We produce vibrant creative community spaces, shows, opportunities and resources. Current programs include:
① the FRONT MARKET
As a biannual independent marketplace and fair, The Front Market has welcomed 30,000+ guests & supported more than 1,800 Texas-based women and LGBTQ+ creatives, artists, designers, chefs, makers and craftspeople since 2016.
Learn more here.
② THE FRONT FESTIVAL
The Front Festival is an end-of-summer festival, featuring music, film and art showcases curated by Future Front. Over the course of a weekend, we celebrate independent women and LGBTQ+ artists in Texas and the power of telling our stories.
Learn more here.
③ THE FUTURE FRONT HOUSE
Located at 1900 E 12th St. in Austin, Texas, The Future Front House is community space by and for creative types. The House is open for workshops, pop-ups and art shows on weeknights and weekends, as well as weekday drop-ins.
Stop by during public hours, become a member or book a community event rental. Learn more here.
④ OPEN CREATIVE LEARNING WORKSHOPS, CLUBS & GUIDES
Our public workshops, educational series & conference explore creative work, community-building, leadership, wellness and belonging.
Every session introduces you to rad Texans building their own creative careers, businesses, communities and workspaces. Our blog is also a living collection of free resources, guides & interviews.
Current series include workshops, meet-ups, Community Clubs as well as the Work Conference.
⑤ CREATIVE COMMUNITY RESOURCES & COLLECTIVE-CARE COLLABORATIONS*
We work with community partners and collaborators to design, pioneer and produce cultural programs and projects in Texas that support women and LGBTQ+ creatives around the following pillars.
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We work alongside independent creatives and organizations to nurture a community practice for Future Front, as well as community practices in Texas. This looks like:
✰ Offering fiscal sponsorship & pro-bono partnership to like-minded grassroots initiatives that meet FFTX core values & vision
✰ Operating The Creative Future of Texas Fund
✰ Operating a Community Curators Program
✰ Operating the Community Clubs program
✰ Collaborating on the creation of projects & programs with partners that increase access to paid resources & capacity-building opportunities for creatives & artists outside Future Front programs
✰ Documenting and creating processes, educational opportunities & capacity-building trainings for community-driven curatorial work and program design -
We collaborate directly with artists and creatives in our programs to bring forward progressive projects that nurture belonging and address inequity in our Texas communities. This looks like:
✰ Producing collaborative community showcases and events like The Texan Feminist Throwdown and Pride Picnic that explore social justice, public health and autonomy
✰ Creative activism projects around reproductive rights advocacy, gender & racial equity, as well as labor advocacy in creative fields—from community outreach on grant funding to educational resources on public health
✰ Ongoing partnerships with gender & racial equity groups & groups that create belong for diverse women, femme, queer, trans and nonbinary folks in creative fields and Texas at-large—from participating in voter advocacy to distributing Census surveys to drag culture advoacy
✰ Ensuring our programs are fair-share, reflecting back the diverse cultures present in Texas, as well as the cultural histories that shape our programs
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We collaborate on projects & programs that increase access to creative wellness in Texas. To date, we have worked on:
✰ a pro-bono therapy fund with Colors of Austin Counseling distributing more than 150 therapy sessions to creatives of color in need
✰ designing collective-care curriculums for independent creatives centering justice and belonging in their community spaces
✰ ensuring that wellness and mental health themes are incorporated into our creative programming—from sessions on burnout and creative work to workshops on meditation
*Active projects & collaborations:
✰ Future Front’s Creative Future of Texas Fund annually awards partnership to cultural and community-based projects by women and LGBTQ+ creatives in Texas. Funds are raised through donations at the door, as well as support from our members.
✰ Future Front’s Artist Residency nurtures 15 Texas-based artists per year, connecting them to commissions and exhibitions within our programs, as well as collaborations with our partners.
✰ Future Front’s Curators Program welcomes 15 community members per year to learn curatorial frameworks and community design principles through Future Front’s programs.
✰ Future Front has designed and co-founded community programs for partner organizations, including Pride Picnic at Pease Park, The Texan Feminist Throwdown, the Downtown Austin Alliance’s first-ever festival and EMERGE at The LINE Austin.
✰ Future Front provides fiscal sponsorship to multiple Austin community organizations, including Black Austin Musicians Collective, Veneration Fashion Show and Broad Studios’ ClubHouse Ceramics Scholarship and more!