Cultural Strategist

The Center for ArtEsteem (AHC Oakland)

Cultural Strategist for the Oakland Super Heroes Mural Project

Schedule October 1, 2023 - June 30, 2024 

Contracted Hourly Pay $75  (10-25 hours a week/ Total 520 hours) 

Location Oakland, CA 

ORGANIZATION SUMMARY:

The Center for ArtEsteem (Attitudinal Healing Connection, Oakland) is a Black-led nonprofit arts organization in West Oakland with a mission to empower individuals to be self-aware and inspired through art, creativity and education, and to make positive choices to break the cycle of violence for themselves and their communities. ArtEsteem opened in 1989 to provide opportunities for creative expression to youth, adults and families in Oakland through art classes, workshops, public art, events, exhibitions, and trauma-informed healing circles.

Our core programs include in-school and after school arts education for K-12 youth, youth leadership development and workforce development, and community-building public engagement programs including our Oakland Super Heroes Mural Project. In all its programs, ArtEsteem promotes the principles of Attitudinal Healing to increase self-esteem, develop inner peace, and foster thriving communities.

Attitudinal Healing is based in the practice of self-reflection for inner healing and personal development, and helps to transform fears, such as judgment, blame, shame and self-condemnation, into experiences of unity, self-empowerment, peace, and happiness. ArtEsteem believes that artistic expression manifests solutions that have the potential to lift communities out of poverty, enable racial healing and bridge learning, language and technology gaps toward a better, safer, more equitable and beautiful world.

MURAL PROJECT SUMMARY:

The Center for ArtEsteem is sponsoring the Hoover Corridor's first large scale mural revitalization and beautification project, the Oakland Super Heroes Mural Project (OSH). Since 2012, the murals have engaged roughly 500 District 3 children and youth as conceptual designers of large scale art that represent the visions and hope of our next generation of potential leaders. Youth involved are from: Hoover Elementary, Westlake Middle School, West Oakland Middle School, McClymonds High School and youth from The Center for ArtEsteem’s Oakland Legacy Project.

Four of five murals below the 580 freeway in West Oakland from San Pablo Avenue to West Street have been completed. The creation of the fifth and final OSH mural will be in progress during the restoration of murals #2 and #3. Mural #5 will be located on Market Street, between 35th and 36th Street directly across from Mural #2, making Market Street the key space for activation and engagement.

Using the theme of superheroes, the murals are intended to uplift and positively transform the neighborhood. These murals serve as a gateway to West and Downtown Oakland, as well as Emeryville, and are a critical way by which our community is perceived.

HIRING OBJECTIVE:

With support from the Bay Area Creative Corps grant program, The Center for ArtEsteem is seeking a Cultural Strategist to activate community members and leaders in revitalizing and restoring Mural #2 (and potentially, #3) of the Oakland Super Heroes Mural Project. This restoration process will be in tandem to providing community awareness, facilitating community involvement and amplifying the powerful artistic message and voice while mural #5 is being executed.

Mural #2 and #3 have been affected greatly by COVID, mass displacement and a series of devastating circumstances. Both murals have experienced tagging, fires, and a roving door of trash being dumped, and are in desperate need of restoration. They also serve as a colorful backdrop to two unhoused communities that have found shelter and unity under the 580 underpasses.

ArtEsteem wants to restore the murals and seeks the help of an effective, community heart centered, cultural worker. This position requires a unique set of skills, such as:

• Experience working hands-on in BIPOC communities
• Highly strategic and sensitive to cultural and political issues affecting the community
• Passion and skill sets to lift up and beautify the community while developing platforms for inspiring youth voice
• Ability to develop unique and creative strategies specifically to restore murals #2 and #3 while addressing the unhoused communities at both murals
• Ability to move systems and people for visionary, solution based and aesthetic restoration of the community and neighborhood of the Oakland Super Heroes Mural Project 
• Create strong communication platforms and opportunities between the youth, community members and political leaders
• Have experience working with the unhoused communities and devise a compassionate resolution to both ArtEsteem’s and the unhoused communities’ needs 
• Make connections with the city and unhoused organizations to engage the underpass residents’ assistance in restoring Mural #2 and #3 to their former radiance and devise a strategy for maintaining the murals in the long-term
• Support data collection for reporting and administrative requirements

The ideal candidate is deeply rooted in West Oakland, and has pre-existing ties to the Hoover-Durant neighborhood. They should be familiar with navigating organizational, public art/ design and political systems to acquire the resources and support necessary for our goals. The qualities that ArtEsteem is looking for in a Strategist are: community and cultural sensitivity, courage and vision, capacity to organize, collaborate, lead, and activate communities.

*Please note that, for our chosen applicant, an in-person Creative Changemakers workshop will be held on October 16th, 2023 with Bay Area Creative Corps support staff (10am–3pm). Save the date!

TO APPLY:

Please submit this applicant information form and send your resume and cover letter to [email protected].