The USDAC Bureau of Belonging & Placekeeping

A national/translocal network and ongoing community of practice, learning, exchange, and action committed to addressing issues of displacement, belonging/disbelonging, and gentrification from a cultural lens, with particular focus on the impact on and strategies emerging from low income, artist, immigrant, LGBTQIA, and communities of color.

About the USDAC Bureau of Belonging & Placekeeping:

Across the country, the acceleration of gentrification has led to the displacement of working class, immigrant and communities of color who are being uprooted from the places they have called home for decades. Artists, galleries, and art institutions are often seen as the first wave of this gentrification, allowing developers to raise real estate values, eventually pitting newcomer artists against longtime residents. How do we disrupt this narrative? What are the ways in which artists and cultural workers can resist being the cogs in the gentrification machine?

Within USDAC, there has been a growing desire across the network and beyond to connect around these issues of displacement and gentrification. Our hope is that through learning calls and digital online forum,  the Bureau can be a shared resource for folks doing similar work. We have heard from folks a desire to have a space where we can share strategy, experiences, approaches, dialogue and learn from one another’s concrete examples.

Questions? Email Bureau Chief Betty Yu at placekeeping@usdac.us