford and Somerville to help people in my community get through the COVID-19 crisis. Part of being in community with others is asking for help, and giving back when we have more than enough.
Thank you so much for your support of me and the community in which I live.
Links
About Me
About MAMAS
About the Executive Program in Arts & Culture Strategy
About Me
I am passionate about helping people make the world they imagine through transformative experiences in creative community. I have always been drawn to creation as pedagogy which, as an act of transformation, helps us better understand ourselves and each other. I believe this understanding is critical to building our capacity to care for our communities and our planet. In addition to working and volunteering for arts communities for the last decade, I am a master gardener, permaculturalist, and systems thinker. My most recent work includes supporting a community of vibrant artists and craftspeople at The Umbrella Arts Center and the Artisan’s Asylum, curating public art and residency programs at the intersection of the arts & environment, and exploring embodiment practices for radical welcome and belonging. You can learn more about my work at my website.
About The Executive Program in Arts & Culture Strategy
The Executive Program in Arts & Culture Strategy is an actionable, skills-based curriculum for working early to mid-career professionals offered by National Arts Strategies (NAS) through The University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy & Practice. NAS builds and supports a diverse community of cultural leaders who drive inspiring change for the future. In addition to a year of engaging coursework in strategy, fundraising, financial management, governance, and marketing, our cohort came together for two in-person gatherings to transfer knowledge, learn alongside one another, and expand our network.
Photo caption: The 2019 Executive Program in Arts & Culture Strategy Cohort at our gathering March 2019. What I have been able to do because of this program
This investment in my skills and experience has confirmed my commitment to serving the people and communities I care about - artists, craftspeople, and the creative in all of us. Because of this program I was able to immediately apply new skills and experiences to my work in the arts. I have included a video project I did for class as well as an interview with the new podcast Arts & Emergency , covering some of the examples of program innovation I was able to help implement at The Umbrella Arts Center.
This program has also helped me take the next steps in my career. I recently accepted a new position as the Creative Economy Program Administrator for the New England Foundation for the Arts starting in August 2020. I am thrilled to share these new skills in service of the broader ecosystem of arts and culture in the region and beyond.
I continue to meet with members of my NAS cohort regularly and participate in various NAS programs that continue to support my professional development and personal growth.
Photo caption: Me shaking NAS Staff Royce Hodnett, with NAS Staff Deryn Dudley at the podium.Photo caption: Me with UPenn professor Peter Frumkin.Breakdown of Costs
I am grateful to have secured a partial scholarship to attend this program through National Arts Strategies. Costs above and beyond the scholarship amount I am paying out of pocket (on a credit card), and I have not yet been able to afford those payments. My employer was not able afford covering costs of this program.
Tuition: $5,950
Travel, Accommodation & Food: $1,250
Subtotal Program Costs: $7,200
Less Scholarship: - $1,000
Total Costs: $6,200
Fundraising Goal: $1,000
Giving Back
20% of the total funds raised here, and anything above my fundraising goal, will be donated to MAMAS: Mutual Aid Medford and Somerville. https://mutualaidmamas.com/
If I meet my goal, I will be able to donate $1,240 to people in my community. Additionally, anything I raise above my goal of $6200 will be donated to MAMAS. Somerville has been my home for the last 7 years, and happens to be where my grandparents met and fell in love (bowling at Saco’s!). Mutual aid networks are a powerful way for neighbors to connect with each other and build relationships of support on a variety of levels, and I believe in the power of our communities to grow with each other through this crisis.
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR SUPPORT!
About MAMAS
From their website: "In these fast moving and uncertain times, it’s important that we show up for each other and remember that we are not alone. This mutual aid network has formed out of the COVID 19 crisis, but we come from and honor a long history of mutual aid organizing that looks different in different places and at different moments. We believe:
Everyone has something to offer and everyone has things that they need. No one knows everything but together we know a lot. Needing things is not a personal failure - we are living in a profoundly unequal society without safety nets. This is not our fault but we believe in taking collective responsibility for getting everyone through times of crisis. Every person deserves dignity and stability in their lives. No matter why someone is reaching out, we do our best to support them. All flourishing is mutual: individual well-being is collective well-being.
This is an experiment, and we are flexible: learning from our mistakes, redesigning our systems as we go, and building our muscles of decentralized organizing. We remain committed to each other, even when we mess up.
We have to trust in and fight for people we don’t know. This kind of work moves at the speed of trust (a learning from the Movement for Black Lives) and we choose to slow down, through urgency, in order to build trust and maintain accountability to each other and our network.
Mutual aid will only get us so far- we are in solidarity with organizers making large-scale demands of our community and our politicians for an equitable world. We are just one community in a long history of mutual aid committed to collective surviving and thriving."
---
Project & Outcome examples:
Class project video pitch
Art & Emergency Podcast Interview
Thanks to cohort members Robin Gordon and RJ Thompson for inviting me to this conversation!
Organizer
Jessica Muise
Organizer
Somerville, MA
