The Bay Area-based art collective useless initiatives works with performance, social practice, collaborative workshops, and experimental objects. We create immersive, sensory, participant-led experiences through our workshop Haptic Encounters, and we host a Performance Night series highlighting emerging womxn and queer performance artists.

useless initiatives is Beatriz Escobar, Jillian Crochet, and River Black.

Beatriz Escobar, Jillian Crochet, and River Black created useless initiatives in 2017 at California College of the Arts to address the lack of performance art opportunities within the CCA MFA curriculum. Since then useless initiatives organized seven experimental Performance Nights and hosted our Haptic Encounter workshop at numerous arts venues including Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, the Headlands Center for the Arts, and the Pulitzer Center for the Arts (upcoming). Full CV here.