Two from S.C. among ’22 South Arts Emerging Leaders of Color
Leaders from Charleston, Greenville included
South Arts announced 18 cultural leaders of color from across its nine-state region have been selected to participate in professional development and networking opportunities.
The second cohort of Emerging Leaders of Color (ELC) has been selected, representing the next generation of cultural workers and arts administrators from across our region. These leaders will participate in a free multi-day professional development program specifically for arts administrators of color. This second Southern cohort will build on the success of South Arts’ first cohort and Western States Arts Federation’s ELC program, which has been attracting, training, networking and promoting a new generation of diverse arts leaders since 2010.
This partnership program between South Arts and colleagues at WESTAF provides tools, continued learning opportunities, and a network to administrators of color who seek to move into leadership positions in the arts and culture sector.
Emerging Leaders of Color welcomes Victoria Rae Moore of TINYisPOWERFUL of North Charleston and Vaughn Newman of Vaughn Newman Dance of Greenville.
Learn more about the other members of the cohort here. Keep reading for more on Moore and Newman.
Victoria Rae Moore
Victoria Rae Moore is a writer and co-founder of TINYisPOWERFUL — an interracial, intergenerational, grassroots organization and community hub linking artists, cultural workers, youth and tiny business partners to embrace THE ARTS AND THE SPIRIT OF THE ARTS as activators of sustainability; to support and promote TINY BUSINESS in the South as a vital part of neighborhood and commerce; and to build a MENTORSHIP LEGACY awakening in YOUTH a spirit of imagination, entrepreneurship and social engagement. Victoria is the executive director of TINYisPOWERFUL and received a three-year Partners For Change award from Alternate ROOTS and the Surdna Foundation, continuing a long history of art in/with community to affect structural and systemic change. Victoria’s role as an arts administrator started in 2018 when she was hired as an assistant quickly advancing to the role of facilitator with an artist-led creative placemaking project – conNECKtedTOO by the Charleston Rhizome Collective – which was the only project in South Carolina supported by an ArtPlace America Award. As a multi-racial Black woman native to Charleston, SC, Victoria is committed to social change through the arts and to amplifying marginalized voices for more true, inclusive representation of the past and the present as we shape a future together. She studied dance at Charleston County School of the Arts and earned a BA in journalism and public relations from the University of South Carolina.
Vaughn Newman
Born in Philadelphia Newman began dancing at William Penn Arts Charter and continued training at Freedom Theater, PHILADANCO, & New World School of the Arts, Miami, FL. While at New World, he began performing with Momentum Dance Company and Brazz Dance Theater until a move to the Upstate in 2009. After choreographing for local theaters, dance studios, and the Peace Center for the Performing Arts, The Studio–Home of Vaughn Newman Dance(VND) opened its doors in 2018 offering dance instruction to Upstate communities, students, hobbyists, and pre-professional dancers. The Studio is the home of Greenville’s first Afro-American and professional contemporary dance company. Newman also founded ZAKI West African Drum & Dance Ensemble and ADAM Arts as community outreach programs that cross socio-economical barriers by making the arts accessible to the community, especially misaligned and underserved youths. Together, these outreach programs and Vaughn Newman Dance narrow the cultural divide through curated interactive performing arts experiences, Traditional West African drum & dance classes, and workshops.