Elena Serrano is the Program Director and founding member of the EastSide Arts Alliance Collective . Serrano is a cultural strategist and community organizer. As Program Director for EastSide Arts Alliance she coordinates community and cultural events and the annual Malcolm X JazzArts Festival (currently in its 21st year!). She is also overseeing EastSide Arts Alliance’s fundraising efforts. Serrano has over 40 years working in all aspects of non-profit arts management including work at La Peña Cultural Center in Berkeley and the Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts in downtown Oakland. Currently, she is helping to lift up Oakland’s cultural hubs as essential components of equitable community infrastructure and as sites for power building and community self-determination. Serrano has served as a cultural strategist for the City of Oakland’s Department of Transportation (OakDOT) and currently with Community Arts Stabilization Trust (CAST).
EastSide Arts Alliance (ESAA) is a collective of cultural workers who live and work in East Oakland. Its mission is to unite art with activism to work for community empowerment and cultural development and to build bridges between the disenfranchised, racially divided communities we serve. The EastSide Cultural Center is a multi-use theater, sound & visual arts studios, with 16 units of affordable housing and storefront spaces. ESAA made history by being one of the only grassroots organizations of color, which owns and operates an independent community cultural center, free and clear of debt.