American Alliance for Theatre & Education to Host Leaders of Color Institute

On November 7th and 14th, the American Alliance for Theatre & Education will be hosting the Leaders of Color Institute (LOCI) for artists, teachers, arts professionals, administrators, and anyone who wants to learn from and interact with leaders in the field. This dedicated space only for people of color will provide professional development opportunities that include peer exchange, artistic vision, and leadership skill development. It is also an opportunity to share your work, successes, and challenges and make new connections with potential collaborators. The LOCI will help shape the next generation of the arts to better reflect the communities' present.

LOCI will present a keynote led by New Repertory Theatre Artistic Director Michael J. Bobbitt. An arts leader, director, playwright, and Anti-racist Advocate, Michael's practices, policies, and procedures for creating and changing culture within arts organizations have been adopted by several organizations around the nation. His thought-leadership in this crucial area is now spreading to a number of national outlets including regional panels, national conferences, and his widely popular new series of webinars focused on building Anti-racist organizations. Our second Keynote will be presented by Stephanie Ybarra, who is an artistic producer with almost twenty years of experience at theaters of all sizes across the United States. She is currently the Artistic Director of Baltimore Center Stage. In light of the current state of the world, she co-founded the Artists' Anti-Racism Coalition, a grassroots effort to help the Off-Broadway community dismantle systems of exclusion and oppression.

This event will feature AATE's new LOCI Mentorship Program, designed to create a cohort of Mentors and Mentees that will support each other as needed professionally. The Mentor/Mentee team will also be presenting a special workshop at AATE's 2021 National Conference. The mentor/mentee relationship focuses on five of the six core values for AATE: providing leadership, ensuring professionalism, promoting quality, creating community, and championing diversity.

AATE's Leaders of Color Institute is designed to provide people of color with networking, opportunities to share work, skill development, and peer-to-peer conversations during these unprecedented times. With workshops being presented by industry leaders like T. Oliver Reid, Dawn Simmons, Alvaro Saar Rios, Lady Shug, Chil Kong, Brisa Muñoz, Michael John Garcés, and more, this is not an event you'll want to miss out on!

To learn more about AATE's upcoming Leaders of Color Institute event and register, please visit aate.com/LOCI.

The American Alliance for Theatre & Education (AATE), among the most recognized arts education organizations works to ensure that every young person experiences quality theatre arts in their lives provided by proficient, talented artists and educators. Based in Washington, DC, AATE continues to advocate for arts education, serving as a national co-sponsor of Arts Advocacy Day on Capitol Hill and on the leadership team of the National Coalition for Core Arts Standards (NCCAS). AATE co-authored the National Standards for Theatre Education K-12, sits on the Arts Education Partnership steering committee as well as the Arts Education National Advisory Council, and serves on the editorial board of the Arts Education Policy Review.

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