The Brooklyn Arts Leadership Collaborative (BALC) was a ten-month program launched in 2023 by the Brooklyn Museum and the Social Justice Fund to support eight arts organizations in Brooklyn led by leaders from historically marginalized communities. The initiative aimed to provide specialized training to help these organizations sustain and grow their operations and deepen their impact within the community.

The inaugural cohort included the following organizations:

• ARTE (Art Resistance Through Education)

• Black Girls Sew

• Brooklyn United Music and Arts Program

• Kyoung’s Pacific Beat

• ¡Oye!

• Black Trans Femme Artist Collective

• Rooted Theater Company

• Redhawk Council

With only fifty out of more than four thousand arts organizations in Brooklyn being led by people from historically marginalized communities, the program was designed to close the gap by providing holistic leadership development and strategic support. Each participating organization received a $25,000 grant from SJF to help strengthen its operations and advance social equity goals. The selection process prioritized organizations with operating budgets of $500,000 or less and those demonstrating a strong impact in Brooklyn’s diverse communities through arts and culture.

Under the leadership of Robyne Walker Murphy, a veteran arts and social justice educator, the Collaborative provided targeted workshops covering strategic planning, fundraising, financial management, program development, and board governance. In addition to these core training sessions, the program incorporated wellness practices and discussions on diversity, inclusion, and social action priorities in Brooklyn’s cultural sector.

Recognizing the importance of community building, the Collaborative fostered peer networks among participants and connected them with leaders in nonprofit management and philanthropy. Guest speakers included Liz Sak, President of the Cricket Island Foundation; Jocelynne Rainey, President of the Brooklyn Community Foundation; Kemi Ilesanmi, former Executive Director of Laundromat Project; Chiwoniso Kaitano, Executive Director of MacDowell; Brooke Richie-Babbage, nonprofit strategist; and Ama Codjoe, poet and cultural activist. The program also facilitated funder roundtables to strengthen ties between participants and the philanthropic community.

BALC graduates’ experience was capped with a fireside chat with Clara Wu Tsai, Darren Walker, and Anne Pasternak, exploring the theme “The Arts as Catalysts for Social Impact.”