Kua’aina Associates
Indigenous arts & cultures
San Francisco Bay Area-based Kua’aina Associates provides capacity building assistance to Native cultural and art organizations, individual artists, and produces special art and cultural projects. To provide these services, Kua’aina draws from a pool of associates who bring to a project an array of expertise such as: program development, project coordination and management, technical and cultural writing, marketing and public relations, fund development, visual and performing arts, traditional arts and indigenous knowledge, languages, and healing arts. Kua’aina operates under the notion that working collectively on a project provides an opportunity for a more monumental outcome, thereby contributing to the maintenance and sharing of the life ways of cultural and artistic expression.
In 2008, as a participant in ACTA’s Traditional Arts Development Program, Kua’aina worked with accountant Rex G. Davis to incorporate as a California nonprofit organization, including drafting articles of incorporation, drafting bylaws, preparing other incorporation documents, obtaining tax-exempt status from the IRS and State of California, and establishing procedures to remain compliant with its nonprofit status.