Indigo Arts Alliance
Portland, ME
2023
VIA | Wagner Incubator Grant
Founded in 2018, the Indigo Arts Alliance (IAA), located in Portland, Maine, is the only Black-led arts incubator in northern New England dedicated to the professional development and amplification of Black and Brown artists. Its rigorous program seeks to strengthen a multicultural democracy by cultivating art as an essential resource for healthy communities. With this mission in mind, IAA provides an affirming environment for the creation of artwork across disciplines; amplifies access for Black and Brown artistic expression; and promotes discourse through participatory events that bring artists into public dialogue, centering issues of social justice, culture, and community.
IAA’s program manifests primarily as an Artist-in-Residence program for BIPOC artists to spend time working in Maine. As part of the residency program, the artists are supported through mentorship and professional development initiatives and are introduced to Maine-based artists of color to create connections and dialogues that will carry on past the term of the residency through alumni networks.
For more information, please visit Indigo Art Alliance.
April 2022 Artist-In-Residence, Tanya Crane presenting on her creative practice, current works and dynamic social engagements. Crane’s Radical Jewelry workshop begins in her artist talk, grounding participants to create their own jewelry using donated materials from the community and of participants. Radical Jewelry Makeover has been traveling nationally and internationally to communities since 2007, educating jewelers of all levels about mining and material sourcing issues involved in jewelry making through a fun, fast paced, community-based project.
Photo Credit: Guy Manirambona
Artist in Residence Alum ‘22 Signature Mimi learning how to make her own paper during her July 2022 residency at Indigo Arts Alliance. Signature MiMi (she/siya/they) is a poetic being, creative expressionista and nomadic sorcerer. Born in the Philippines and raised in the US, MiMi writes and draws upon her experiences being a multi-ethnic child of the AAPI diaspora. Siya creates with words, sounds, visuals, space, earth, and technology to share stories of survival, decolonization, alignment and balance.
Photo Credit: Indigo Arts Alliance
In the summer of July 2022, Indigo Arts Alliance Re/Union Re-Editioning Black & Native Histories on the grounds of Haystack Mountain School of Crafts. This 4 days private convening included talks by thought leaders, meals by guest chefs and workshops by visual and performance artists, writers and scholars. Indigo Arts Alliance invited 70 individuals at varying stages of their lives, from emerging and young professionals, to mid-career and elders in their respective fields. This gathering was intended to be a moment to rethink, revise, rewrite and embrace multiple ways of interpreting and reading that which has been historically and culturally left out, rendered invisible, or appropriated.
This photo is depicting the evening community circle that took place at the end of each day to summarize participants’ experiences.
Photo Credit: Re/Union documentarians: Sophia Aldino, Junes Thete and Amal Buford
