SHAINA LYNN SIMMONS is an actress, performance artist, and creative producer, healer, and author. She says, “At the interstice of activism and artistic praxis, my work seeks to heal the past, tend to the present, and reimagine the future of the diaspora […] as an organic archaeology to elevate Black stories.”

KAI HAZELWOOD doesn’t mince words when it comes to what she thinks we need more of in the arts. “I'm less interested in how the field is changing and more interested in remaking it entirely by disempowering its traditional structure and building an independent, stable, and lucrative collaborative that can operate outside of the traditional axis of institutional funding and support.”

When asked how he sees a culture of sustainable arts practice developing today, YOUNG-TSENG says, “it’s empowering when I see and know artists who are doing more for themselves and other artists, and doing it with the values and practices they embody in their art making.”

Rhizomatic Arts spotlights artists who push us to think differently about how artists live and work. MARCUS CECILIO KUILAND-NAZARIO describes himself as “a Cultural Mercenary” and an “Art Doula.” He says: “I am less interested in ‘the field’ and more and more interested in ‘the field workers’. How can I help my fellow artists? How can I become a better artist?”

Rhizomatic Arts spotlights artists whose creative practices push us to think differently about how we live and work. KATELYN DORROH describes their practice as “exercising accountability for the privilege they have, the resources they have access to, and to act expansively to the structures of power in which they exist.”

We're spotlighting artists in our Sustainability Network whose creative practices push us to think differently about how we live and work. For TOBAN NICHOLS, a sustainable career as an independent artist means "relishing the work I do, not hating it, or myself. Not feeling limited by someone, or some company."

Looking into the near future, performance artist / musician / singer-writer / web series host / actor / comedian / acting coach / aspiring stuntwoman KYM PRIESS wants to see "art in general becoming more interactive and blurring the lines between forms [...] without losing respect for the individual mediums."

For "Avant-Electro-Soul-Singer-Performance Artist" KARINE FLEURIMA, "silence is just as important as good music. Art is a form of meditation and meditation is an act of resistance."

DEF.SOUND is a Hip Hop musician and producer. "Sustainability doesn't mean there isn't a struggle involved in the creation of something, it means longevity and the ability to continue at an honest frequency. It means I don't have to question how I put out my music once it's made. It's infrastructure that allows me to be of service for as long as I choose to create."

NICOLE RADEMACHER makes a living as an artist and digital communications professional. Before working for the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA), she was Director of Communications & Outreach at 18th Street Arts Center in Santa Monica.

NEHARA KALEV is a choreographer and performer, and the owner of the glowbox, a movement and aerial arts studio and event space in downtown Santa Monica.

Performance poet PHILLIP T. NAILS is one of the founding members of our network, as well as co-founder of the Poetry Society of Los Angeles. He put the breaks on one of his infamous word capers just long enough to drop a few lines in our direction...

JODY ZELLEN is an artist, designer, writer, educator, and co-creator of What's on Los Angeles, a comprehensive weekly online listing of local arts exhibitions, openings, and closings in L.A.

KRISTINE SCHOMAKER is not only a visual artist and art historian--she also runs a PR and management agency, provides space for artists to present their work at the Brewery Arts Complex (where she lives), and edits an online magazine! In middle of all of this she took time to share her thoughts with us here.