Athena Project

Background Statement

Since 2012, we’ve amplified women’s artistic contributions through programming, intentional partnerships, and advocacy to build community.

Athena Project is Colorado's nonprofit that empowers all women and underrepresented genders through the arts by providing them with paid work opportunities, ensuring audiences get to see and hear their artistic work. We advance equity in the arts, one paid artist at a time. Since 2012, we’ve amplified women’s artistic contributions through programming, intentional partnerships, and advocacy to build community. Supporters like you have made it possible for us to serve 2,500+ women artists, develop 98 new plays, produce 10 visual art shows, participate in 135 community collaborations, put on 336 performances, educate 254 summer camp students and reach 373,034 audience members.

Our founding was due to the lack of women playwrights' stories represented on stage. In 2009, only 17% of plays produced on Broadway, off-Broadway, and in regional theatres were written by women (Opening the Curtain on Playwright Gender by Emily G. Sands). This was appalling and we decided to do something about it.

Current programs are:

Curating Art for Impact: supports relationships between businesses, organizations, and artists. This program authentically connects missions to stakeholders in a thoughtful and engaging way while uplifting and paying women artists; With #ArtFindsUs, we filled the pandemic-fueled arts void by curating mobile art projects to safely engage Denver residents from a distance. In 2021, the program evolved into artBURSTS which continues breaking down transportation and access barriers, pays and uplifts women artists, and shares the joy a burst of art can bring.

Read & Rant - A Plays in Progress Series: a book club that reads plays and partners with playwrights, dramaturgs, and community members to elevate women’s stories.

Girls Create: Summer camp series (stand-up comedy, fashion, playwriting, artfully minded) that empowers young women between 6th-10th grade to become future artistic leaders.

#WomenCrushWednesdays: Digital program featuring past and present women of color artists, to uplift, honor and amplify diverse voices.

#AmpUpArt: Digital program amplifying the essentiality of arts and creativity. Serves to raise Colorado artist voices to encourage recovery/growth. (This program is in collaboration with Colorado Business Committee for the Arts (CBCA)

#HealingThroughtheArts: Digital program amplifying stories of healing through the arts. This could be physical healing, mental, spiritual or emotional, or all of the above. Engagement-centered campaign that invites stories of healing from Athena staff, artists and fans and shares them digitally.

#PayEquityintheArts: Digital program investigating pay inequity in the arts regarding women and underrepresented genders and its interconnection with other forms of inequity. Goals are: to highlight inequity issues, to promote the idea that artists deserve to be equitably paid,and to understand more about the socio-economic circumstances within which Athena artists create.

#ReproductiveJustice: Digital program sharing artwork on our social media that centralizes the right to access abortion and reproductive care for all individuals in need, independent of their gender and economic status. We also include access to medical and mental health care for those experiencing pregnancy, pregnancy loss and giving birth as part of #ReproductiveJustice.

#ArtsEducatorAppreciation: Digital program honoring contributions arts educators make to the arts and advocating for equitable pay. Campaign specifically uplifts the teaching artists and visiting artists involved with Athena’s Girls Create summer camps and Artfully Minded workshops, but pays homage to all who teach art. The campaign gathers and shares notes of appreciation and could include a survey investigating the socio-economic background of arts educators.

Community Partners across Denver Metro include: Bonfils Stanton Foundation, The Women's Foundation of Colorado, TEDXMile High, Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design, MSU's Center for Visual Arts, Aurora Fox Arts Center, Cleo Parker Robinson Dance, Samba Colorado, Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Colorado Ballet, Arts Students League of Denver, DU's Trauma Disaster & Recovery Clinic (TDRC), Focus Points Family Resource Center, Women's Bean Project 40 West Arts District, History Colorado, Print Pointe, Center for Colorado Women's History, American Heart Association, Walker Fine Arts Gallery, Union Hall, Westwood Community Partners, Lifespan Local, City of Northglenn, Anythink Libraries, and Cherry Creek North.

Whether serving youth, curating community performances, partnering with playwrights, or dancing in the streets, our programs are united by our mission. Athena Project exists as a platform to empower women in the arts and shine a spotlight on the artistic contributions from women of color. Our work requires us to listen humbly, dig in and get uncomfortable, speak out against injustice, and own our mistakes, always working towards understanding and empathy, and valuing the voices of women at all stages in their artistic development.

*Athena Project recognizes that gender and identity are part of a spectrum and can be complex topics. We welcome dialogue and questions. We also wish to create a safer space for the expression and growth of all women, nonbinary, trans, intersex, genderfluid people, and people who are also members of the LGBTQIA+ community.

Athena Project is committed to diversity, equity and inclusion. Our organization was founded to address systemic inequities long existing in the arts world. With humility, intention, and action we work to uplift and nurture women artists and create opportunities for them to showcase their work in our community. We are committed to action on behalf of our communities of color and will create space for all artists to empathize with each other, build relationships and share resources. We are also committed to providing an inclusive and welcoming environment for all artists, community partners, volunteers, independent contractors, audiences and vendors.