About

About Us

ABC is a 501(c)3 technical assistance and research organization. Its mission is to improve the quality of life for people of color involved in the arts and STEM. Our services combat three factors that harm creative and professional endeavors: access to capital, networks, and knowledge. ABC aims to systemically improve the quality of life in communities of color through three main services: the Grassroots Action Project, Impact Consulting, and the Rising Tides Research Institute.

Vision

While Arts Business Collaborative looks forward to a future without inequity, we are aware that we just aren’t there yet. That is why we work.

This collaborative is making space within our society for growth, development, and cultural value — a space where the historically marginalized can get the resources they need to thrive in spite of social and economic pressures. Our work is reparative, encouraging long-term, effective, and sustained improvements to society by providing access that should exist, especially for minorities working through the arts and STEM.

When our society no longer needs to navigate this inequity, in fulfillment of ABC’s mission, we will dissolve.

Mission

Through community-centered programs, consulting, and action-oriented research, ABC addresses issues accessing capital, networks, and knowledge. ABC partners with people of color — with an emphasis on the communities and people identifying as Black, Latine, and Indigenous— to connect them with resources and leverage the economic value of their cultural capital to improve their quality of life.

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Values

We are action-oriented in theory and practice.
_{ABC’s practice and theory are action-oriented and geared toward addressing the key issues of the communities we serve.}

We foster collaboration and mutually beneficial exchanges in pursuit of sustainable communities.
_{ABC rejects scarcity models by encouraging sustainable, mutually beneficial collaboration, improving the quality of life for creatives, cultures, and their communities.}

We know rising tides raise all ships.
_{ABC believes its work is critical to our society as a whole because a society is only as strong as its most marginalized community. We empower that community.}

We take no sh*t. We do no harm.
_{ABC believes that its mission, which can be disruptive to some, must continue to empower communities of color until inequity subsides.}

How we work is shaped by who we work for.
_{ABC is rational in its work and shaped by the communities it engages with. The ‘how’ is shaped by the ‘who.’}

We empower the creative practices that make culture and society.
_{ABC believes that creative practices are the foundation of our society with irrevocable cultural, social, and economic value.}