Staff Spotlight: Antonesha Jackson

Headshot of Antonesha, a black woman with hair in a top bun, posing against a brick wall, smiling

We’re so excited to welcome Antonesha Jackson as our new Director of Development and Communications!

Antonesha has a great combination of skills, experience, and passion for our community. We look forward to everything her new perspective and ideas will bring. Get to know her a little through some Q&As: 

You have a background as a STEM educator. What do you see as the intersection between arts education and STEM education? 
STEM is a vital part of the current world we live in, and much of STEM is about being creative which directly relates to art education. Engineering is a technical aspect of many art mediums, as not only physical but virtual materials are used. I never thought of myself as a creative until I learned how to code and create my own applications based on my own ideas. 
 
Another part of your background is that you attended Howard University. What was the value of this experience?
Going to an HBCU was a pivotal part of my educational journey. Experiencing education in a system ran by African Americans and focused on our success was new for me since I was coming from a majority-white system here in the Pacific Northwest. Howard University is the mecca of HBCUs, founded in1867 in the heart of D.C., which is formally known as chocolate city because of its large black population. Being so close to the Whitehouse, I was able to see and hear first-hand the contributions my community has made in the United States. The value is unmeasurable. As an alum, it’s my goal to continuously uplift not only Howard but all HBCUs to the world.

With so much varied experience, what made you decide to go into Development?
Being an educator, it was frustrating dealing with administration, and lack of funding and parental support. Having worked with non-profits, I saw what changes can be made when you have supporters on the ground. I transitioned into event-planning in order to increase funds and community connections and then into development to grow funder bases and programs.
 
What is something you are excited for in your new role as Director of Development and Communications at Arts Corps? 
I’m so excited to work with Arts Corps as a Director of Development and Communications. I think my unique work and travel experiences has blessed me to see and experience a variety of art and I would like to share that with the world and our students. Seattle has such a variety of art, people, and cultures that are not always highlighted. It is my goal to open our students to mediums they may have never tried and make them lifetime learners and creators. 
 
You’re a Seattleite, born and raised. What are some of your favorite art spots in the city? 
This city has gone through so many changes during my lifetime, it’s really cool to hear about the history of Seattle through the eyes of my parents and grandparents. As a third-generation Seattleite, I got to see my community once redlined and forced to live in certain areas then be gentrified and forced to move out. My favorite parts of Seattle are mostly located in the central area because that’s where my family is from. I love walking up and down Jackson, down Jazz alley to Chinatown, siting by Lake Washington, or eating at my favorite spots on Union.

Antonesha Jackson is a third generation Seattle native. A proud graduate from Howard University Computer Information Systems with an MBA from American University. Formally the interim Director of Development at United Negro College Fund Pacific NW, she is now the current Development and Communications Director at Arts Corps. Inspired to pursue a career in STEM Education and nonprofit business analytics after college and living in Los Angeles, she is also a small business owner and lover of travel.

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And so another school year begins…

For 22 years, Arts Corps has been immersed in the rhythms of the school year. The excitement and nervous energy of students and educators in the fall, the much-needed breaks peppered throughout winter and spring, and the limp to the finish line when teaching artists use every ounce of their creative energy and brilliance to keep students focused as summer approaches. These are the cadences that serve as our backdrop when engaging young people in programs that ignite imagination, joy, and well-being through art.

Thanks to ongoing support from our incredible partners and donors, we are embarking on another successful school year. From fall through summer, we’ll bring free arts programming to 2,500 youth across the region with the least access to arts education opportunities. We’ll deliver arts enrichment classes to 17 schools, parks and recreation, and low-income housing sites, collaborating with over 30 classroom teachers to integrate the arts into the school day and connecting 100+ teens to digital media arts and creative career opportunities. 

With all that lies ahead, let’s pause and reflect on where we’ve been, where we are, and where we’re going. Arts Corps has evolved significantly over the last few years in the face of myriad challenges including the COVID-19 pandemic, a historic recession, organizational tension, and leadership transition. There is much to celebrate and work yet to be done.  

The theme of our 2021 Annual Report was “Becoming Together,” which highlights our ongoing commitment to learning and growing together as an organization. In the face of uncertainty and change, we doubled down on our “staff care,” took time to slow down, reflect on our values, and learn from the past. We implemented practices designed to cultivate a community grounded in trust, equity, and a shared commitment to Arts Corps’ mission.

Our intentional work to cultivate an anti-racist organization grounded in trust and equity resulted in significant changes to our organizational policies and practices. Over the past two years we have:

  • Remained creative and resilient, providing free arts programming uninterrupted to over 2,400 students annually and have kept all staff and teaching artists employed. 
  • Collectively collaborated to discuss, write, and ratify a culture of equity and inclusion statement.  
  • Developed a transparent, tiered pay structure for all levels of Arts Corps staff.  
  • Explored compensation models to ensure we are leaders in teaching artist pay.  
  • Established a compensation policy that guarantees each employee earns a salary that meets or exceeds median salary for comparable positions in King County, and our highest paid staff member makes no more than 2x our lowest staff paid member.  
  • Added 2 board positions reserved for Arts Corps teaching artists. 
  • Decided to pursue a Co-Executive Director structure that more fully embraces our values of shared leadership and collaboration, aiming to reduce burnout in a single ED model.

In November 2020, Arts Corps’ Director of Development & Communications, Carrie Siahpush, stepped up as Arts Corps’ Acting Executive Director, leading our organization through this challenging time of thoughtful analysis, reflection, and change. Carrie’s time as Acting ED wrapped up on August 30 and our entire organization is so grateful for her many invaluable contributions to our community. Carrie carried the weight and stress of Arts Corps’ historic challenges with a strong constitution, humor, humility, strong leadership, and deep love for Arts Corps and especially the youth we engage. The changes Carrie helped usher in, combined with her deep tending to staff care and organizational culture, are truly a profound accomplishment and will leave a lasting impact. 

As Carrie’s tenure as Acting Director ends, we welcome Naho Shioya as Arts Corps’ Interim Executive Director. Naho describes herself as a mission-driven leader and a value focused professional in the field of education, arts and culture, and racial equity. She has immersed herself in identifying, developing, and implementing action plans to create racial equity and dismantle systemic racism in our community, ensuring success for all children and youth, especially in arts education. Naho will work to support the staff and faculty in the interim period while the next phase of the executive search commences. 

The next phase of our executive search will once again be led by a committee consisting of staff, board and teaching artists. This continues the intentional choice we made last fall to veer from the traditional way executive searches are done. Instead of a search led by our board of directors or an external firm, we decided to move forward with a search committee formed with equal representation from the board, staff, and teaching artists. After a season of developing a cohesive co-leadership model and conducting an internal search, the committee is now excited to announce a call for candidates outside of the organization. And we’re starting that call with you; our Arts Corps community.

We are now accepting applications for Co-Executive Directors. Spread the word!

As we start another school year, we at Arts Corps are excited to continue growing together and exploring the untapped possibilities that lie ahead in arts education. We’re committed to the ongoing work of providing equitable experiences in our classrooms and in our workplace, and we look forward to supporting young people in reaching new heights in their artistry, learning, and sense of belonging. 

We know this work does not happen in a vacuum, and we’re so thankful to our ecosystem of partners, donors, and community members who collaborate with us in support of youth creativity and educational equity. Without you, the work to cultivate joy and creativity is simply not possible. And there is so much of each in abundance! As one student said recently about their experience in an Arts Corps class during the school day, “We took time to do work, but that work was more fun than practically anything else in school.”

— CHRISTA MAZZONE PALMBERG, Interim Director of Dev. & Communications
— ARTS CORPS EXECUTIVE SEARCH COMMITTEE

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