Our Mission

atac fosters community and creativity through increased access to the arts.

About Us

atac is a community-focused visual and performing arts center providing access to the economic, creative, and community-building opportunities inherent in the arts. We accomplish this through live music, theater, comedy, and visual art programs. By collaborating with other community-based organizations, activists, and artists, we help meet the emerging needs of our neighbors with dignity, creativity, and joy. 


Venues like atac are a vital but endangered resource for creative engagement and empowerment. Small, independent, community-centered visual and performing arts organizations serve as an introduction to the social and economic possibilities within the arts. They are critical components to fostering and retaining a creative economy within communities. atac approaches this responsibility through a community-first strategy. Our alternate approach to building programs and events empowers and directly serves community needs with creative tools. 


atac is a 501(c)(3) non-profit and we rely on your support to accomplish our mission!

Our Vision

We envision ātac as a vibrant hub where the community is empowered to create, connect, and grow through artistic expression and experiences. 

We imagine a thriving community where we value creativity as a fundamental path to understanding, social innovation, healing, and economic opportunity. We encourage artistic practice, honor cultural traditions, and uplift creativity within individuals and the community. We recognize artists as storytellers, problem solvers, and meaning-makers and respect their essential role in building healthy, successful, and equitable communities.

Our Values and Guiding Principles 

  • Access: Access to creativity and the arts is a human right, not an exclusive privilege. atac recognizes our essential role as an entry point for individuals to explore self-expression, experience the arts, and share creative energies. 

  • Community: We value the wealth of culture, creativity, resilience, and potential of diverse communities and individuals of all socio-economic strata. We strive to promote connection through listening, sharing, and understanding.

  • Creativity: Creativity is possible in every aspect of our lives and is an essential means for discovery, making meaning, problem-solving, and imagining better futures. We cultivate an environment that invites diverse and emergent views, courage, curiosity, and bold risk-taking.

  • Collaboration: Achieving common goals through collective action leverages common resources, individual strengths, skills, and experience. We invest in our ongoing growth and learning through intentional collaborations with others who work to affect change and dismantle systems of oppression. 

  • Empowerment: We cultivate opportunities to empower and assist the development of artists, musicians, technicians, and creative thinkers. We promote cooperation with existing resources, individuals, advocacy, and communities to create ever-expanding support systems. 

  • Equity: Structural inequities have excluded people and communities from accessing the arts. We advocate for equitable access to the arts and the fair distribution of resources, especially those historically and systemically excluded based on race/ethnicity, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, socioeconomic status, geography, citizenship status, or religion. We pursue ongoing education and exposure to perspectives, systems, and insight to expand our understanding and grow our ability to accomplish our mission with integrity and responsive action. 

Documents

  • Financials, 2016 (PDF)

  • Financials, 2017 (PDF)

  • Financials, 2018 (PDF)

  • Financials, 2019 (PDF)

  • Financials, 2020 (PDF)

  • Bylaws Approved as Revised 2021-0127 (PDF)

Header Photo: (C) Dave Sherbury, 2019