Are you an artist thinking of forming a nonprofit organization to support your projects or community-based work? Having nonprofit status can lead to increased grant funding and it offers your donors tax benefits, but the more important question is, will it serve your project and its vision? Join us for a conversation with NYFA and two artists who have recently been through the process. We will share experiences, answer questions, and offer guidance in how to decide if establishing a nonprofit is the right fit for you.

This is Part 1 of a 2-part series. For more on Part 2, visit Part 2: How to Form a Nonprofit? A Nuts and Bolts Presentation.

Panelists: 
Clarivel Ruiz, artist and founder of Dominicans Love Haitians Movement
Sara Serpa, musician and co-founder of Mutual Mentorship for Musicians (M³)

What: Should I Form a Nonprofit? A Panel Discussion

When: May 2, 2024, 12:00 PM ET

Where: Online Via Zoom

Audience: Artists of all disciplines

Cost: Pay-what-you-wish

Register: Click here to register. You will receive an email about how to access this webinar before the event. You may attend using a Mac or PC computer (with speakers), phone, smartphone, or tablet. Strong wifi or hard-wired Internet connection is preferred.

Questions: Please email sponsorship@nyfa.org

Recording: This webinar will be recorded & shared with registrants after the session. It will be available for viewing for up to 30 days. A recording will not be available for purchase after registration closes. Tickets are non-refundable.

Presenters Bios: 

Clarivel Ruiz (we, us, you) is a child of the African/Indigenous Diaspora; ancestors are from Ayiti Kiskeya (the Dominican Republic and Haiti), a first-generation immigrant raised in NYC on the ancestral bones/covered shrines of Lenapehoking.

Our artist work honors Black Indigenous people whose histories are marginalized, subverted, and consigned to the fringes of memory. In 2016, we initiated the Dominicans Love Haitians Movement, and incorporated in 2018 as an arts-based nonprofit using the arts and decolonization as a foundational tool to celebrate our commonalities, forge a future free from tyranny, and increase tolerance, belonging, and dignity for all. As an Artist, Activist, Educator, and Cultural Worker, we support Educators in the transformative work of cultural responsiveness and unlearning racism.

We are alumni of Hemispheric Institute's EmergeNYC, Culture Push's Utopian Fellow, a Civic Practice Seminar participant at the Metropolitan Museum, The Innovative Cultural Advocacy Fellowship at CCCADI, a Brooklyn Arts Council award and Unicorn Fund recipient through New Media Democracy. Intercultural Leadership Institute Year 5 Fellow. Clarivel is an MFA graduate of CUNY, City College. 

Sara Serpa is Co-founder of Mutual Mentorship for Musicians (M³). A native from Lisboa, Portuguese Sara Serpa is a singer, composer, improviser, who through her practice and performance, explores the use of the voice as an instrument. Described by the New York Times as “a singer of silvery poise and cosmopolitan outlook,” and by the JazzTimes magazine as “a master of wordless landscapes,” her ethereal music draws from a broad variety of inspirations including literature, film, visual arts as well as history and nature. As a leader, she has produced and released ten albums, the latest being Intimate Strangers (2021) and Recognition (2020). Serpa was voted 2020 NPR Jazz Vocalist, Rising Star-Female Vocalist 2019 by the Downbeat Magazine Critics Poll, and teaches at The New School. Between 2019-2022 Serpa was Artist-In-Residence at Park Avenue Armory, in New York and she is a recipient of the 2022 NYFA Artist Fellowship, 2022 Copland’s Recording Fund, 2021 Herb Alpert/Ragdale Prize in Composition.