Black, Indigenous and Women of Color Membership

The Art of Women of Color - An invitation from Lauren Adorno-Weatherford and Semerit Strachan

Imagine that you are joining a circle of women at the fire. It is evening time and coming through the forest from every direction of North, South, East and West, are many women who meet monthly. The fire brings warmth and is carefully tended. Tonight we are gathering to weave. Many have brought special items, reeds, grasses, and long leaves which are placed in the center so that all may take what we need in order to make our own authentic basket.

Our hands become energized, as we begin creating the base layer, it is mostly quiet as the Elder in the group tells a story about the beginning of things, both fragile and strong. The youngest joyfully giggle; and collective laughter ripples throughout the circle.

Cultural lessons and creativity overlap like the weft and the weave. Each woman has the freedom to stitch her own heart expression, tell her own cultural story and be witnessed and held within this community. Her story holds a richness and a depth of meaning that goes beyond time.The tangible and invisible thread strengthens. Her basket takes form. She feels safe enough, brave enough to spread her wings, speak her truth, stand up, be seen.

We are Semerit and Lauren, and we invite Black, Indigenous and Women of Color to join us, as Musea Members for 'The Art of Women of Color' : a journey toward personal and collective self-definition. In addition to the regular membership benefits, we will have a culturally specific circle just for us.

Our vision for the Black, Indigenous, Women of Color (BIWOC) community within Musea is to:

Meet you where you are within the realm of Culture and Intentional Creativity
Offer support as an Artist Painter in creative expression
Encourage authenticity and connectivity
Participate fully in courses and self-direction
Grow and learn from one another
SUBMIT OUR WORK at every opportunity that feels aligned with our heart and soul
Create a Museum show of our work
Share your current paintings and teachings you are working with

The world and our community need the dissemination of the images and stories we create.

Our mission is to make this circle happen through gathering with BIWOC Musea Members and all BIWOC students of any registered Core Course in Intentional Creativity. You are invited to join us for the Art of Women of Color Circles.

By the end of 2021, we hope that we will have created a personal and collective vision for The Art of Women of Color. Both of us are community leaders and have worked with Intentional Creativity and Shiloh Sophia since 2013.

See you at the fireside,

Lauren Adorno-Weatherford and Elder Semerit Strachan

The Art of Women of Color Leadership

About Lauren: www.laurencatalina.com

About Semerit: www.drsemeritshealingarts.wordpress.com

Musea : Intentional Creativity Foundation, 501 (c)3

"But it is not enough to stand on the opposite river bank, shouting questions, challenging patriarchal, white conventions. A counterstance locks one into a duel of oppressor and oppressed; locked in mortal combat, like the cop and the criminal, both are reduced to a common denominator of violence. The counterstance refutes the dominant culture’s views and beliefs, and, for, this, is proudly defiant. All reaction is limited by, and dependent on, what it is reacting against. Because the counterstance stems from a problem with authority — outer as well as inner — it’s a step towards liberation from cultural domination. But it is not a way of life. At some point, on our way to a new consciousness, we will have to leave the opposite bank, the split between the two mortal combatants somehow healed so that we are on both shores at once and, at once, see through serpent and eagle eyes. Or perhaps, we will decide to disengage from the dominant culture, write it off altogether as a lost cause, and cross the border into a wholly new and separate territory. Or we might go another route. The possibilities are numerous once we decide to act and not react." Gloria Anzaldua

Dear Ones,

My joy at sharing this invitation with you runs deep in the river of my heart. We are inviting the Black, Indigenous and Women of Color in our community to join Musea Membership in a very specific way - through culturally specific circles.

This conversation between the three of us Lauren, Semerit and myself goes back a few years! We refined our focus starting in January 2020 as we visioned together the way it would be joyful to bring a centering focus on Women of Color in our Intentional Creativity Circles. As of June, with all that was rising up in our world and our community, we created Re-Membering Circles for mending racialized trauma featuring different women speakers within the community representing African, Latin, Asian, Jewish and Native American women’s voices. In every circle, we had culturally specific groups, which was such a powerful connection for the Women of Color in the community, and for the White/European women to gather and do our own work to begin healing. And, of course, every circle featured Intentional Creativity as a tool for resiliency, and embodiment.

We wanted to learn about each other and what our respective cultures were working and suffering from. Friendships were formed, challenges faced with grace, and healing began in new ways. Inspired by Resmaa Menakem's work, we gathered in culturally specific circles and that tradition has continued in our other programs since then, including Artifact, Motherboard, and Legend. As a community, we are continuing to explore how we can uplift the voices, images, teachings, leadership, and vision of the BIWOC sisters in our circles. As well as encouraging women of European/White descent to do their own diversity, equity and inclusion exploration. You can find our suggested outline for European/White women on the Re-Membering Dashboard.

Re-Membering Circles was made possible through the Intentional Creativity Foundation 501(c)3. We thank everyone who was a part of it in any way and it led to the powerful stand we are taking now - that our Museum Membership will have a very specific cultural offering to lift up Black, Indigenous and Women of Color in our work.

Once we were completing the Remembering project, we engaged with what came next and this is the evolution - The Art of Women of Color BIWOC Circles for Musea Members. I am personally so grateful to Lauren and Semerit for their leadership, friendship and vision. As I know so many of you are. Truly - a gift to my soul and to the Intentional Creativity Community. I am grateful to call them my friends, and my teachers. They lead with wisdom, heart, compassion, grace and creativity in connection with their Ancestors.

As Musea Members you receive all of the other benefits, including and in addition, circles curated just for you to gather with your peers. We see this as an additional benefit and encourage you to take part in any other part of Museum Membership that you feel called towards. We know this is all going to take time, to truly create the kind of diversity and equity that we desire as a global community. And we are here together doing what we can, to make this happen, and to find the joy all along the way.

Once you register as a Musea Member, we will be following up with an invitation for you to add your name to join the BIWOC Circle so that you can be communicated with specifically about projects related to you and your work.

As a woman artist, it has long been my great honor to represent thousands of women artists through my galleries of the past twenty years, as well as opening our virtual museum to increase our exposure and our opportunities. Today, as I sign this letter to you, I cannot contain the enthusiasm I feel about joining with you to share your art.

With great resolve, hope and a brush filled with many colors,

BIWOC: Black, Indigenous and
Women of Color Membership

Announcing a Musea Membership that is Designed for Black, Indigenous and Women of Color guided by Lauren Adorno-Weatherford and Elder Semerit Strachan.

BIWOC: Black, Indigenous and Women of Color Membership

Announcing a Musea Membership that is Designed for Black, Indigenous and Women of Color guided by Lauren Adorno-Weatherford and Elder Semerit Strachan.

BIWOC: Black, Indigenous and
Women of Color Membership