At Social Art and Culture, we believe Creativity is an economy. We strive to lead the new narrative around how we invest in the creative economy: A new economic sustainable framework invests in artisans and its culture.

April 28, 2023:  The 2023 Creative Entrepreneur Summit will resume with 75 creative entrepreneurs from DC, MD, and VA learning how to combine their visions for creating change through meaningful societal impact using venture capital concepts. CECS's vision continues in building and offering resources for creative entrepreneurs to finance their goals for short- and long-term projects - both driving economic development, creative empowerment and investment opportunity. Doing great things to create a better world in entrepreneurship and finance should not be mutually exclusive.

Participating organizations include Urban Manufacturing Alliance, Interledger Foundation and Grant for the Web, DC Green Bank, Mokja Ventures, BrickRose Exchange, The Fearless Artist, Mid Atlantic Arts, Torpedo Factory Art Center, DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities with more to come. 

Under the theme of Community Resilience, the Forums' mission is to assemble different approaches that cultivate steps for advancing and expanding new community resilience models in environmental justice and activism. On Thursday, May 18, from 10 am - 3 pm, this free ½ day forum will provide opportunities for 100 artivists, public agencies, nonprofits, higher education, and thought leaders to collaborate, discuss and identify adverse environmental impacts that have affected communities. Storytellers, visual artists, spoken word, photography, and music have long played a vital role in lifting voices, especially those of the marginalized. Artivists will lead each conversation about practical resources and tools, programs and project models, research, and data that could protect our environment and improve community resilience for empowering underserved and marginalized populations - the stewards to create change in their community.

Since 2014, this summer program has continued to afford ten college students [18-24 years] from Washington, DC, the opportunity to be exposed to different skills within independent media for six weeks in partnership with the DC Department of Employment Services. College students are paid hourly and work/train from 10 am - 3 pm, Monday - Thursday, with Friday field assignments. Alumni of the program have gone on to work for Discovery Channel, Radio One, Mayor Bowser, and Regal Entertainment.

Black L.U.V. Festival (love, unity, vision) returns for its 26th anniversary on September 2, 2023.  The festival has been held in Washington, DC, since 1997. This FREE one-day cultural outdoor family event uses the cultural arts as a vehicle of social change to inform and enlighten communities of the Nation’s Capital on education, social injustice, innovation, healthcare, collective economics, and violence prevention in marginalized communities of color locally, domestically, and internationally. Black L.U.V. Fest 25 festivalgoers experienced the elements of art, music, literature, and technology as we celebrated “Afro-futurism” and combat anti-blackness.

The Future Leaders Design Institute launches as a pilot program for Social Art and Culture during the 2023 winter break in Washington, DC. The institute is a space that elevates the genius of often marginalized and neglected students of color between the ages of 11-14.  Some may see this age range as the most challenging student population, but where they see challenges, we see problem solvers, creators, and game changers.

REGISTRATION OPENS SEPTEMBER 2023

Named in honor of the slain journalist, whose murder is still an open case, this bookstore is being built to fill the 25-year void of a bookstore in Anacostia while addressing the 50% illiteracy rate in this community.

Charnice Milton Community Bookstore (CMCB) operates at We Act Radio studios, 1918 MLK Ave, SE, and through pop-up locations around the city. Just down the street, we provide a used book section, with free books to young readers, within Busboys and Poets-Anacostia, one of the local group’s newer locations. Politics and Prose, one of DC’s oldest bookstores, supported our launch.