Member Spotlight: Athena Project

Member Spotlight!

Athena Project

About:

Athena Project's mission is to empower women through the arts to create a world with gender equity where women's voices are amplified. We strengthen the Denver community through developing and showcasing women and girls' artistic contributions, while inviting new audiences into the creative process.

We believe that “ women'' means many things and can be a complicated term. We recognize that the term “ women'' does not automatically include all aspects of the gender spectrum. We want to create a safer space for the expression and growth for all women, non-binary, and LGBTQIA+ individuals.

Since 2012, we’ ve had the honor of working with over 2,100 women artists, and have developed 54 new plays, given 202 performances, and reached 362,734 audience members - and counting! Our programs include:

Plays In Progress Series (PIPs) Since 2012, PIPs provide the opportunity, annually, for several plays by women to be developed/workshopped for audiences. PIPs provide playwrights with dramaturg, director, actors, & minimal design elements. Playwrights receive feedback from artists & audience members that they can use to continue development of their play. The opportunity to have a play roughly staged or even heard out loud is a critical component to new play development. We held a PIP Series weekend virtually on June 5 and 6, resulting in the most diverse slate of actors, dramaturgs, directors, and playwrights in Athena's nine year history!

Curating Art for Impact curates/creates entertainment for local organizations, performed at organizational functions to raise awareness about their mission. Past programming includes a flash mob to welcome Michelle Obama in collaboration with The Women’s Foundation and curating entertainment for Womxn’s March Denver 2019 and 2020. And most recently working with K Contemporary art gallery and Holly Porterfield on a program called #ArtFindsUs which brought art to communities last summer. For 2021, we are collaborating with the Center for Colorado Women’s History

to bring a fun, specially curated mobile art event to celebrate Women’s Equality Day on August 26. The event kicks off with an 8:30 am breakfast at the ByersEvans House. Musicians and performers will travel to the Molly Brown House, ending the journey at Civic Center Park, with the Cast Iron Queens performing and ending the event at noon. Plan on coming down and joining the fun as the event is free but donations are welcome! RSVP to info@athenaprojectarts.org.

Girls Create summer intensive week-long camps for girls in middle school, exploring various art forms such as playwriting, comedy, fashion, and film (in collaboration with Denver Film Society), culminating in final performances shared with friends, family, and the public. Professionals teach, guest artists share their expertise, and mentors from the community guide and encourage –empowering girls to lead, and to affect change in themselves and others through creative learning.

#AmpUpArt is a new digital program and collaboration with Colorado Business Committee for the Arts (CBCA), inviting us to GET LOUD about why arts and creativity are essential. By incorporating knowledge and advocacy into our daily lives we can collectively raise the voices of artists in all disciplines in Colorado to recover, grow and thrive.

Read & Rant is a monthly book club that reads and rants about scripts written by primarily women and highlights the under-representation of those stories in our cultural landscape.

COVID-19 Response:

Against the backdrop of a global pandemic, Athena Project found innovative ways to connect and engage virtually with the arts community in 2020. In collaboration with Rocky Mountain College of Arts + Design and fashion designers, we made over 1000 masks locally and nationally to contribute to mask making efforts as the pandemic began, which were donated to nursing homes, assisted living facilities, teachers, and the homeless.

Over the summer, we launched #ArtFindsUs, an immersive experience that brought art to the streets, as we felt that providing opportunities to view art safely during the time of Covid-19 would lift spirits and create shared moments of joy within the community. In addition, inequities revealed by the pandemic caused us to look at breaking down accessibility barriers. We prioritized visiting underserved communities, providing access to the arts in spaces not traditionally reached, while thoughtfully creating an inclusive environment through relationship building and intentional outreach.

While we know that our communities are forever changed by events of this past year, we also know that art helps find our way through these tough times. Art is change, strength & hope.

Opportunities to Get Involved:

We're pleased to offer volunteer opportunities in a virtual setting, and are seeking both a volunteer coordinator and several social media coordinators roles, as well as administrative and archival support. Other volunteer roles include team members for Advocacy, Individual Giving and Listening Sessions groups. We connect communities through the power of art and welcome your support --we find that volunteers work best when they are motivated by the cause and uplifted by the work itself. Each of the programs listed above is in need of a champion (or even cochampions)--especially as we continue to modify our programs in a virtual environment.

Join us to experience a collaborative grassroots community organization and meet fellow volunteers, artists, and supporters within our vibrant community. Learn more about the variety of volunteer roles available on our website or view our profile on Spark the Change Colorado. We look forward to welcoming you to Athena Project’s family!

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