About Calico Theatre Company
Our Mission
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To empower the underrepresented voices of those who identify as disabled and/or neurodivergent and their allies.
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To enrich the community with collaborative, creative, and educational opportunities.
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To explore new and innovative modes and realms of storytelling and creative expression, highlighting the needs of disabled and neurodivergent artists.
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To embrace the diversity of the greater community as well as that of the local arts community.
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To establish an artistic home for local creatives who feel their stories aren’t being told.
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Our Vision
The Calico Theatre Company aspires to create fresh and meaningful expressive, collaborative, and audience opportunities for neurodivergent, disabled, and other underrepresented individuals in our community. We welcome individuals with both hidden and visible disabilities, those living with mental illness, those experiencing chronic health conditions, as well as allies and advocates of the disabled community.
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Community. Diversity. Accessibility. Compassion. Patience. Courage. Justice. Learning. Collaboration. Belonging. Inclusion. Innovation.
DEI
Calico strongly believes that the diversity of our community makes us better and stronger. We are committed to championing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusiveness in our company and in our practices. Calico will never deny a community member opportunities, dignity, or respect based on their race, ethnicity, culture, religion, gender identity or presentation, sex, sexual orientation, pregnancy status, military status, socio-economic status, size, shape, or disabilities.
Accessibility
Calico strives to provide a safe and equal space for all Calico community members to work, create, express, volunteer, explore, and thrive. This includes making our events, meetings, and other spaces and offerings as accessible as possible, whenever we are able. Accessibility sits at the heart of our company values and we are committed to meeting as many needs as we can given our resources. Calico is for everyone.
Anti-White Supremacy
The Calico team believes that it is not enough to simply acknowledge diversity and equality: we must also commit to actively rejecting hate and white supremacy. Calico supports our BIPOC community members and vows to offer opportunities to BIPOC creatives. Calico leadership will not tolerate acts of racism and other forms of hate within our spaces.
Land Acknowledgement
​Calico Theatre Company respectfully acknowledges that the lands we gather on are the tribal territory and unceded lands of the Muwekma Ohlone peoples.
What we do with funding:
Accessibility Services: Calico Theatre Company strives to provide, whenever possible, services and accommodations for our company members, as well as our audiences. This includes providing ASL (American Sign Language) Interpretation, booking mobility-accessible venues, and more. Accessibility & Inclusivity are core elements of our company and represent funding priorities in our budget.
Artist & Creatives Stipends: Calico believes in paying artists, technicians, and other contributors for their work. Everyone deserves a living wage and arts professionals deserve to be paid fairly. Whenever possible, Calico will offer a stipend to participating creatives for events, performances, and other projects.
Calico Leadership Team Stipends: Keeping Calico up & running is fun…and it’s also a LOT of work! Our leadership team does it all: producing, fundraising, administration, communications, social media, graphic design, you name it. We try to pay our team a stipend for their hard work.
Space rentals: We cannot make accessible theatre happen without partnering with accessible host venues. This typically means paying for both the space and the staff at host theatres and other spaces. *A huge Thank You to partnering organizations who offer Calico a rental discount or free space or services!
Materials & Creative Costs: Running a nonprofit theatre requires, well, some stuff. Think: the cost of printing scripts and other materials; food & hospitality necessities for events; accessibility items we like to keep on hand, such as ear plugs & fidgets for in-person events and meetings; basic administrative & office-type supplies; and more. We also provide materials and funds for our creatives to work with (ex: props, set, and costume budgets).
Miscellaneous costs: Additional funds may contribute to things such as transportation costs for team members and creatives traveling to events from further away.