Mission

CARA is an arts nonprofit, research center, and publisher that aims to expand public discourses and historical records to reflect art’s abundant pasts, presents, and futures. Through initiatives including publishing, exhibitions, public programs, and fellowships, we seek to challenge dominant narratives and amplify the breadth of arts and culture.

CARA is a space for un-learning, kinship, and care: we attend closely to artistic, emotional, and embodied processes and the people who enact them, and we consider this work a vital part of cultural production, historical research, and institution building.

Vision

• We envision a future where the many voices in the arts are equitably represented, amplified, nurtured, and sustained.
• A future where artists, writers, and cultural practitioners have agency in telling their own stories.
• A future where an equitable and thriving cultural sector plays a critical role in the ongoing, collective work of shaping a just and joyful society.

Values

Our work is lead by the following core values:

Organization-in-Formation
We are an organization in perpetual formation and identify as listeners and learners. We commit to continuously auditing our processes and changing course as needed.

Collaboration
We value creating the conditions for collective transformation through joint action. We believe that siloed work limits our capacity for transformation and pursue opportunities for collective work, partnership, and co-production wherever possible.

Care and Kinship
We value care for collaborators, publics, ourselves and each other. We will attend closely to artistic, emotional, and embodied processes and the people who enact them, and consider this work a vital part of cultural production, historical research, and institution building.

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging
We value and celebrate individuals from all backgrounds and worldviews; we value the expertise, creativity, experience and excellence of women, BIPOC and LGBTQ+ cultural workers.

Anti-Racism and Anti-Discrimination
We protest against all forms of oppression and subjugation at CARA including a zero tolerance policy for all -isms and -phobias–racism, sexism, ableism, transphobia, Islamophobia, antisemitism–and any other form of violence.

Women and women-identified leadership
We value the creativity and excellence of organizations founded and led by those who identify as women.

Abundance
We value expanding space to amplify ways of thinking beyond Eurocentric and Western intellectualities.

History

CARA was developed over a five-year research period in dialogue with artists, curators, writers, publishers, researchers, and other cultural workers who share a vision for a just future in and through the arts. During this period, CARA was known as New York Consolidated and published its earliest books under that imprint.

Manuela Moscoso joined CARA in 2021 as its inaugural Executive Director and Chief Curator.

W.A.G.E. Certificate

CARA is certified by Working Artists and the Greater Economy (W.A.G.E.). This certification is the first model of its kind and the first in the U.S. to establish a sector-wide minimum standard for compensation, as well as clear guidelines regarding the value of artistic labor.