This week at NIAD, we are reflecting on the idea of safety. 

California air quality is improving day by day, and we are watching the fire perimeters shrink, with gratitude for the labor of those who have kept us safe. 

Resilience means taking in this moment of relative safety, even as we know our extended community includes members along the Gulf Coast, where hurricanes are making landfall today.

At the NIAD studio, where various rules and laws ensure we provide a safe studio space for creative work, we are learning how to become even more intimate with safety.

Like so many people, we are watching the pandemic numbers in Richmond and Contra Costa County, looking for improvement and the signal we might be able to return to some on-site activities.

As we contemplate what these numbers mean for our neighbors, families, friends, we are also assessing how to craft safety for our community – not just at NIAD but beyond, in our partnerships and our presence.

While we do continue to make art – and in fact can hardly help it – we are now engaging in the true creative challenge at the heart of NIAD, the continual redefinition of what it means to be a community, and with a new relationship to safety. 

We are hopeful to see you again on 23rd Street this fall – and we know that, as in everything, we will create this future together.

In care and community,

Amanda Eicher, Executive Director