We made it to the end of 2020! (What a year to start an arts organization, amiright?)
As you might imagine, we put on hold many of the things that we had hoped to accomplish in our first year. Despite the setbacks, we accomplished *so much* in laying the groundwork for the play, practice and shenanigans that will happen in our future. At this point, you may be asking yourself what the heck we've been up to over the course of the past year. Well, here's a small snippet of it!
Below you'll find a summary of what each of our current committees have been working on in the past couple of months. We'd love to hear what you're excited about and what you'd like to see more of! If there's a committee or project you'd like to participate in, let us know!
And keep your eyes peeled for a community Town Hall this winter, where we'll be sharing our vision and what we've created so far, and seeking co-collaborators to build on those dreams and make them a reality.
Program Committee
The official birth of our Program Committee is just around the corner! Although Spin Jam and FlowShop were adopted as Seattle Flow Arts Collective programs earlier this year (go to our calendar page for information on the wheres and whens) the plans we had for starting new programs in 2020 went out the window with COVID. As vaccinations begin to roll out, we’re ready to turn our eyes toward the future!
Keeping our core value of Inclusivity at the forefront of our minds, we’re beginning to formulate plans for sharing and teaching flow arts to members of communities that haven’t historically been represented within this art form, including people of color, youth, and older adults. Part of this planning is exploring parks and other public spaces that are already connected with those communities to make our art accessible and inviting to a more diverse group of people.
Do you have community outreach experience or connections to community-based organizations in Seattle that we might want to work with? Are you an experienced teacher or facilitator, or do you have experience working with youth or seniors? Get involved with SFAC’s programs by filling out our volunteer interest form or by emailing Arlene@SeattleFlowArts.Org!
Fire Committee
Community Fire Jams
Hands-On Fire Safety Course
NFPA 160 Chapter 14 "Fire Performers"
Marketing Committee
The Marketing Committee's main focus right now is social media! We're in the middle of promoting our end of year Giving Campaign and cooking up some fun ideas to continue to build virtual community in the coming months.
We're especially excited about having a blog on the new website, and are dreaming up fun things to write about. Do you have a topic you’d like to hear about? Would you like to be a guest writer for the blog? Let us know!
If you have ideas for fun ways to connect using social media, have interest in flexing or strengthening your graphic design or writing skills, or have an interesting idea for our blog, please reach out to Arlene Smith directly at Arlene@SeattleFlowarts.Org!
Finance / Development Committee
The finance committee is poring over this year’s numbers to create the budget for 2021, to be approved by the Board of Directors in January. Given the uncertainty about how 2021 will play out, developing budgets is even more challenging than usual!
While we don’t know what programs will be possible next year, we have already started two projects that will bring flexibility and sustainability to the SFAC budget: direct contributions from donors, and grants from the city and other entities. We are seeking volunteers who can help with grant writing. Please email Kat@SeattleFlowArts.Org if you want to help out!
Governance Committee
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Strategic Planning
As an arts nonprofit, Seattle Flow Arts Collective has the privilege and responsibility to develop and implement a long-term strategic plan to help us realize our mission of spreading the flow. The strategic planning process is how we reconcile our wildest flow arts hopes and dreams (a studio space? paid staff? a prop library? teaching in schools? a gala show?) with the realities of budgets, staff, logistics, planning, and goals. The outcome for this project is a multi-year Strategic Plan document that we use to guide our day-to-day decision-making and program development.
Due to the importance and long-term consequences of the strategic planning process, we want to ensure that a diverse set of voices is represented in the process. Currently, we are forming a strategic plan working group with the goal of starting the work in early 2021. If you'd like to participate in strategic planning, please reach out to BJ@SeattleFlowArts.Org.