Critical Response Process Sessions SCHEDULE::

Antenna is inviting our community into a Critical Response Process (CRP) around our emerging Values + Pathways Framework, a framework for articulating who Antenna is, what we value, how those values guide our work, and the pathways we want to build toward Antenna’s future(s). Feedback gathered through these sessions will be documented, reviewed, and shared by Antenna as we continue developing the Values + Pathways Framework. Come read, respond with Statements of Meaning and Neutral Questions, and help us think about what Antenna can become::

Who’s Doing What? — Critical Response Process Launch
September 24 | 6–7:30 PM | Antenna:6330, 6330 St. Claude Ave.
Join us as we introduce Antenna’s emerging Values + Pathways Framework, share the work that has brought us to this point, and explain how the public Critical Response Process sessions in October will work.

Critical Response Process — Feedback Session 1
October 8 | 6–7:30 PM | Antenna:6330, 6330 St. Claude Ave.
A facilitated, in-person conversation using Critical Response Process, with a focus on Statements of Meaning and Neutral Questions to help Antenna reflect on and further develop the Values + Pathways Framework.

Second Saturday — “Values + Pathways” Community Response
October 10 | Antenna:3718, 3718 St. Claude Ave., 6–10 PM | Antenna:6330, 6330 St. Claude Ave., 6–9 PM
Stop by either Antenna location during Second Saturday to read the Values + Pathways Framework, use the printed / digital tools to respond, and contribute to the process through Statements of Meaning and Neutral Questions.

Critical Response Process — Virtual Feedback Session 1
October 15 | 6–7:30 PM | Zoom https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88180683677
An online opportunity for those who cannot attend in person. Join a facilitated virtual conversation using Critical Response Process, with Statements of Meaning and Neutral Questions guiding our collective response to the Values + Pathways Framework.

Critical Response Process — Feedback Session 3
October 29 | 6–7:30 PM | Antenna:3718, 3718 St. Claude Ave.
A facilitated, in-person conversation using Critical Response Process, with a focus on Statements of Meaning and Neutral Questions to help Antenna reflect on and further develop the Values + Pathways Framework.

What is Antenna’s “Values + Pathways Framework”?

Over the last two years, Antenna’s team, advised by the Board, has been engaged in a process of listening, reflection, and visioning about the organization’s identity, values, responsibilities, and future direction.

The emerging Values + Pathways Framework grew out of more than 100 meetings held through Antenna’s Office Hours with culture bearers, artists, writers, organizers, and other participants across our creative ecology. These conversations have helped us better understand what people need, what they value about Antenna, where barriers exist, and what role Antenna might play in supporting a changing creative ecology.

Rather than functioning as a traditional strategic plan, the framework identifies the values that ground Antenna and the pathways through which those values can be put into practice. It asks us to consider not only what Antenna does, but why we do it, who we do it with and for, and how we can leverage and share the resources we hold—including space, funding, professional support, digital and print production, publishing infrastructure, knowledge, relationships, and networks.

In this way, the framework connects values to action. It asks how Antenna’s resources can be shared, activated, and made more accessible, and how our organizational practices can remain responsive to the people and communities of which we are a part.

Why are we doing this work now?

Having recently marked 20 years of Antenna, we are at an important moment to consider what comes next. We are thinking not only about how to sustain Antenna as an organization, but how to continue and evolve its role as an incubator—a place where artists, writers, culture bearers, and cultural workers can experiment, take risks, build relationships, access resources, and develop new work and ideas.

We are also operating within a cultural landscape that continues to change. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated shifts in how people gather, participate, and experience culture, and today we are seeing different patterns of attendance, engagement, collaboration, and use of cultural spaces. At the same time, shifting philanthropic priorities, reductions in public and private funding, rising costs, and greater competition for limited resources are reshaping the conditions in which artists, culture bearers, and cultural organizations work.

The Values + Pathways Framework gives us a way to be present with these realities while planning intentionally for the future. We are asking:

What does it mean for Antenna to remain an incubator for its next 20 years? How do we want to gather? How can our spaces and resources be activated differently? What relationships do we want to deepen? How can we leverage and share what Antenna has? And what does our creative ecology need from Antenna now and in the years ahead?

As we move into Antenna’s next chapter, we want to develop shared language around what remains essential, what can evolve, and what new possibilities we can build together. The Values + Pathways Framework connects our values to these choices and helps us imagine pathways that keep Antenna experimental, accessible, responsive, and sustainable.

Why is Antenna using Critical Response Process?

We do not want the Values + Pathways Framework to be finalized behind closed doors. Antenna exists within a much larger ecosystem, their experiences with Antenna—and their perspectives on what Antenna might become—are essential to this process. To support this conversation, we are using Critical Response Process (CRP), a facilitated feedback method developed by artist and choreographer Liz Lerman. CRP provides a structured way for people to respond to work in progress through listening, reflection, questions, and dialogue.

Rather than simply asking whether participants “like” or “dislike” the framework, CRP gives us tools for understanding what resonates, what raises questions, what needs greater clarity, and what we may not yet be seeing.

What will happen during the sessions?

Each session will begin with a brief introduction to the Values + Pathways Framework, the work that has brought us to this point, and an orientation to Critical Response Process. Participants will have time to read, review, and reflect on the framework before moving into a facilitated conversation. We will focus primarily on two CRP practices:

Statements of Meaning: Participants identify what feels meaningful, resonant, important, or worth carrying forward in the framework.

Neutral Questions: Participants pose questions that do not contain an embedded opinion or proposed solution. These questions can help Antenna think more deeply, recognize assumptions, and consider perspectives that may not yet be represented.

Together, we will consider: What feels meaningful or essential? What questions does the framework raise? What needs greater clarity? Whose perspectives or experiences might be missing? What should Antenna continue thinking about as the framework evolves?

The goal of these sessions is not to reach consensus or finalize the framework in the room. The goal is to listen, learn, document what we hear, and use the community’s responses to inform the next stage of Antenna’s Values + Pathways Framework.

Come for the conversation—and leave with a book! Free books and light refreshments will be available at every session. You are welcome to attend one session, several sessions, or all of them, depending on your interest and availability.

Your participation will help us think more deeply about what Antenna carries forward, what can evolve, and what pathways we build together.

Please see session schedule above