when we go slow, we’re able to take better care of ourselves and each other.
SERVICE DESIGN
CREATIVE PLACE MAKING
WORLD BUILDING
EMPATHIZE.
Guided by the interdependent rhythms of nature, the Artists Cooperative for Regenerative and Emergent Strategy (ACRES) is built on the belief that we need each other. we’re artists, researchers, problem-solvers, and cultural architects, grounded in the present while embracing an emergent and iterative approach to community service design. Founded in California, we collaborate with fellow artists, organizers, and neighbors to strengthen bonds through shared experiences intended to foster solidarity, collective land stewardship, and cultural reclamation. we’re happiest when collaborating with humans in person to co-design lasting programs that activate public spaces in ways where art and social practice may support and sustain the health of the people and of our lands.
CREATE.
10 October 1976 - the Dudes and Dames Square Dance Group holding court at Col. Allensworth State Historic Park’s opening day celebration - Allensworth, CA
ITERATE.
ITERATE.
Moving at the speed of trust, ACRES orients around an evolving thesis that states: when we go slow, we’re able to take better care of ourselves and each other. We believe going slow and leading with inquiry supports us in seeing each other more fully so we can understand, identify, truly exhibit our collective power. Centering creativity (truth) & well-being (understanding) as one pathway to liberation, ACRES brings decades of experience with spacial, program and service design having established and directed cultural art institutions, produced major film & TV, designed city wide art installations, programmed transformative micro festivals and produced various service based initiatives from inquiry and vision to execution and reiteration. Our projects are neighbor led, artist centered and experimental modeling the ways we might want to experience and remember each other for generations to come. In essence, we’re dreaming of a world where we as artists, organizers and healers have our our basic needs met so that together we can be of service to humanity and the natural world.
Previous Works
1. Comissioned by Arts Council Long Beach & WLCAC’s Watts Sound Room Resonance: Active Listening Portal via Crenshaw Creative Co. [2024]
2. Comissioned by Getty Crenshaw Remembers: How to Love Family Fest & Free People’s Wellness Clinic via Crenshaw Creative Co. [2022]
3. A successful Bruce’s Beach Rematriation & Land Back Campaign in conjunction with author and historian, Alison Rose Jefferson [2022]
4. Comissioned by the California African American Museum Queensfest: Festival of Extraordinary Women via Queens of the New Age [2018-2020]
5. Cooperative development of local coalition and program direction for Leimert Park Rising Juneteenth Festival [2018-2021]
6. Played major role in the institutional development of Art + Practice [2015]
Study Guide
1. Design Thinking - Process & Principles
2. The History & Practice of Emergent Strategy
3. Designing a Regenerative Community Strategy
4. The Spirit of Experiential Socialism
5. The Value of Experiential Learning
6. Cooperatives - the First Social Enterprise
7. Jessica Gordon Nembhard on the History of Co-ops
8. The Business Birthing Handbook
9. Free Jazz Communism
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