Letter from an Executive Director

June 2025

Our journey to finding an amazing next Executive Director!

Dear Community,

The process of finding the next Executive Director actually began when Cheryl Bonacci and I founded Creative Acts in 2018 with a commitment to building an organization that could support someone with lived experience of incarceration in the ED position after 5 years. We have seen how the energy and vision of organizations can be stifled by an ED who stays too long, we have seen people thrown into positions of power after 2020, without the systems of support they need to thrive, and we have worked hard to ensure we dig deep to do something different.

Creative Acts was born out of 25+ combined years of learning from myself at The Actors’ Gang, and co-founder Cheryl at The Anti Recidivism Coalition. We started it because we could not find another nonprofit that was global majority and using the tools the arts provide to disrupt and transform the approach to incarceration in both programming and work culture, so we created one. It’s always been aligned with the spirit of science- propose, experiment, assess, fail big, rethink, try again. It’s always centered people with lived experience and paid them as subject matter experts. It’s always employed artists and creative thinkers, given them decision-making power and always had pay equity to demonstrate our culture of shared power. We work with those we serve as partners, not professors. We are a nonprofit that hopes to be part of solving a problem to the extent that we are no longer necessary, however long that takes.

If you’re ever donated, been a funder, a partner, a supporter, an employee or a teaching artist, you are part of the Creative Acts family, and we thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your support during the first six years. And, of course, I must acknowledge and deeply thank two people who had the vision, courage and trust to be the first funders on board right at the beginning- Monica Rosenthal of The Rosenthal Family Foundation, and Dr Bob Ross. We would not be here without you. Thank you so much.

With the visionary support of The Nonprofit Sustainability Fund, our amazing Board, and our incredible staff and Alumni Lab, after 27 applications, interviewing 12 qualified candidates over the course of 4 months, we think we have a process and resources to support our next Executive Director. And we’ve found him!

Please welcome:

Isaac Gonzalez,

Creative Acts Next Executive Director!

We are so excited to welcome Isaac to the Creative Acts family! Isaac moved us with his quiet sincerity and understanding of the power of the arts in this space. He impressed us with his extensive experience at Homeboy Industries, managing people and giving individual care and support. He is the perfect person to take up the baton of Creative Acts and work with our team to deepen and expand the work. Much of the day to day of an ED is invisible and unglamorous- I hope you will support Issac and encourage him during the struggles all EDs deal with.

As I mentioned, we have seen people thrown into positions of power after 2020, without the systems of support they need to thrive, and we have worked hard to ensure we dig deep to do something different.

As part of our transition process, and after learning what resources might be needed, we have committed to ensuring the nect ED feels completely supported and ready to fly, so we have offered a side-by-side transition with me for 3-6 months (a timeline the next ED will decide on), hence we will be Co-Executive Directors for this short period. I have been asked to stay on as Director of Engagement, which is a challenge I’m honored and excited to take on. As with most of what we do at Creative Acts, we hope we can model an approach that will inspire other organizations in the future.

We understand that change is often hard, and a founder ED can make it difficult to imagine a different approach, but we have built an organization that we are proud of, that is deeply impactful, visionary, sustainable and joyful. Now we ask our community to wholeheartedly support Isaac, our next Executive Director!

All EDs need to fundraise, especially at this moment of peril for the arts, how great it would be to celebrate Isaac’s beginning with our Creative Acts family showing up with a donation, no matter how small or large. You can show your support HERE.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

What joy to see our original vision achieved!