Building Creative Power Massachusetts* is gearing up to organize creative workers to co-create economic justice solutions for people the economy leaves behind—including creative laborers.

* An incubated project of the Greater Malden Asian American Community Coalition (GMAACC) and Congruence Cultural Strategies.

Creative workers — alongside other vulnerable laborers — contribute immensely to society and our economy, but the economic support systems that we need to survive and thrive are sorely lacking.

Since 2025, we’ve been exploring how to get organized so that we can join others advocating for economic justice solutions, like fair pay, labor protections, affordable housing & health care, and more.

Mina Kim (ED of GMAACC) and Deidra Montgomery + Danya Sherman (Co-Owners and consultants with Congruence) are currently stewarding this process to understand how to get and stay organized. Experiences with the power of cultural organizing, the need for better economic support, and work with Creatives Rebuild NY and others inspired us.

We held an initial session at MASSCreative’s 2025 Summit and are facilitating a Boston-specific policy and organizing working session as part of the Creative Labor, Creative Conditions gathering on September 18th alongside Ngoc-Tran Vu and Shey Rivera-Ríos.

Building Creative Power MA is a project of Congruence Cultural Strategies + the Greater Malden Asian American Community Coalition.

Thanks to the Culture & Community Power Fund for a seed grant to explore this work, and to all of the organizers, creatives, experts, and partners who have contributed time and energy to this so far.

So far, we have done:

  • Network mapping,

  • One-on-ones with cultural organizers across Massachusetts

  • Research on strategy & organizing,

  • Facilitated conversations,

  • Created a community-governed fund at a fiscal sponsor to resource this work, and

  • Built shared leadership structures.

In the next year, we are planning:

  • Trainings on organizing and more,

  • Documentation and sharing out what we have learned,

  • Larger mobilizations, and

  • Exploration of organizational structures and leadership teams that can advance the work.

Long-term, we may pursue policy campaigns, base-building, intermediary services, cross-sector collaborations, popular education, and/or other structures towards a fairer economy for creative workers.