Bridging Distinct Communities

Mosaic America is a nonprofit organization based in Santa Clara County, California, that is committed to fostering belonging within and between cultural groups in highly diverse communities. The organization operates in a region shaped by extensive migration, multiple backgrounds that shape values and meaning-making systems, and extreme economic disparities. 

In distinct communities of the region, artists and artistic communities foster and maintain a range of practices, neighborhoods, networks, events, and programs as tools for strengthening community. Through its research work, Mosaic America and a team from San Jose State University sought to highlight how artists and advocates in this region create, mobilize, and achieve a sense of belonging and community coherence. 

The findings show how artists and advocates—through their art—fulfill community needs, engage with heritage and ancestral traditions, cultivate respect, educate outsiders, communicate identity, express purpose, embrace responsibility, and challenge dominant cultural narratives. Their art is also a way of healing from trauma, storytelling, innovating, and building community resilience.

This research expanded the scope of Mosaic Atlas—a publicly accessible digital tool, designed to map and visualize cultural assets across the Bay Area, as defined by culturally distinct communities.

This brief is based on Mapping and Mobilizing Cultural Arts in the Bay Area written by Jan English-Lueck, and Sukanya Chakrabart from San Jose State University, and Usha Srinivasan and Milina Jovanović from Mosaic America.