What is OpenArt?

OpenArt is a nonprofit organization that uses arts to meet people at the point of their need.
 
Our mission is to be a regenerative force in our communities, creating experiences of discovery, connection and resilience through our work in the arts and the natural world.
 
Funded by sliding-scale fees, charitable donations, and grants, we offer productions, retreats, educational and cultural programming, community events, cottage industry initiatives, and consulting to individuals, communities, and organizations—serving, learning from and growing in humble partnership with people of diverse economic backgrounds, ethnicities, ages, sexualities and abilities.


​Mo Desir

Monique Harper-Desir, Mo, is an arts activist, working across the United States. Mo is striving to connect communities of all backgrounds to each other; offering curriculum, workshops, trainings, art classes & more, to enrich those around her. Mo is a first generation West Indian arts activist from Western Massachusetts.


​Sarah Peters Gonzalez

Sarah Peters Gonzalez is a person who loves family, neurodiversity, and trees. Her creative practice – which includes theatre-making, education, and participatory workshops - is woven with threads of community engagement, comedy, and a never-ending goal of making it more possible for people of any background to express themselves through artistic means. Sarah believes that creative expression is a human birthright, but that it gets shut out of many people’s lives early in life. She has been moved to action by observing this community illness in the many places she has lived throughout the US. Her life experiences have given her the ability to make complex processes accessible to others; to seek and respond to critical feedback; and to tend to the well-being of a collaborative creative team. Her approach, whether in the rehearsal room, classroom or workshop space, in haiku form: Move, move with others/ Listen to the space between/ What says your body?

James Peck

James taught for over ten years at Dell’arte International school of Physical Theater, teaching Play, the Vocal Body, ensemble devising, mask and physical expression. Graduating students who now work in such esteemed companies as Cirque du Soleil and The Wonderheads. He has performed, created, directed and produced theater pieces all over the world for over 30 years and was a member of Dell’arte theater Ensemble for ten seasons.
 
He has recently co-founded, OpenArt which is a company committed to reflective change through the arts. Through the Alexander Technique, GamePlay and The Human Givens this company aims to develop personal practice of empowerment as means of somatic and social healing.
 
James also likes cats and is learning to juggle – activities not to be confused. He is a fervent mime and mask-maker and also a keen but amateur walker with goats.
Associate Artist
Zuzka Sabata
Zuzka Sabata is a playwright, actor, producer and teacher that has worked in Humboldt County for 20 years primarily teaching and creating original theatre in collaboration with community. She was on staff and faculty at Dell’Arte International for 12 years and co-founded the first ever theatre arts program in Pelican Bay State Prison. She collaborated with filmmaker Michelle Hernandez on the Bartow Project, 4 short films about Wiyot artist Rick Bartow. Find out more about her projects at  www.zuzkasabata.com

Honored Previous Collaborators:

https://www.facebook.com/tucker.noir
Noel August
Noel is a Humboldt County based queer performance artist, activist, educator and single mom. She is a drag king and pre-covid toured the country performing and teaching. Noël is a postmodern dance choreographer and teacher specializing in the Nikolais-Louis Technique. She teaches free weekly all-bodies community dance classes. Noël serves on community boards that focus on transformative justice and evaluating the local police academy. She works with groups such as Open Door, Humboldt County Public Health, and the Suicide Intervention Network to aid community members with food security, access to healthcare, mental and behavioral health, trans and gender-nonconforming health, housing security, and healthy activities. Noël is currently employed teaching somatic dance to newly adopted teenagers, teaching private dance lessons, and as a handyman for a disabled trans Community member. She is raising three children and has two more in college. Noël is a co-facilitator of the Whiteness Within workshops and director of Club Triangle, a drag artist collective.