SVCREATES’ Peer Support Roundtables offer a unique opportunity for our grantees to connect around specific topics, fostering a dynamic network of learning and resource sharing within Santa Clara County's vibrant arts community. This year, we're enhancing the experience with four dedicated meetings, balancing convenience and connection with two in-person gatherings and two online sessions.

What's Next

Our Peer Support Roundtable Kickoff, "People, Power, and Resilience: What Do We Do Now?" will be on Tuesday, October 28, 2025 from 11:30am - 1:30pm. It offers a space for you to connect with fellow arts leaders. This facilitated conversation, our first of the year, will delve into the heart of our current landscape, allowing us to openly discuss the pressures and possibilities we confront, share insights, and collectively chart pathways forward to not just survive, but thrive, in these changing times. This kickoff will not be split up by discipline; instead, connect for a robust conversation across the arts landscape of Santa Clara County. Join us in person at Chinese Performing Arts of America to find community, fresh perspectives, and actionable strategies for building a more resilient future for the arts.

Sign up early for your roundtable!

The schedule for the Peer Support Roundtables this year will be:

  • "People, Power, and Resilience: What Do We Do Now?" - Roundtable Kickoff
    Tuesday, October 28, 2025 from 11:30am - 1:30pm
    In person at Chinese Performing Arts of America

  • Discipline-based Roundtable Discussion
    Tuesday, December 9 from 12:00pm - 1:15pm (Visual Arts, Music) via Zoom
    Wednesday, December 10 from 12:00pm - 1:15pm (Theatre, Dance, and Music) via Zoom

  • Theme TBD 
    Tuesday, February 10 from 11:30am - 1:30pm
    In person at Chinese Performing Arts of America

  • Discipline-based Roundtable Discussion
    Tuesday, March 17 from 12:00pm - 1:15pm (Visual Arts, Music)
    Wednesday, March 18 from 12:00pm - 1:15pm (Theatre, Dance, and Music)

  • Additionally, we will invite the Peer Support Roundtable to a special Coffee Hour at the Town Hall on April 28, 2026 at 8:00am
What We Do

These roundtables are a cornerstone of SVCREATES' commitment to maximizing the inherent strengths of our local arts ecosystem. Designed to facilitate rich conversations, shared learning, and mutual support, they bring together arts leaders from our grant portfolio. Participants are grouped by discipline and budget size, creating focused environments for impactful discussions. Each roundtable, typically composed of 12-18 participants, meets to delve into timely topics, gain insights from guest speakers, and collaboratively address shared challenges. The connections cultivated extend beyond the meetings, building valuable partnerships, encouraging deeper collaboration, and facilitating essential resource sharing among arts organizations.

The Peer Support Roundtables have been a meaningful way to connect our portfolio of arts organizations. In FY26, we made some adjustments to allow folx to meet in person, to frame the conversations with what is top of mind for arts organizations, and to more deeply support our Folk and Traditional Arts organizations.

Who We Serve

All current SVCREATES grantees are invited to participate in the Arts Roundtable. The program is designed to support volunteer Board leadership, arts executives, and senior staff from arts organizations throughout Santa Clara County.

Why It's Important

Our local arts ecosystem is characterized by a high number of small multicultural organizations operating on razor-thin margins and working with a vast network of self-employed artists cobbling together livelihoods through performance gigs and independent teaching opportunities. It is this web, this network, of small arts organizations, artists, arts leaders, and creative entrepreneurs that make our arts ecosystem vibrant. We know our arts community here in Santa Clara County is unique and has unique strengths and challenges. We want to embrace and build on those strengths. Over the past three years, we have witnessed the value of peer support networks — arts leaders supporting each other, sharing challenges and solutions, and developing partnerships. This web and mutual support makes us stronger.

What's Been Done

SVCREATES began hosting these in Summer 2020 to provide specific pandemic-related mutual support. Based on the demonstrated value and the demand from our grantees, we have continued to host, facilitate, and modify each roundtable with input from participants for three years. Peer Support Roundtables are now one of our core programs and one component of SVCREATES’ stewardship model of support for the Santa Clara County arts ecosystem.

Participants are divided into roundtables by discipline and budget size, with a target of 12–18 participants each. These roundtables meet quarterly to discuss timely topics, learn from guest speakers, and collaborate to overcome shared challenges. The connections formed between meetings build partnerships, encourage collaboration, and resource sharing. In addition to these Peer Support Roundtables, SVCREATES also hosts an annual intensive SVMindshare leadership development program for arts executives to increase their leadership skills.

  • Since 2020, SVCREATES has facilitated 20 peer support roundtables, serving over 200 arts leaders
  • Refined the roundtable model to include co-facilitation by peers and outside expert consultants, in both online and in-person formats
  • Fostered partnerships, leveraged resources, and encouraged collaboration through roundtable participation