THRIVE: A BIPOC Arts Leadership Program
May 3 – July 12, 2025.
OVERVIEW
In 2025 Intersection for the Arts launched THRIVE: A BIPOC Arts Leadership Program. THRIVE provides BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) arts leaders, visionaries, changemakers, and culture bearers resources and skills so they can grow community, belonging, and confidence rooted in power.
The first iteration of THRIVE was a 10-week program that ran from May 3 – July 12, 2025 and featured a 15 participant cohort selected from an application process. The program was facilitated by fellow leaders Aimee Espiritu, Anthem Salgado and Yesenia Sanchez. THRIVE was designed by Intersection’s THRIVE: BIPOC Arts Leadership Advisory Council, which comprises multidisciplinary, multigenerational BIPOC Arts Leaders working at the intersections of arts and social justice.
THRIVE was born out of an the vital need for equity and diversity in the leadership of Bay Area arts organizations. Unlike traditional leadership programs, THRIVE is specifically designed to address the unique challenges and experiences of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) arts leaders. THRIVE focuses on the importance of empowering participants to hold leadership positions while acknowledging their cultural perspectives, values rooted in community and authentic collective representation. This program is based on a collaborative, community-based learning model and offers tailored strategies to navigate systemic barriers in the workplace and within the arts ecosystem.
We dream of a thriving arts ecosystem where BIPOC leaders shape programs from a place of creativity and wellness, not scarcity. In this visionary world, knowledge flows freely through collaborative networks, creating strong communities that celebrate diverse perspectives. Here, equitable access to resources means that BIPOC arts leaders can focus on innovation and growth while staying true to their values and cultural foundations.
This program is underwritten by the San Francisco Arts Commission’s Cultural Equity Initiative. Many thanks to the Academy SF for sponsoring this program.
PROGRAM FEATURES
- 15 participant cohort (ten cohort members will be selected from Intersection’s current fiscally sponsored members, five will be selected from the public)
- Instructors: Aimee Espiritu, Anthem Salgado, & Yesenia Sanchez
- No required “homework”
- 6 sessions: two in-person retreats (4.5 hrs each) in San Francisco and four sessions on Zoom (2 hours each), plus 1 hour of individual coaching with program instructors
- 20 hours total
TESTIMONIALS
THIS PROGRAM IS
- Rooted in our Values of Empowerment, Knowledge, Community, Creativity, & Wellness
- Informed by Intersection’s IDEA framework (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Access)
- Artist-centered
- Supportive & collaborative
- Process-based, rather than outcome-based
AREAS OF FOCUS
- Personal Empowerment: Get rooted in your personal voice, vision, and values.
- Arts Ecosystem Empowerment: Build skills to navigate leadership challenges and barriers in the workplace and within the arts ecosystem.
- Knowledge Empowerment: Grow confidence by developing hard & soft skills in arts management.
- Community Empowerment: Deepen the ties between your leadership and systems of support in your community by identifying and addressing needs and challenges together.
IMPORTANT DATES
- Application opened: Fri, February 14, 2025
- Application closed: Sat, March 15, 2025, by 12 AM (midnight) PST
- Applicants notified of participation: Thur, April 3, 2025
APPLICATION PROCESS
- Application (Estimated 30-45 minute application process)
- 15-minute interview with Intersection to discuss your application responses in more detail.
TUITION
$600
We strongly believe in organizations sponsoring employee’s tuition costs!
To our fellow Bay Area Arts organizations: we highly encourage offering to sponsor the THRIVE tuition cost for your employees to help build a thriving arts ecosystem!
If you are employed, we encourage you to contact your organization’s leadership for sponsorship of this opportunity.
If your organization cannot cover the tuition fee, or if you’re applying as an individual artist and need financial assistance, please email Sloane Larsen at sloane@theintersection.org.
Payment plans are available for individual applicants: three payments of $200.
Additionally, THRIVE may be eligible for funding from Center for Cultural Innovation’s Quick Grant. CCI’s Quick Grant application deadline is April 15.
SESSION DATES
Please note that session content will be molded by the needs/interests expressed by participants in the application process. Comprehensive content details will be sent prior to the program’s start date.
- Session #1 | Retreat
Saturday, May 3, 2025
10:30 AM-3 PM PST
Facilitators: Aimee Espiritu, Anthem Salgado & Yesenia Sanchez
Location: In-person retreat (SF location to be determined) - Session #2 | Personal Empowerment
Friday, May 9, 2025
10 AM-12 PM PST
Instructor: Anthem Salgado
Location: Virtual via Zoom - Session #3 | Arts Ecosystem Empowerment
Friday, May 30, 2025
10 AM-12 PM PST
Instructor: Guest trainer & Yesenia Sanchez
Location: Virtual via Zoom
- Session #4 | Knowledge Empowerment
Friday, June 13, 2025
10 AM-12 PM PST
Instructor: Yesenia Sanchez
Location: Virtual via Zoom - Session #5 | Community Empowerment
Friday, June 27, 2025
10 AM-12 PM PST
Instructor: Aimee Espiritu
Location: Virtual via Zoom - Session #6 | Retreat
Saturday, July 12, 2025
10:30 AM – 3 PM PST
Instructors: Aimee Espiritu, Anthem Salgado & Yesenia Sanchez
Location: In-person retreat
(SF location to be determined)
FACILITATORS:
Aimee Espiritu, M. Ed.
Aimee Espiritu, M. Ed. (she/they/siya) has built her life supporting art and culture, public education and uncovering what brings people together. Originally from Seattle, she is the daughter of Filipino immigrants from Cavite. Since 2005, she has called the San Francisco/Bay Area home and finds joy in facilitating spaces that create equity for everyone’s voices to be heard. A natural problem-solver and designer, she launched her creative consulting business in 2017. Aimee brings 20 years of arts and education management, working with arts nonprofits, school districts, foundations and government institutions. Aimee’s passions as a strategist, facilitator and creative consultant lives at the intersection of arts and culture organizations, racial equity, strategy and thought-partnership. Her experience re-imagining how orgs and people can enhance their social impact has ignited her over 2 decades – committing herself to the work as a strategist / organizational designer / creative consultant.
Anthem Salgado
Anthem Salgado is a small business and communications consultant, a trained leadership coach, and the founder of Art of Hustle®, a company dedicated to helping entrepreneurs and organizations in the arts sector achieve success. With over 20 years of experience, Anthem has coached clients on strategic planning, marketing, and personal development, empowering them to build sustainable and thriving practices. A passionate advocate for creative professionals, Anthem combines his knowledge of business with a deep understanding of the unique challenges faced by artists. His dynamic workshops and personalized coaching have made a significant impact on the careers of many creative individuals.
Yesenia Sanchez
Yesenia oversees Intersection’s programs, including Artist Membership, Professional Development, and Community Resources & Engagement. As a nonprofit arts management coach and consultant with over 20 years of experience, Yesenia has supported many Bay Area nonprofit organizations working at the in the intersections of arts, culture, and social justice. She was instrumental in creating Intersection’s IDEA framework (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity & Access) and the Arts Finance Empowerment Camp.Outside of Intersection, Yesenia is holistic and spiritual coach with 25 years experience integrating right-brain vision and mission with left-brain grounding and practicality. She believes in the arts as a cultural and spiritual strategy for liberation.
Beatrice Thomas
Beatrice Thomas (they/she) is a multidisciplinary artist, cultural strategist, and organizational consultant with over 30 years of experience across the arts, public, and nonprofit sectors. As the founder of Authentic Arts and Media, Beatrice leads transformative work at the intersection of creative practice, community empowerment, and systems change. They have served as a grantmaker and strategic advisor to the City of San Francisco, coached cultural leaders nationally through Artists at Work and regionally in Santa Rosa, and guided equity-centered development for organizations across the country. Beatrice currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Association of Performing Arts Professionals (APAP), and as Board President for both Drag Story Hour National and Oasis Arts, advancing national conversations around equity, access, and creative resilience. Beatrice’s facilitation practice supports artists and administrators in navigating complex ecosystems through values-based leadership, identity mapping, and community-rooted strategy. Their signature methodology, Creative Tools for the Apocalypse, equips participants to clarify their values, locate their power, and make aligned decisions in uncertain conditions. A Kennedy Center Citizen Artist Fellow, KALW Audio Academy Fellow, and inaugural recipient of the Ebony McKinney Arts Leadership Award, Beatrice is also known for their drag persona, Black Benatar—a social justice drag queen whose cabaret productions use puppetry, spectacle, and storytelling to confront race, gender, and power with radical creativity.
FAQ:
- Who is this for?
Emerging, mid-career, and established arts leaders, visionaries, changemakers, and culture bearers. - Is there financial support available for selected community member applicants?
If your organization cannot cover the tuition fee, or if you’re applying as an individual artist and need financial assistance, please email Sloane Larsen at sloane@theintersection.org. Additionally, THRIVE may be eligible for funding from Center for Cultural Innovation’s Quick Grant. CCI’s Quick Grant application deadline is April 15. - What is the selection process?
Intersection’s staff will evaluate application submissions according to the selection criteria and hold a 15-minute interview. - On what criteria are applications evaluated?
-Availability to Participate
-Opportunities for Empowerment
-Capacity to Engage - How many artists will be included in each cohort?
There will be up to 15 artists included in each cohort: 10 Intersection Members and up to 5 Community Members.
THRIVE BIPOC ARTS LEADERSHIP PROGRAM COUNCIL:
Maddy Clifford, MFA
Maddy Clifford is a writer, musician, and activist based in Oakland. She spent eight years as a Poet in Residence at the San Francisco Juvenile Justice Center. Following this, Maddy released a solo album named “downCHANTS” and collaborated with Flyaway Productions to create a forty-minute musical score for the aerial dance piece “Apparatus of Repair.” As an experienced educator and artist, she has conducted workshops in Uganda and Argentina, teaching conflict resolution and diplomacy through hip-hop. Maddy’s most recent project is a video podcast, “What’s Pimpin’?” produced in partnership with KQED Arts. She has appeared on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver and has worked with More Perfect Union. Maddy’s writings cover topics such as abolition, feminism, and economic justice and can be found in Prism Reports, Truthout, and Teen Vogue.
MARQUIS ENGLE
HE/THEY
Marquis Engle (He/They) is a dynamic Artist and Storyteller with a knack for social science. With a background in visual art, design, and fashion, his approach to non-profit management and development is more radical than traditional. Integrity, innovation, and initiative are three values that guide his decision-making processes. Marquis has served across the non-profit, education, and art sectors as Program Director for Booker T. Washington Community Service Center; spokesperson for the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy; TEDx keynote speaker as a social activist for H.I.V. awareness and prevention; and consultant for Flourish Agenda, the S.F. Human Rights Coalition, and the Malonga Arts Collective. When not working at the RAWdance office at Intersection for the Arts, you can find him dancing and performing with Diamano Coura West African Dance Company as their principal male dancer.
Paul S. Flores
Paul S. Flores is a San Francisco artist of Mexican and Cuban-American descent who has built a national reputation for interview-based theater and bilingual spoken word. He integrates indigenous and Latino healing practices to tell the stories of people impacted by immigration and systemic inequalities. Flores appeared on Season 3 and 4 of HBO’s Def Poetry. He is the author of the plays We Have Iré, which premiered in 2019 at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts; PLACAS: The Most Dangerous Tattoo; and On The Hill: I Am Alex Nieto, as well as the novel Along the Border Lies. His commissions have come from Creative Capital, La Peña Cultural Center, M.A.P. Fund, Pregones Theater, National Performance Network, S.F. Arts Commission, Central American Resource Center (CARECEN-SF), and many others. His work has played across the United States and internationally in Cuba, Mexico, and El Salvador. Paul is a Doris Duke Artist Award winner and teaches theater at the University of San Francisco. He also works as a cultural event producer at Acción Latina in San Francisco’s Mission District. His debut book of poetry, We Still Be, was published in June 2023 by El Martillo Press. He lives in San Francisco with his children.
Claudine Naganuma
She/her
Claudine Naganuma founded dNaga Dance Co. in 2001, and its work is rooted in creativity and community building. Naganuma is the director, choreographer, and founder of the GIRL Project, a free art and empowerment workshop for girls living in East Oakland. Naganuma has been the Program Director of Dance for PD®, Oakland, since 2007 and is a certified Dance for PD® instructor. Her dancers, along with members of the Dance for P.D. community, have performed in Portland, Oregon (2016), Kyoto, Japan (2019), and Barcelona, Spain (2023) at the World Parkinson’s Congress. Her choreography was part of Dave Iverson’s 2014 documentary about dance and Parkinson’s called Capturing Grace with the Mark Morris Dance Group. She is the author of the book “Peace About Life: Dancing with Parkinson’s” including a collection of interviews that she collected and performed over a decade. After receiving her M.F.A. in Dance from Mills College, she served as the Artistic Director of Asian American Dance Performances and was a founding board member of the S.F. Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center. She was an international exchange artist between the Hong Kong Fringe Club and the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and received a young presenter’s award from Jacob’s Pillow. She served as the Director of Danspace in Oakland, CA, from 2014–2021. Most recently, she was the choreographer for the “Soul of the City” theater production in San Francisco with Brenda Wong Aoki’s First Voice.
Anthem Salgado
Sarah Taborga
She/they
Sarah Taborga is a queer, Bolivian-American cultural practitioner, dancer, and filmmaker from the Bay Area. Sarah received her B.A. from Mills College in Public Policy and her M.F.A in Cinema from San Francisco State University. Her video work has been leveraged by social justice organizations like Advancement Project, The Utility Reform Network, and Just Cause/Causa Justa to win progressive campaigns. Sarah’s “2020 P.S.A.” video was featured on the Oprah Winfrey Network in the program Where Do We Go From Here? Sarah’s documentary, “Dear Queer Dancer,” aired on PBS in July 2021. Dear Queer Dancer transformed from a documentary to an arts service organization that centers on the professional and creative success of LGBTQ+ dancers. Dear Queer Dancer, put on QueerDanceCon in 2021 and 2022 and Queer Dance Film Festival in 2023!
Aimee Espiritu, M. Ed.
she/they/siya
Aimee did not serve on the advisory council, rather she assisted on the planning committee and is an instructor of THRIVE. We are indebted to her integral contributions! Aimee Espiritu, M. Ed. (she/they/siya) has built her life supporting art and culture, public education and uncovering what brings people together. Originally from Seattle, she is the daughter of Filipino immigrants from Cavite. Since 2005, she has called the San Francisco/Bay Area home and finds joy in facilitating spaces that create equity for everyone’s voices to be heard. A natural problem-solver and designer, she launched her creative consulting business in 2017. Aimee brings 20 years of arts and education management, working with arts nonprofits, school districts, foundations and government institutions. Aimee’s passions as a strategist, facilitator and creative consultant lives at the intersection of arts and culture organizations, racial equity, strategy and thought-partnership. Her experience re-imagining how orgs and people can enhance their social impact has ignited her over 2 decades – committing herself to the work as a strategist / organizational designer / creative consultant.
