COMMUNITY

CARLY LAKE creates artwork inspired by and intimately connected to the natural environment where she lives. She says, “Growing up in Southern California, I felt a lack of understanding of and connection to the nature around me. That longing and a drive to create led me to practices like natural dyeing – one of the tangible ways I connect to the landscape and enter into community with others who care deeply for the wellbeing of our environment.”

PHILLIP T. NAILS is co-founder of Typewriters Anonymous, a band of typewriter and performance poets, musicians, and artists who bring analog vintage spectacle to special events. Additionally, they produce workshops and performances that cultivate community, collaboration, and creativity. Phillip says, “We want to strengthen our communities and our own wellbeing through poetry and healing-centered practices. We want to make things we cannot yet imagine.“

VIRGINIA BROERSMA and CORRINA PEIPON took some time out of their busy art and advocacy careers to introduce STUDIO LOAN, a joint project from The Artist's Contract and Contemporary Art League that helps artists in the Los Angeles area to lend and borrow studio spaces. Not only do we hope to raise awareness of this program locally, we hope that folks in other cities will consider bringing the program to your community!

JANUARY ARTS is a support network for the art community. The Los Angeles nonprofit was founded by KRISTINE SCHOMAKER in 2024 and represents the latest effort by the artist to create space for community and career growth outside of the competitive commercial marketplace. Kristine believes that “When you realize you aren’t alone, or that you don’t have to be alone, opportunities open up.”

TRICIA CREASON-VALENCIA is a storyteller and an activist. She uses every tool in her kit, from motivational speaking to documentary filmmaking to education, to share her story and the stories of those around her. She also actively works to support others and create structures for learning and creative expression. She co-founded PowerHouse in San Jose for women+ entrepreneurs to grow their businesses in community.

Behind the Curtain: Navigating the Art World is a new professional development membership program for art professionals. It’s a project of RAY BELDNER’s Startup Curatorial, which grew out of the Startup Art Fair that Ray co-founded in 2015 (and which is how we met!). Like Rhizomatic Arts, Behind the Curtain and Startup Curatorial are helping artists find the resources, skills, and community that are essential to a sustainable career.

Remainders Creative Reuse, a 6000 square foot arts and crafts thrift store in Pasadena, diverts materials from landfills while providing inexpensive supplies and inspiration to artists of all ages and experience levels. They also host classes and other programs, curated by Rhizomatic Arts community member TOBAN NICHOLS, who says, “My art practice feeds into my work at Remainders and vice versa… It’s the mix I’ve always dreamed of, and the freedom I hoped I would someday have.”

The Contemporary Art League was co-founded by Los Angeles artists who believe that, together, we have the power to change the material conditions for artists and arts workers. “We want our community of art workers to be able to live dignified lives with a commitment to creating and caring for visual culture, and we want that for ourselves, too.” Read on to learn about their vision for a “cooperative trade organization” for L.A. County artists, and how to get involved!

When I met Santa Fe-based ERIN ELDER, I immediately recognized a professional soul mate. She takes a personal, therapeutic approach to supporting artists in their careers over weeks, months, or even years.

Created by artists SUSAN SCHWARTZ and VIRGINIA BROERSMA, the FARE Contract is a free, artist-centered sales agreement that advocates for elevating the rights of artists when their work is sold. “We believe that by empowering artists… we can embed a sense that asking for and negotiating your rights is something any artist can and should do.”

SHAINA LYNN SIMMONS is an actress, performance artist, and creative producer, healer, and author. She says, “At the interstice of activism and artistic praxis, my work seeks to heal the past, tend to the present, and reimagine the future of the diaspora […] as an organic archaeology to elevate Black stories.”

TATIANA VAHAN’s art projects, which include the Los Angeles Artist Census and the bar-fund, function as community-based activism through projects “organized on the principles of direct action, cooperation, and self-determined power by artists.”

KATRINA FRYE is keeping a close eye on the economic conditions that artists must work in, and common pitfalls that make it harder for all of us to do well. She says: “If we aren't careful we will suffer if more people offer below market rates for sub par work. I am working alongside younger people right now to educate them on their market value.”

VIRGINIA BROERSMA is a fine artist who puts her administrative and organizational skills to work for others. She says, “I want to contribute to shaping the art world/community/market that I want to participate in. This world would offer opportunities to a wider swath of people, would support art and art makers as essential pieces of our society, and would make artists feel valued and less desperate.”

KAI HAZELWOOD doesn’t mince words when it comes to what she thinks we need more of in the arts. “I'm less interested in how the field is changing and more interested in remaking it entirely by disempowering its traditional structure and building an independent, stable, and lucrative collaborative that can operate outside of the traditional axis of institutional funding and support.”

When asked how he sees a culture of sustainable arts practice developing today, YOUNG-TSENG says, “it’s empowering when I see and know artists who are doing more for themselves and other artists, and doing it with the values and practices they embody in their art making.”

Rhizomatic Arts spotlights artists who push us to think differently about how artists live and work. MARCUS CECILIO KUILAND-NAZARIO describes himself as “a Cultural Mercenary” and an “Art Doula.” He says: “I am less interested in ‘the field’ and more and more interested in ‘the field workers’. How can I help my fellow artists? How can I become a better artist?”

Rhizomatic Arts spotlights artists whose creative practices push us to think differently about how we live and work. KATELYN DORROH describes their practice as “exercising accountability for the privilege they have, the resources they have access to, and to act expansively to the structures of power in which they exist.”

KARINA VAHITOVA is a poet, movement artist, and co-founder of VOID ACADEMY. She says, "Artists cannot depend on institutions and so we are helping them to find ways to have thriving careers outside, or at the very least alongside, the kinds of support institutions can sometimes provide to them."

We're spotlighting artists in our Sustainability Network whose creative practices push us to think differently about how we live and work. For TOBAN NICHOLS, a sustainable career as an independent artist means "relishing the work I do, not hating it, or myself. Not feeling limited by someone, or some company."

Looking into the near future, performance artist / musician / singer-writer / web series host / actor / comedian / acting coach / aspiring stuntwoman KYM PRIESS wants to see "art in general becoming more interactive and blurring the lines between forms [...] without losing respect for the individual mediums."

For "Avant-Electro-Soul-Singer-Performance Artist" KARINE FLEURIMA, "silence is just as important as good music. Art is a form of meditation and meditation is an act of resistance."

DEF.SOUND is a Hip Hop musician and producer. "Sustainability doesn't mean there isn't a struggle involved in the creation of something, it means longevity and the ability to continue at an honest frequency. It means I don't have to question how I put out my music once it's made. It's infrastructure that allows me to be of service for as long as I choose to create."

MOLLY SCHULMAN is an artist, a new mom, and co-founder of Maiden LA, a DIY take on an art festival or biennial. As Molly puts it: "It can be intimidating and bewildering to navigate the art world and Maiden LA provides a rare forum where an unrepresented artist working out of their garage is on the same plane as an institution like the Getty."

NICOLE RADEMACHER makes a living as an artist and digital communications professional. Before working for the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA), she was Director of Communications & Outreach at 18th Street Arts Center in Santa Monica.

NEHARA KALEV is a choreographer and performer, and the owner of the glowbox, a movement and aerial arts studio and event space in downtown Santa Monica.

Performance poet PHILLIP T. NAILS is one of the founding members of our network, as well as co-founder of the Poetry Society of Los Angeles. He put the breaks on one of his infamous word capers just long enough to drop a few lines in our direction...

JODY ZELLEN is an artist, designer, writer, educator, and co-creator of What's on Los Angeles, a comprehensive weekly online listing of local arts exhibitions, openings, and closings in L.A.