The Cohort MODEL

As part of The Rising Tide Project, each season 2nd Story partners with organizations within the arts sector to imagine and implement the radical changes needed to build an equitable and exceptional arts landscape.

The Goals

We recognize that we’re all starting from different places. For some organizations, an attempt at pay equity starts with pay transparency (i.e. being open internally and externally about compensation for artists and administrators.). For other organizations, it is about learning the tools to lay the necessary financial groundwork to begin paying artists and administrators stipends based on an equitable hourly rate.

Regardless of where we begin, at the completion of the project the leaders of the partner organizations will: 

  • have a richer understanding of their own goals around pay transparency and pay equity

  • be able to conduct internal conversations about pay transparency and pay equity with their internal stakeholders

  • create a timeline for pay equity implementation that is financially appropriate for their organization

  • be compensated with a $2,000 micro-grant

Cohort ONE

Congo Square Theatre Company is an ensemble dedicated to producing transformative work rooted in the African Diaspora. We are a haven for artists of color to challenge and redefine the theatrical canon by amplifying and creating stories that reflect the reach and complexities of Black Culture.

For more information on Congo Square Theatre Company, visit CongoSquareTheatre.org.

A Red Orchid Theatre is an ensemble of artists dedicated to the proliferation of live theatre in the modern world. We believe that theatre is the greatest sustenance for the human spirit and approach our work with a palpable sense of social compassion, aesthetic rigor, and honesty. By presenting new plays from all over the world and by reviving insightful works from the past that bear new relevance today, we aim to seek out and build new audiences for the modern stage. We lead with curiosity and inclusion; leveraging the collective power of ensemble to challenge convention in unexpected, provocative ways. In all we aim to cultivate an artistic home for artist and patron alike where humanity is examined and celebrated in all its extraordinary intersections.

For more information on A Red Orchid Theatre, visit ARedOrchidTheatre.org.

Teatro Vista is a non-profit theater-based company dedicated to multidisciplinary artists of color whose artistic expression on stage and beyond is rooted in the transformative power of telling and owning our own stories. Since 1991, our intention has been to cultivate Latino/a/e artists and their works into mainstream theater by nurturing and presenting voices that explore the wealth and variety of the human experience from a Latino/a/e perspective. Now we have expanded that focus on pushing our Ensemble into innovative storytelling that uses the tenets of theater to create live stage performances, film and media arts. We empower our artists into growing their resume beyond the stage and into executive leadership positions in the entertainment industry to be the representation we seek. Our commitment to storytelling and professional development opens up access to equity, not only within the company but out in our community at large. 

For more information on Teatro Vista, visit TeatroVista.org.

Cohort Two

ACRE (Artists’ Cooperative Residency and Exhibitions) is an artist-run non-profit devoted to providing resources to emerging and underrepresented artists and nurturing a nationwide network of cultural producers. ACRE’s programs support this generative community with materials, equipment, expertise, conscientiously produced food, and opportunities to exhibit and share work. 

For more information on ACRE, visit AcreResidency.org.

The Artistic Home creates theatre that explores and celebrates the truth within us.  Through extraordinary acting, we seek to ignite an audience’s imagination, to reach deep into the primal to send tremors through the intellect, to give birth to unforgettable moments by working in an intimate space, to touch audiences who are increasingly distanced from human contact.  We readdress the classics and explore new works with passion. We give artists a home where they can shape, develop and strengthen their artistic voice.

For more information on The Artistic Home, visit TheArtisticHome.org.

Theatre Y is a Chicago-based international incubator that creates connections between diverse artists seeking mutual growth through collaboration. Since 2006, Theatre Y has been a point of convergence for diverse activisms, and all of the uncomfortable conversations that happen as a result. Artistic director Melissa Lorraine and the Theatre Y ensemble are committed to continuously re-thinking the practice of theater as a tool of liberation and a revolutionary practice, bringing Theatre Y to venues ranging from LaMaMa’s historical theater to Illinois prisons. As an organization committed to prison abolition, Theatre Y is in partnership with men serving natural life sentences on arts campaigns towards reparative justice for the incarcerated and continues to innovate in the fight for social justice. Theatre Y, which is now in its 17th year of experimental productions, challenging international content, and a member-based FREE theater model, occupies a unique place in Chicago's theater community.

For more information on Theatre Y, visit Theatre-Y.com.