Securing Community Benefits at the Henry J. Kaiser Center for the Arts

On June 25th, CA for the Arts hosted the culminating event of our inaugural Grassroots Artist Advocacy Program in San Francisco. ⁠ ⁠ Over the past nine months, five inspiring artist-advocates from Oakland and San Francisco have been developing Artist Advocacy Plans rooted in their creative practice, community knowledge, and visions for systemic change.⁠⁠ Each fellow presented their plans to implement real change benefiting artists and culture bearers across the Bay Area’s cultural landscape.⁠

GAAP is a first-of-its-kind fellowship program designed to equip artists with the tools to advocate for just and equitable policies in their communities. This pilot cohort was made possible through generous support from the Kenneth Rainin Foundation.⁠

J. K. Fowler is the current Executive Director of the Bay Area Book Festival, Policy Analyst and Special Programs/Community Outreach with BAMBD, CDC, and Operations Support for APEN and APEN Action. 

Previously, he founded and ran Nomadic Press, a community-rooted publishing house headquartered in Oakland and sat on Oakland's Cultural Affairs Commission, during which time he helped launch the Oakland Poet Laureate Program. 

He is currently most interested in the intersections of civic bodies, private development, arts organizations, and community benefits agreements that can help to ensure artist and arts organization retention in the cities that they love and support.