UrbanApa

UrbanApa continues with the platform for feminist leadership

A platform for feminist leadership for professionals in arts and cultural field

In spring 2024 UrbanApa produces the fifth edition of the platform for feminist leadership. The platform is based on peer learning, and it aims to support participants in their own work and attempts to practice feminist leadership. The frame for learning consists of seven meetings that intend to allow broader contemplation on feminist tools, leadership, and structures. The goal is to summon artists to share and discuss, to empower, to increase understanding of structures and their limitations, and to provide tools for more feminist and inclusive practices, as well as to collectively dream about potential futures. We all have know-how to share. By gathering, and bringing that know-how forth, we create the platform for feminist leadership together.

The workshops will be held once every three weeks or once a month (March– June and August – October 2024, one two-day residency in Fall 2024). The duration of each session is five hours (incl. lunch break), which consists of a lecture, a primer or introduction of the topic, and the follow-up exercises and discussions. The platform is facilitated by Sonya Lindfors and Olga Palo and the lecturers are experts from the fields of art, leadership, and feminism. The participants shall also reserve some time for independent work outside the workshops (reading articles and reflecting); either individually, or together with other participants. The working language on the platform is English.

We hope that the participants commit to attending the platform.

Tentative topics include:

What is feminist leadership? How to redefine leadership?

Frictions and fictions – How to work in more feminist ways within hierarchical structures?

Power and responsibility – influence and wellbeing

Sustainability – ethical, social, and environmental

Conflicts and solving them

Taste and vision – whose vision guides collective work?

Facilitation – how to create circumstances for learning and collaboration?

Inclusivity and diversity – safer spaces

Leadership and dreaming – what could the future art field be like?

Communication as leadership – what could feminist communication culture be like?

We are searching for a diverse group of artists or professionals working in the sector of arts and culture, who work with directing, facilitating, curating or leadership in one way or another, and are interested in feminist ways of working. We are mainly looking for people who work or live in Finland, but other applications are also taken into account.

In case we receive loads of applications, we aim to choose participants who form a diverse, multivoiced group and prioritize applicants who don’t have access to similar content at the moment.

Application form:  https://forms.gle/px7X6NE5oRjec36PA

If you are not able to submit through the application for, you can also send us an application via email.

Email application

Send a CV + a short motivation letter (max. half A4), where you tell:

What are you working with and how?

Why/how are you interested in feminist ways of working?

What kind of tools do you need and how do you hope to make use of the platform (for example for networking, as a support in a specific process, to internalize specific knowledge…)?

Do the workshop dates suit you?

Do you have time, energy and resources to commit to the platform right note? Note! The participants should commit to attending at least six out of seven sessions.

Title you email PLATFORM FOR FEMINIST LEADERSHIP V / OPEN CALL double check that all attachments have your name and content info on them.

Fill the application form OR send your application to sonya(at)urbanapa.fi by 16.1.2024 23:59 Finnish time. NB. You will hear from us only once the application period is over, and the participants will be selected by 22.1.2024.

In the name of intersectionality, we are experimenting with a progressive participation fee on the platform:

For freelancers / unemployed / low-income: the platform will cost €70 in total

For employed / middle-income people: the platform costs 250€ in total.

Community / company pays for your participation: the platform pays a total of 1000€

(If you have problems with the price of the platform, please contact us! We will work out a solution together.)

Where and when?

The platform starts as a live meeting in Helsinki (venue TBA) after which we will continue with online meetings on Zoom. The two-day residency will also take place live in Helsinki.

Sat 2.3.2024 11:00 – 16:00 (orientation) | Live in Helsinki, location TBA

Sat 23.3.2024 11:00 – 16:00 | zoom

Sun 14.4.2024 11:00 – 16:00 | zoom

Sat 4.5..2024 11:00 – 16:00 | zoom

13.-17.5.2024 #StopHatredNow – event week | zoom → during the week there is an opportunity to participate in events and workshops. Voluntary.

Sat 25.5.2024 11:00 – 16:00 | zoom

Sat 17.8.2024 12:00 → | Live Hang out in Helsinki

In the fall, miniresidency  in Helsinki (September-October), dates TBA

Sun 6 October 2024 11:00 – 16:00 | zoom

NOTE! There is no possibility to take individual days!

The first meeting will be held live in.

The rest of the platform takes place on Zoom. There will be more information about the accessibility of the first meetings space once the venue have been confirmed.

UrbanApa is an anti-racist and intersectionally feminist art platform whose purpose is

to create space for multivoiced feminist and communal art making. Multivoiced feminist

working means that we do not aim at a consensus. There must be space for new

viewpoints and experiences, but the atmosphere must also remain respectful, safe and

inclusive. Read the ethical guidelines of the platform here:

Ethical guidelines