Context

NAPA came together through a series of events, meetings, and discussions with stakeholders who perceived the need for better advocacy and policy infrastructure to fight for and win economic security for creative workers. United States Artists incubated NAPA’s Discovery and and Co-Design phase with funding from Good Chaos, the Barr Foundation, and Creatives Rebuild NY. The process was co-facilitated by Althea Erickson, Claire Rice, David Holland, and Judilee Reed. 

The process unearthed many insights, which could be valuable to other efforts that share NAPA’s goals and values. We share all of the materials from this phase of work in the spirit of transparency and the hope that they may prove useful to others in the field who are tackling similar challenges.  

Discovery Process

NAPA hosted two field convenings in early 2024 to engage stakeholders, define challenges, and identify opportunities for advocacy and policy change. Alejandra Duque Cifuentes co-designed and facilitated the January and March convenings, and synthesized the findings from the convenings into a comprehensive report. In May, we convened a smaller group of artists and field leaders to assess those insights and offer guidance on a path forward. 

Through these gatherings, we hoped to:

• Understand opportunities to support existing and new connections among creative workers and their allies; 

• Create space for organizations and individuals already active in advocacy and policy efforts supporting creative workers  to share current projects and identify opportunities for collaboration;

• Meet with artists to develop a timely and informed perspective on their lived experience and potential priority areas for collective action; and

• Build relationships with potential collaborators to articulate a shared understanding of possible challenges, opportunities, and futures for NAPA.

Co-Design Process

From our early meetings, the NAPA co-facilitators shared a belief that NAPA must emerge from within a deeply collaborative, shared leadership model, and be led by creative workers and organizers who have the most skin in the game. Put another way, we felt the design choices we made about how to advance this effort would determine the value of what NAPA delivers for creative workers. 

Many stakeholders raised important foundational questions about other values that underpin this effort. Do we seek to build whole new systems, or iterate within the status quo? How do we understand our efforts in the context of broader movements such as just transition or the labor movement? These are important decisions that will shape NAPA’s work going forward, but they are not choices the co-facilitators could make alone. With that in mind, we felt the moment of transition from NAPA’s discovery to design phase was the right time to transition leadership from the co-facilitation team to a larger co-design team that:

1. Foregrounded the leadership and lived experience of working artists as the primary driver of this effort;

2. Intentionally connected to larger social movements focused on workers rights and social change;

3. Brought experience in community organizing and democratic governance within a backbone structure.

The Co-Design Team was a short-term transitional body – convened for four months – tasked with translating the insights from NAPA's discovery phase into a plan of action. In particular, the group was tasked with establishing the strategic foundation for NAPA - mission, values, core constituency and strategic focus, as well as determining NAPA's core activities, operating model, and strategies for engagingits core constituents and partners in its work

The group advanced its work via three project teams: Stewardship, Activities, and Engagement, each led by a team leader and supported by a project manager. Together, they produced NAPA's initial strategic plan, which we expect to evolve and iterate over time as needed. 

Co-Design Team Members