Current Projects & Collaborations
Sherman Cultural Strategies
Danya Sherman is a consultant offering strategic development consulting in community development and the arts. My projects with Sherman Cultural Strategies have included:
Live Arts Boston (LAB)
The Live Arts Boston (LAB) grant program was launched in 2016 by the Boston Foundation and the Barr Foundation to support Greater Boston-area artists and small arts organizations in creating, presenting, and producing new work. I am an advisor for grantees seeking support for their projects and their professional and business development. I offer particular support in strategic & program planning, grant & proposal writing, marketing & communications, and financial development.
Cultural Equity Learning Community (CELC)
The Cultural Equity Learning Community (CELC) is a project supporting arts and culture sector leaders to build racial equity and justice in the arts. Learning materials include weekly lectures and homework, drop-in spaces, peer-to-peer mentorship opportunities, and panels. I am a facilitator and curriculum designer for CELC.
Anti-Racism Collaborative (ARC)
Anti-Racism Collaborative (ARC) is a multi-racial collective of anti-oppression educators and activists committed to supporting the movement for racial justice and equity. ARC provides community programming, organizational trainings and consulting, and social movement partnerships that transform culture and create social change. I am an educator and facilitator with ARC.
What Cheer? Brigade
The What Cheer? Brigade is a 20-piece brass band from Providence, RI, USA. We prove that great parties need no electricity. Since 2005, the band has been as likely to appear at community benefits as at all-night parties, playing bars, clubs, streets, libraries, cemeteries, weddings, bus stops, and playgrounds. We’ve played with Blondie, Dan Deacon, Man Man, Japanther, Dengue Fever, Okkervil River, Lightning Bolt, Ninjasonik, Mika Miko, Wolf Parade, Matt and Kim, Slavic Soul Party, Javelin, Sage Francis, and Chain and the Gang. We’ve appeared at Lollapalooza, The Newport Folk Festival, Aarhus Festuge (Denmark), Sziget (Hungary), and Guca (Serbia), offering mobile moments of intense revelry.
Danya Sherman is a consultant offering strategic development consulting in community development and the arts. My projects with Sherman Cultural Strategies have included:
- A multi-year learning and reflection process with Mural Arts Philadelphia's Public Art and Civic Engagement Initiative
- A state-wide public art research project on behalf of The Barr Foundation
- In-depth program evaluations for the third cohort of the City of Boston's Artist-in-Residence program and Now + There's Public Art Accelerator
- A community development project working with the Alabama African American Civil Rights Heritage Sites Consortium
Live Arts Boston (LAB)
The Live Arts Boston (LAB) grant program was launched in 2016 by the Boston Foundation and the Barr Foundation to support Greater Boston-area artists and small arts organizations in creating, presenting, and producing new work. I am an advisor for grantees seeking support for their projects and their professional and business development. I offer particular support in strategic & program planning, grant & proposal writing, marketing & communications, and financial development.
Cultural Equity Learning Community (CELC)
The Cultural Equity Learning Community (CELC) is a project supporting arts and culture sector leaders to build racial equity and justice in the arts. Learning materials include weekly lectures and homework, drop-in spaces, peer-to-peer mentorship opportunities, and panels. I am a facilitator and curriculum designer for CELC.
Anti-Racism Collaborative (ARC)
Anti-Racism Collaborative (ARC) is a multi-racial collective of anti-oppression educators and activists committed to supporting the movement for racial justice and equity. ARC provides community programming, organizational trainings and consulting, and social movement partnerships that transform culture and create social change. I am an educator and facilitator with ARC.
What Cheer? Brigade
The What Cheer? Brigade is a 20-piece brass band from Providence, RI, USA. We prove that great parties need no electricity. Since 2005, the band has been as likely to appear at community benefits as at all-night parties, playing bars, clubs, streets, libraries, cemeteries, weddings, bus stops, and playgrounds. We’ve played with Blondie, Dan Deacon, Man Man, Japanther, Dengue Fever, Okkervil River, Lightning Bolt, Ninjasonik, Mika Miko, Wolf Parade, Matt and Kim, Slavic Soul Party, Javelin, Sage Francis, and Chain and the Gang. We’ve appeared at Lollapalooza, The Newport Folk Festival, Aarhus Festuge (Denmark), Sziget (Hungary), and Guca (Serbia), offering mobile moments of intense revelry.
Past Projects & Collaborations
HONK! Festival of Activist Street Bands
HONK! is an annual 3-day free festival bringing brass bands from all over the United States and the world to Somerville for a celebration of music, community, and activism. During and after my years as a festival organizer, I created a framework for the relationships between the central organizing committee and peripheral subcommittees, helped introduce an application process to increase equity in band selection, facilitated conversations about the future of the festival, and offered a workshop on values-based decision making for activist bands.
Boston Area Brigade of Activist Street Bands (BABAM)
BABAM is a group that connects street musicians with activist events and causes in the greater Boston area. My months-long engagement with BABAM included a half-day anti-racism workshop in collaboration with the Anti-Racism Collaborative and co-facilitating ongoing workshops with Matt Taylor that introduced topics of white supremacy culture and fragility & resilience and encouraged conversations about how bands can be proactively inclusive and fight bias and discrimination.
New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA)
NEFA is one of six regional arts organizations established with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts to strengthen the national arts infrastructure by cultivating the arts on a regional level. Today, NEFA’s programs are regional, national, and international in scope, and support artists and communities through grants and other opportunities in dance, music, theater, and public art. In my 4+ years with the organization, my primary projects included:
Somerville Arts Council
The mission of the Somerville (MA) Arts Council is to cultivate and celebrate the creative expressions of the Somerville community. Through innovative collaborations and quality programming we work to make the arts an integral part of life reflective of our diverse city. As a member of the advisory board, I chaired the annual music grants panel, helping to compile and steward a diverse group of panelists each year and facilitate an equitable panel process. I also volunteered at festivals and contributed to festival content ideation.
Shambhala Center of Boston
Shambhala Boston is part of a global community which aspires to awaken kindness, goodness and wisdom within society. This vision is rooted in the principle that every human being has a fundamental nature of basic goodness. My primary projects included organizational planning for racial equity work; co-designing and co-leading a retreat focusing on power and privilege within and outside of spiritual communities; and stewarding the People of Color affinity group using a combination of facilitation, meditation instruction, and meeting planning and design.
ARISE
The Alliance or Rhode Island Southeast Asians for Education (ARISE) prepares, promotes, and empowers Rhode Island's Southeast Asian students for educational and career success through culturally specific community, social, and academic impact programs, SAT prep, leadership opportunities, and civic engagement. I was a grant writing consultant with the Alliance or Rhode Island Southeast Asians for Education (ARISE), supporting prospect research, grant and proposal writing, and sponsorship requests.
HONK! is an annual 3-day free festival bringing brass bands from all over the United States and the world to Somerville for a celebration of music, community, and activism. During and after my years as a festival organizer, I created a framework for the relationships between the central organizing committee and peripheral subcommittees, helped introduce an application process to increase equity in band selection, facilitated conversations about the future of the festival, and offered a workshop on values-based decision making for activist bands.
Boston Area Brigade of Activist Street Bands (BABAM)
BABAM is a group that connects street musicians with activist events and causes in the greater Boston area. My months-long engagement with BABAM included a half-day anti-racism workshop in collaboration with the Anti-Racism Collaborative and co-facilitating ongoing workshops with Matt Taylor that introduced topics of white supremacy culture and fragility & resilience and encouraged conversations about how bands can be proactively inclusive and fight bias and discrimination.
New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA)
NEFA is one of six regional arts organizations established with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts to strengthen the national arts infrastructure by cultivating the arts on a regional level. Today, NEFA’s programs are regional, national, and international in scope, and support artists and communities through grants and other opportunities in dance, music, theater, and public art. In my 4+ years with the organization, my primary projects included:
- Organizational culture initiatives that promoted a positive work culture and supported institutional culture change
- Support for individual artists; and program observations, recommendations, and modifications as a staff member for the Creative City pilot
- Financial development via individual giving, corporate donations and sponsorships, and foundation and government grants while on staff in the development department
Somerville Arts Council
The mission of the Somerville (MA) Arts Council is to cultivate and celebrate the creative expressions of the Somerville community. Through innovative collaborations and quality programming we work to make the arts an integral part of life reflective of our diverse city. As a member of the advisory board, I chaired the annual music grants panel, helping to compile and steward a diverse group of panelists each year and facilitate an equitable panel process. I also volunteered at festivals and contributed to festival content ideation.
Shambhala Center of Boston
Shambhala Boston is part of a global community which aspires to awaken kindness, goodness and wisdom within society. This vision is rooted in the principle that every human being has a fundamental nature of basic goodness. My primary projects included organizational planning for racial equity work; co-designing and co-leading a retreat focusing on power and privilege within and outside of spiritual communities; and stewarding the People of Color affinity group using a combination of facilitation, meditation instruction, and meeting planning and design.
ARISE
The Alliance or Rhode Island Southeast Asians for Education (ARISE) prepares, promotes, and empowers Rhode Island's Southeast Asian students for educational and career success through culturally specific community, social, and academic impact programs, SAT prep, leadership opportunities, and civic engagement. I was a grant writing consultant with the Alliance or Rhode Island Southeast Asians for Education (ARISE), supporting prospect research, grant and proposal writing, and sponsorship requests.
