VITAL
LITTLE
PLANS
an artist collective and giving circle
that supports equitable, creative, and vital plans that are arts-driven and community-led for neighborhoods and places.
Why We Exist
We believe all communities have the right to make independent choices about their future.
We recognize the power dynamics existing between communities and governments, institutions, and economies are unbalanced and exploitative. This is rooted in systems of racism, colonialism, and patriarchy leading to the inequitable triple threat of underfunding, displacement, and lack of opportunity.
Vital Little Plans exists to support creative and disruptive initiatives that are needed for communities to deconstruct harmful frameworks and advance equitable outcomes.
We support initiatives led by and benefiting people who identify as Black, Indigenous, People of Color, Queer, People with Disabilities, and Working Class — and any intersection of these identities.
We pool our money together to fund arts-driven and community-led plans
We provide technical assistance to projects and communities
We host a learning network for our peers working with communities
VITAL LITTLE PLANS
(so far)
Quianah
Upton
Atlanta, GA
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Nourish Botanica is a greenhouse and cafe slated to launch in the South that aims to be a space for sustainable green entertaining, gathering and storytelling through fresh food and botanicals. The eatery will serve Caribbean and Southern deli-style vegan offerings by day and open in the evening for public and private events. It will also operate as a nursery, selling plants, flowers and herbs as well as offering gardening education and services through our farm partners.
Nansi
Guevara
Brownsville, TX
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cultural organizing to create spaces of resistance and affirmation, and creative economies centered on community cultural wealth.
Originally from Laredo, Texas, she holds a bachelor’s in Fine Arts in Design from the University of Texas at Austin and a Master’s in Education from Harvard University. She is currently focused on narrative change and cultural organizing to create spaces of resistance and affirmation, and creative economies centered on community cultural wealth. She runs her own freelance design & education practice, Corazón Contento, based out of Brownsville, Texas. Nansi has been awarded residencies, fellowships, & grants from the NEA, Artplace America, a Blade of Grass, NALAC, SFAI, and is currently a Constillations fellow at the Center for Cultural Power.
La Colmena
Cimarrona
Vieques, PR
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and beekeeping towards greater food sovereignty in the Puerto Rican archipelago. It produces food in a healthy and accessible way for all with the intention of eliminating existing inequalities by developing a local solidarity economy that promotes mutual support and equity.
HASER and La Colmena Cimarrona have joined forces to practice solidarity economy, agroecology and beekeeping with the intention of sowing collective strategies towards food sovereignty in the Antilles. HASER provides 501c3 fiscal sponsorship to these projects.
Eknv-
Yefolecv
Maskoke Village, AL
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been forcibly removed from traditional homelands - in what is commonly/colonially known as Alabama - have returned for the purpose of practicing linguistic, cultural and ecological sustainability.
The term Ekvn-Yefolecv implicitly embodies
a double entendre:
1) Returning to the earth
2) Returning to our homelands
Amplifier Democracy Fellowship
National
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Photography and democracy share a dynamic relationship, converging in transformative ways, shaping societal attitudes, challenging injustices, and informing political action. This fellowship embodies our commitment to this enduring connection and its future development.
We recall the iconic works of photojournalists who used their lenses to unveil the raw, unfiltered truths of our world. From Dorothea Lange's haunting images of the Japanese internment camps during World War II, to Spider Martin’s iconic coverage of the struggle for voting rights in the American South, to the unsettling scenes of The Insurrection in our present era, photography has challenged and exposed threats to democratic principles, fueling movements for accountability and reform. These potent images do more than document history; they shape it.
Three Sisters
Collective
O’ga P’ogeh (Santa Fe)
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and rematriate Santa Fe!
Mama’s Day Bail
Out Campaign
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and Humanities in North Philadelphia. The PPC looks to women in reentry as the leading criminal justice experts our society needs to hear from and uses art to amplify their stories, dreams, and visions for a more just and free world. Last year the PPC helped the Philadelphia Community Bail Fund raise over $135,000 to free black mothers and caregivers for mothers day.
Philadelphia, PA
LOOM
Indigenous Art
Gallup, NM
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Gallup region. Located downtown on Coal Avenue, LOOM is Gallup’s smallest gallery, occupying about 30 square feet of space. LOOM is a cutting-edge and experimental space spotlighting innovative Indigenous artists from in and around the Gallup area and from across the Indigenous Americas.
Coop Community
of West Jackson
Jackson, MS
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seeks to revitalize West Jackson, MS through an inventive “inside out” strategy. Their mission is to find sustainable solutions to the chronic economic and social challenges by matching residents’ underemployed skillsets and abandoned property resources with a creative placemaking effort that centers on local food production, folk art, and the construction trades.
Give
Consider giving with us to
support vital community plans.
Who We Are
We are artists and administrators, advocates, cultural producers, and grantmakers. We are storytellers, media producers, dancers, theater makers, and painters.
Our collective is multidisciplinary, multiracial, and geographically diverse, and has committed to leveraging our personal time, talent, and treasure to advance justice in our communities.
Vital Little Plans supports network-building and social weaving; we center relationships and trust in our work. We have a co-led collective that is horizontal, collaborative, and democratic. We give money, skills, time, and networks to artists and creative people in the U.S. who are doing hard work and leading positive, equitable change in their community.
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Hello! I’m Adam. A few things I love: the color blue and the changing seasons; history and museums; smiles and seeing the good in others; and the way Mister Rogers parted his hair. Home for me is Brooklyn, New York and St. Paul, Minnesota, where I grew up. I started drawing when I was three years old, and never stopped. Today, painting and drawing is my meditative practice—something I do to put my mind at ease and to bring clarity, peace, and energy. Creativity is something that connects us deeply as humans, and within communities our creativity can help generate trust and solidarity.
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Hello, I'm Mari. I was born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico then moved to New York to pursue my masters in creative writing. Since then I've worked in children's publishing and ArtPlace America, while never losing my love of reading and that ever growing pile of to-be-read books. During that time I wrote two novels for young readers - Even If the Sky Falls and The Resolutions from Katherine Tegen books (an imprint of HarperCollins) - and cemented my belief that storytelling is not just important but a integral part of cultural survival.
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Hi, I’m Irfana. I feel like a third culture kid. My ancestry is Indian; I’d like to take my dad to India one day – we’ve both never been. My grandfather moved alone from India to Tanzania as a young boy…it changed my family’s life in just one generation. I was born in Canada, raised in Atlanta, and call Washington, D.C. home. I am a mover, sometimes a performer, and a cultural organizer. I’m gripped by body-based practices, obsessed with ephemeral experience, and fascinated by expression through gesture and movement. Dance reveals vulnerability, intimacy, humanity and connectedness; understanding and empathy is in our bones.
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Buenas from Washington, DC. I'm from a smallish group of people born and raised in our nation's capital. I come from a large and festive family of activists that hails most recently from Bolivia and Paraguay. Since a young age, I have mixed my art practice with community building, and spent many years working with kids to make colorful gardens tucked in city corners and teaching others to do the same. Today I'm the director of our city's humanities council (HumanitiesDC) and spend much of my time creating spaces for others to share their stories. Finally, I dress mostly in black but am always tempted by magenta.
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Ya’ah’tééh // Greetings! I am Michaela Paulette Shirley, a Diné daughter, sister, auntie, grandma, friend, and scholar. My clans are Water Edge, born for Bitter Water, my maternal grandparents are Salt, and my paternal grandparents are Coyote Pass. I am from Kin Dah Lichii, Arizona but I live in Albuquerque, NM where I am a Program Specialist at the UNM Indigenous Design and Planning Institute, and a Ph.D. student in the American Studies Department. I revel in creative writing and monologues. I believe the power of expression via words, movement, graphics, murals, songs, prayers, ceremonies, and all things natural can transform our world if we convey genuine love, care, and appreciation for living.
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I'm Westlake—a word nerd, cultural producer weaver and organizer. I call England home, but I live in Brooklyn which is Lenape and Canarsie land. For art I write words. I frame and reframe, I connect the dots. Culture and art makes visible the things people find hard to wrap their minds around, and provides a roadmap to navigate the journey to the other side.
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Hello! I'm Tom. I'm a son to two loving parents and the youngest to two sisters. One side of my family travelled the world and helped heal people, the other never left their farm in Grawn, MI for over a century. Born and raised in Illinois, I've found my roots and my heart in Middlesex, NJ: in one of the most diverse and densely populated counties in the country. I express myself through theater making, graphic design, and systems thinking. I believe storytelling can bring polarized people closer together to create true, healthy, democratic change in their communities.
Check Out Our Zine!
Download and print out this nifty little story of Vital Little Plans!
We made it for our friends at Philanthropy Together,
and we’re excited to share it with you.
Psst! Here’s a tutorial on folding a Zine.
Gratitude
•
Inspiration
•
Gratitude • Inspiration •
Our name, Vital Little Plans, is inspired by the remarkable urbanist, activist, and author, Jane Jacobs.
She championed a holistic, human-centric, and community-based approach to city planning, which is central to our values and work.
We are also inspired by the work of ArtPlace America, and the incredible national community of artists, community developers, culture bearers, designers, government officials, philanthropists, and researchers it helped catalyze between 2010 and 2020 from rural, Tribal, suburban, and urban communities across the United States.
Our giving circle was incubated through Philanthropy Together’s Launchpad For You training program. We’re grateful for the incredible program and resources that helped us define our values and launch our collective work.
Possibility Labs have been instrumental in getting us logistically and technically prepared for our giving. Not only do the provide us with tools to get the work done, they are partners and friends in this work.