About Us
What started with 500 people painting a street mural has evolved into an ongoing movement dedicated to building awareness, accountability, and lasting change in our community.
Our Purpose
Our mission is to bring awareness to the inequities in our community while bringing humanness to the process of becoming more equitable.
We strive toward these goals:
-
Highlighting leaders who are doing the work in our community
-
Providing tools for anyone desiring to re-examine their own racial equity standards in practice and action
-
Creating a support system for change and change makers
-
Illustrate what it looks like for organizations to go through racial equity training in a transparent, safe, and vulnerable way, so that others will be inspired to initiate change within themselves and their businesses or organizations.
While acknowledging the urgency of this need, we also remain aware that real change takes perseverance, humility, and time. We are committed to re-evaluating and shifting as much as needed to build the best practices and models for creating change in our community.
Meet the people behind SC Equity Collab
The Santa Cruz Equity Collab is driven by a passionate team of artists, organizers, and advocates committed to creating lasting change in our community.
Meet the people behind this transformative initiative, each bringing their unique talents and perspectives to advance equity, justice, and connection in Santa Cruz.
Abi Mustapha
Artist, Activist
Abi Mustapha is a Sierra Leonean-American contemporary artist and dedicated community builder. She earned her B.A. in Political Science with a focus on Sustainability from Indiana University before embarking on a career in sustainable agriculture and permaculture. In 2013, she relocated from Indiana to the Bay Area to pursue her passion for art.
Abi's artistic journey has included exhibitions in galleries and museums across the Midwest and Bay Area, including notable venues such as the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History, Garret Museum of Art, The Richmond Art Center, and Joyce Gordon Gallery. In 2021, she was the Artist in Residence at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History.
Beyond her artistic practice, Abi is deeply engaged in the Santa Cruz community. She has played a pivotal role in founding and participating in racial justice initiatives throughout the region. Her creative expression is rooted in themes of human connection and nature, with a body of work that includes murals, illustration, digital art, and portraiture.
For more information about Abi and her work, visit abimustapha.com or follow her on Instagram @abimustapha.
Taylor Reinhold
Muralist, Community Organizer
Taylor "Tay" Reinhold is a Santa Cruz native with a BFA from Santa Clara University who founded Made Fresh Crew in 2009, a multi-disciplinary artist collective. He promotes youth creativity through workshops with Youth NOW, Mariposa Arts, and the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History.
In 2011, Taylor received a National Endowment of the Arts Award to co-curate Watsonville's first Urban Arts Festival. He has since partnered with foundations to fund major murals throughout Santa Cruz County, creating public art focused on environmental stewardship, social justice, and inclusivity.
Taylor's murals span the globe from South America to Asia. He continues painting large-scale installations along the West Coast for companies including Plantronics, Comcast, and LinkedIn.
Sean McGowan
Santa Cruz County Arts Commissioner, Artist, Community Organizer
Sean McGowan entered the arts community at a young age, co-opted by his mother into assisting with local art walks. He immediately fell in love with the work and began developing his talents in photography, painting, screen printing, and sculpture. When the struggling art and music community around him became apparent, he started an artist collective specializing in event production and promotion which thrives to this day.
Years later, in Santa Cruz, Sean received a bachelor's degree in Economics and Art, and an MFA in Digital Arts and New Media. Beyond academics, he and friends started an Indian food pop-up that donated all proceeds to local charities, demonstrating his commitment to community service.
Sean currently works for artist Jim Campbell as a production lead specializing in rapid prototyping and development of large-scale public art projects. He joined the Santa Cruz Arts Commission with the express intention of giving back to the community that helped mold him into the artist he is today.
Shandara Gill
Social Worker, Mindfulness Teacher, Non-profit Founder
Since 2014, Shandara (known to her friends as Shanie) has donated her time to serve individuals experiencing incarceration, recovery, various mental health experiences, domestic violence and homelessness with the gift of yoga. What started as a vision of making the practice of yoga accessible to all grew to utilizing the practice as a vehicle for social transformation.
Shanie combines her passions for yoga and holistic wellness with restorative justice and is often invited to speak about pathways to wellness and justice at various panels and conferences. Most recently, she was invited to speak about the changing Child Welfare System in California at the Institute for Restorative Practices international conference, as well as with Santa Cruz County's Public Health Department on complementary alternative medicine. She was named 2019's Give Back Person of the Year by The NEXTies, is a Be The Difference Award recipient and, in 2021, was recognized with a Queer Youth Leadership Ally Award.