FELLOW SPOTLIGHT: WYLDER AYRES
WYLDER AYRES
Director of Development, The Parlor Room
Region: Western Massachusetts
The 2023-2024 Advocacy and Organizing Fellowship cohort is a collective of arts and culture leaders, practitioners, and activists from distinct communities across Massachusetts. While they spend the year incubating and implementing plans to address the unique needs of local or statewide creative communities, MASSCreative is proud to share their reflections on their projects and learnings.
This reflection is offered by fellow Wylder Ayres. Wylder is the Director of Development at The Parlor Room in Northampton. They are using their fellowship experience to develop solutions to existing barriers for trans and gender-diverse (TGD) and Queer & Trans People of Color (QTPOC) in accessing funding opportunities and experiencing inclusion in public art venues in Massachusetts.
REFLECTION FROM WYLDER:
In the words of esteemed non-binary poet, performance artist, and activist Alok Vaid-Menon: “The job of an artist is to replenish imagination. Is to say: there are ideas we haven’t considered yet. Feelings we haven’t encountered yet. Love we haven’t surrendered to yet. ‘Yet’ is the most wonderful word ever built. Let’s live there together. Redesign existence.” As a trans artist, community organizer, and development director, I believe that it is vital that we boldly invest ourselves in the proverbial ‘yet’ towards passionately building the world we know is possible. The most marginalized voices that have been systemically silenced, excluded, and erased from public conversation are the individuals we need to uplift and learn from to meet our challenges, revolutionize our institutional structures, interrogate systemic oppression, and reframe our collective vision for a truly equitable society.
A central tenet of this blueprint must be resourcing and supporting trans and gender-diverse (TGD) artists and even more specifically QTPOC (Queer & Trans People of Color) artists. Gender-affirming care is not just medical, it is access to cultural programming that centers, celebrates, supports, empowers, resources, and uplifts TGD artists while creating affirming space for TGD audiences. Public art is public health.
“Gender-affirming care is not just medical, it is access to cultural programming that centers, celebrates, supports, empowers, resources, and uplifts TGD artists while creating affirming space for TGD audiences. Public art is public health.”
The representation of TGD artists in public arts venues in Massachusetts is limited. Despite well-meaning efforts, TGD artists face numerous barriers to accessing funding opportunities, as well as challenges related to safety and inclusion for TGD audiences and artists in public venues. The MASSCreative Advocacy & Organizing Fellowship has supported me in investigating and meeting some of these identified barriers with tangible solutions through my fellowship project.
I recently co-designed a pilot program at the Parlor Room Collective with my colleague called “Uplifting Queer Voices in Music.” This 12-month free community program is dedicated to empowering and amplifying the voices of local TGD musicians and industry professionals, with a focus on QTPOC-led workshops and performances. The program’s mission is to provide robust support through professional development initiatives, workshops, and performance opportunities. We were recently awarded $50,000 from Live Music Society’s “Music In Action'' grant, which will support us in integrating this initiative into the core of the organization’s annual budget and programming. Moreover, we have been invited to participate in a national summit as part of the National Independent Venue Association on how to innovatively and inclusively activate small music venues. There, we will be able to engage other small venue owners on how to implement best practices for TGD artists and audiences.
It has been empowering to learn more about how to effectively advocate on a local and state government level to build support, capacity, and sustain community investment for public arts based projects. Since November 2024, I have been fortunate enough to meet with Koby Gardner-Levine, District Director for Congressman Jim McGovern; Jesse Lederman, District Director for Senator Ed Markey; Mark Antonio, District Director for Senator Elizabeth Warren; Executive Director of the Mass Cultural Council, Michael Bobbit; and Massachusetts Director of Economic Development, Yvonne Hao. Additionally, I have worked closely with Elena Cohen, District Director for Senator Jo Comerford; Senator Jo Comerford; Representative Lindsay Sabadosa; and Mayor of Northampton, Gina-Louise Sciarra. I share this lengthy list not to name-drop, but to demonstrate how quickly my horizons broadened as a direct result of the MASSCreative Fellowship. Through the continued cultivation of these relationships, I am learning more about the connection between lobbying, organizing, advocacy and funding for the arts. For example: No one had ever taught me what a congressionally directed spending request was until this year. In April, I wrote my first congressionally directed spending request for a proposed project that would increase ADA accessibility at both my organization’s venues. Intersectional consideration is vital when aiming to increase equity and accessibility for all artists and audiences so the needs of the most marginalized are centered.
“...my horizons broadened as a direct result of the MASSCreative Fellowship. Through the continued cultivation of these relationships, I am learning more about the connection between lobbying, organizing, advocacy and funding for the arts. For example: No one had ever taught me what a congressionally directed spending request was until this year. In April, I wrote my first congressionally directed spending request for a proposed project that would increase ADA accessibility at both my organization’s venues. Intersectional consideration is vital when aiming to increase equity and accessibility for all artists and audiences so the needs of the most marginalized are centered.”
There is an inconsistency across the state regarding dedicated resources and inclusive public spaces for TGD artists and audiences. Amid the national attack on gender-affirming care and trans rights, Massachusetts serves as a beacon for TGD domestic refugees fleeing oppressive legislation. Although Massachusetts has legislatively protected access to abortion and gender-affirming care, a tragic disparity in access persists across the Commonwealth. Gender-affirming care is not just clinical; it also involves a legislative and fiscal commitment to, in the words of MASSCreative, “a more equitable and inclusive creative sector for all residents of the Commonwealth.” Through my advocacy and organizing efforts, I hope to continue to nurture systems and programs to support and meaningfully uplift trans and gender-diverse artists.
Join me at:
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/wylderayres/
Instagram: @wylderayres
Organization: www.parlorroom.org
