creativestrategiesforchange Events, Get Involved, What's New

CSC Response to Coronavirus (COVID 19)

Creative Strategies for Change Response to Coronavirus (COVID 19)

Local and national response to the Coronavirus public health crisis is changing daily. CSC has been in regular communication as a team, and with our school and community partners and clients. We are centering collective care and responsiveness. CSC is following all public health guidelines from the CDC and Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE), and doing our part to “flatten the curve” and slow the spread of the virus. We are also giving special attention to our community’s mental health needs at this time and encourage extending extra patience and compassion for ourselves and one another while anxiety and fear are heightened. See additional resources below.

This time is very challenging for grassroots and arts organizations like CSC. We are working on balancing our response to immediate needs and long term preparedness. With so many changes facing us every day, many in our team are directly affected. Our work typically happens live and in person, and our team of artists and facilitators are at the heart of CSC. While we are adapting to changes and implementing virtual options whenever possible, we are also raising funds to support lost wages as school closures and program cancellations become standard practice.

Please consider contributing to the CSC Artist Fund.

Beginning March 16:

CSC offices are closed. All staff are working remotely until April 17. We will follow further public safety and social/physical distancing protocols as they are announced. Staff will be available during regularly scheduled hours by email and phone. Please call or email if you have questions, need support or resources.

All CSC Community Programs scheduled in March will be facilitated virtually!

Thursday, March 19, 6:30-9:00pm: Community Cypher Open Mic – Featuring Franklin Cruz. 

This will be an adventure! Content will be responsive, joy will be catalyzed, DEI and mental health resources will be available. Link and details posted on facebook.

Tuesday, March 31: Mental Health First Aid – Youth (Abridged)

This will be a short mental health workshop instead of the full day training, which will be postponed. Content will be responsive. Time and format TBD. Updates will be posted on eventbrite.

April updates will be posted.

Resources: There are so many resources out there, we will share just a few links. 

NATIONAL 

Principles for Ethical Cancellation – important considerations and alternatives when cancelling events

Americans for the Arts Resource and Response Center – news and resources for the arts and culture field

Mental Health Resources

COLORADO

The Chinook Fund – scroll to the bottom of the page for resources with a DEI lens.

Meals for Colorado Students

Colorado Cross-Disability Resources

Colorado Emergency Childcare

CSC Artist Fund

creativestrategiesforchange Events, Get Involved, What's New

12/10/2019 Colorado Gives Day | CSC Holiday Celebration

CSC Middle School Drum Class Performance

How beautiful to witness trees gracefully let go. As we watch them shed, awed by their bold bareness, we come to understand that even without leaves, a tree is still a tree. How comforting to share this truth, that we too can let go and still be. Here at CSC we’re embodying all this season has to offer, from profound wisdom, engaging and activating the poetry within through the hidden lessons turned metaphors, to the spirit of gratitude and giving.  Join us December 10th for #ColoradoGivesDay at Hapa Sushi to celebrate this beautiful season and our beloved team from 4-9PM, 20% of the proceeds will go directly to CSC community and youth programs. Please RSVP so the restaurant knows we are coming! Wether or not you can join us in person, you can schedule a donation today, or maybe #GivingTuesday, Dec. 3 is the right time for you, either way your donation supports CSC’s innovative arts and social justice programs, their sustainability, and our collective liberation! The great Maya Angelou said, “I have found that among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver.”

Donations of any size make a difference, here are a few examples of where your dollars go: 

$15: Instrument Rental for 1 Student 

$25: Arts for Action Workshop Materials for 1 Student

$50: Community Event / Workshop Scholarship

$100: Youth Featured Artist Honorarium 

$300: Facilitator Workshop Scholarship

$500: Community Performance & Dialogue

$1,250: Youth Creative Leadership Residency

Check us out Instagram and Facebook to stay up to date with all the latest news and events at CSC. Please keep us posted on your happenings – we are happy to spread the word.

creativestrategiesforchange Get Involved, What's New

Make an Impact: Movement Music Campaign

Be part of launching an innovative, accessible mobile studio for folks of all ages and identities to come together and make music for the social justice movement: Donate to the Movement Music Campaign

Our fundraising goal of $6500 will match a grant from Denver Arts and Venues to purchase equipment and pay producers, facilitators and musicians equitable rates for their time!

Project Components:
*Professional Producer and Equipment

*School Based Studio Time at CSC Partner Schools

*Monthly Intergenerational Open Studio in Denver’s Historic Five Points Neighborhood

*Accessible, Equitable Opportunity for Emerging Artists of All Genres, All Ages, All Identities

*Culturally Responsive & Wellness Centered

*Collaboration and Civic Engagement

Check out the video to hear from the Music Movement host and producer Bianca Mikhan about the companion project: Community Cypher Open Mic.

creativestrategiesforchange Get Involved, What's New

Gratitude & Generosity

IMG_1954“Gratitude is like breathing in – letting ourselves be touched by the goodness in others, and in our world. Generosity is like breathing out – sensing our mutual belonging and offering our care. When we are awake and whole, breathing in and out happens naturally.”  Tara Brach

Team CSC is grateful for another meaningful year of building with passionate, creative, intelligent individuals, organizations, and communities, and the many ways you show up!

Our diverse donors raised over $6000 on Colorado Gives Day. Thank you to everyone who pitched in! In the last days of 2018 we ask for your support in matching that amount and keeping our programs accessible in 2019.

Follow the links below and find out what your dollars can do!

Give Before 1/1/2019 & Receive Gifts of Gratitude:

*All sustaining donors & donations of $100 or more: original print from artist Moe Gram.

*Donations of $250 or more: original Moe Gram print & limited edition CSC T shirt!

*Photo: Jared Cheek repping the new CSC Tee*
creativestrategiesforchange Events, Get Involved, Professional Development, Programs, What's New, Workshops

Autumn Programs & Events

 

TO Tree10/2: THEATER FOR INSTITUTIONAL CHANGE

TUESDAYS | 10/2-11/27 | 6-8PM | 2900 Downing St. Suite 1B
Take a deep dive into creative tools for structural change in this 9 week Theatre of the Oppressed workshop series. Our collective devised work will be shared at a culminating community presentation on November 29. Applicable for individuals engaged with all types of institutions: schools, universities, businesses, organizations, families, communities, collectives…. no experience necessary, all are welcome! 
 
Tuition: $240 Sliding Scale, Scholarship, Work Exchange Options
 
The first workshop on October 2 will be donation based and open to the public, all are welcome!

Register today or get in touch to find out more! 


10/11: Restorative Practice Sessions

Thursday | October 11 | 6-8pm | 2900 Downing St. Suite 1B
Navigating conflict takes practice! These sessions are meant for us to come together in community and practice transforming conflict through restorative practices and circle facilitation. We also aim to build our collective capacity for community accountability. This work has roots in aboriginal and indigenous cultures around the world. It aims to transform relationships, increase safety, heal harm, and build capacity amongst communities. Communities practice in the ways that are specific to them, though the practices have common principles.

Open to the public, all are welcome!

Donation-based. No one will be turned away; any donations really make a difference in continuing restorative practice events and circles.  

10/25 & 11/29: Place Matters Community Cypher Fall Series

ARTS. DIALOGUE. ACTION | GUEST HOST: QUEENZ OF HIP HOP!CSC PLACE MATTERS FALL SERIES-2

These monthly sessions cultivate creative spaces for cultivating community across social divides. The intergenerational events incorporate a wide range of arts (music, spoken word, dance, healing arts, visual arts, etc.) with dialogue and action related to place, history, culture, and identity. The fall series will be co-facilitated by guest host: The Queenz of Hip Hop. Light refreshments are included. Sessions are donation based and open to all, no one will be turned away for lack of funds. 
*Made possible in part with generous support from Moew Wolf Denver!
October 25: 6-8pm
November 29: 6-9pm
Light refreshments / Donation Based

11/1 Cervezas for Causes 

Thursday | 11/1  | 6-9pm
Cerveceria Colorado: 1635 Platte St. Denver, CO 80202
Cypher_CPR_2017Each week Cervecería Colorado partners with a non-profit to have a celebratory happy hour with proceeds benefiting that non-profit!

All funds raised from your drink purchases on 11/1 will directly support CSC’s innovative arts and social justice programs in Denver Public Schools. Your support contributes to equitable access to the arts for young people, and equitable pay for local artists!

11/19: Place Matters Performance Event

Blair Caldwell Library 6pm

This event will take place in coordination with the Undesign the Redline exhibit. The 2018 Social Imagination production Place Matters is place-based, happening in non-traditional venues and amplifying their relationship to the shifting landscape of community, culture, and access, both in Denver, and in a more universal sense. Place Matters is an interactive performance, locating the audience in the midst of the story, as an invitation to reckon with diverse perspectives and the roles we play. The cast will explore the complexity and nuance of redlining, gentrification, and displacement through one woman’s story of her family over 3 generations.