OUR VISION
As a collective, we aspire to create resources where young aspiring and practicing artists can build a career foundation through our experiences and paid opportunities. We aim to bridge gaps of inequity for young Philadelphian BIPOC and queer creatives with experiences that serve as alternatives to academic institutions and exclusive gallery and museum spaces. In addition to creating resources, our goal is to create safe spaces where young people can build networks of support amongst peers, engage in community, and most importantly: have fun!
OUR VALUES
We lead our yearly projects and programming with values of:
🌟 FUTURISMS - We create spaces that empower young people to imagine, design, and create their own futures! Our programming, particularly our workshops and the Future is Us Group Residency project, are heavily inspired by Afro and Queer futurist philosophies.
🌟 FUN - We believe teens and young adults deserve harm-free spaces to engage in play and have fun!
🌟 RADICAL HEALING - Our founder, Laila Islam, defines Radical Healing as a practice where people create spaces for communities who experience systemic harm to think and exist outside of their violent histories and realities. These platforms allow groups of people to combat said realities, ultimately empowering and equipping people with the ability to better unionize and mobilize as communities through interpersonal care. We host programming and workshops where participants directly engage in healing artistic practices involving group meditation, open discussion, and more!
🌟 CREATING NETWORKS OF SUPPORT - We believe that it is crucial for communities who lack institutional support to have agency and their own spaces to create networks of support. Our events are spaces for young people to network, share skills, and make friends, while we provide showcasing and artmaking opportunities.
We currently do not offer artist memberships. We instead share our opportunities via open calls to ensure that our opportunities remain accessible to all. HOWEVER, we regularly send a list of resources and opportunities, both hosted by TFIU and our partners, to our network of young artists. This network includes artists who have showcased or performed in past exhibitions or events.
If you would like to join our Network of Young Artists email listing to receive opportunity and resource lists, email us at thefutureisuscollective@gmail.com with the subject “Young Artist Network”
OUR ADVISORY BOARD
We are proud to be guided by our Advisory Board of eight seasoned community leaders and curators. Being that our team and audience are made up of young artists, the insight garnered from our board of Advisors allows our team to serve the youth of Philadelphia from intergenerational perspectives, incorporating the voices of all ages and backgrounds into our futurist programming, exhibitions, and events.
Denise Brown / Executive Director, Leeway Foundation
Leah Comiskey / Development Director, Taller Puertorriqueño
Samantha Connors / Co-Director, Da Vinci Art Alliance
Bryant Girsch / Co-Director, Da Vinci Art Alliance
Leslie Lodwick / Educator, Cultural worker, and Ph.D. Candidate in the History of Art and Visual Culture department
Julie Rainbow / Cultural Creator
Christopher Rogers / Paul Robeson House and Museum and the West Philadelphia Cultural Alliance
Logan Unseen / Curator, IceBox Project Space
All of our Advisory Board members are all established donors of the Future is Us Collective
We are proud to be fiscally hosted by the Open Collective Foundation.
Make a tax-deductible donation to our organization through our fiscal host today!
Support our organization by purchasing our merchandise.
