What We Do

Through coaching, production support, creative direction, and fiscal partnership, we:

Celebrate and amplify diverse communities with a special focus on people of color, women, and LGBTQ+
Create healing-centered, joy-filled spaces
Build leadership pathways for emerging cultural producers
Activate parks, plazas, and venues in historically marginalized neighborhoods

Our programs are rooted in trauma-informed frameworks and we center relationships, community wisdom, and long-term sustainability.

Events are more than just people gathering in a room – they are powerful reminders that we are not alone, and that we are all interconnected in this thing called life.

Gina Rosales

Executive Director

Programs

The Event Lab

The Event Lab is Brave New Spaces’ curated activation program — an open call for producers, planners, and creative collaborators to pitch their event concepts for the studio.

Selected producers partner with BNS to bring their vision to life in our studio space, with access to our in-house vendor team and built-in community reach. It’s a partnership model built on shared risk, shared reward, and a genuine investment in the kinds of events the industry needs more of.

We review submissions on a rolling basis. If your concept fits the space and the mission, let’s make it happen.

Pinayista is a vibrant community of Filipino women entrepreneurs and creative solopreneurs with a mission to build sisterhood in the hustle.

Pinayista Website

A joyful celebration of food, drink, and culture highlighting diverse chefs, winemakers, and creatives, while reclaiming space and telling the stories of the global diaspora through culinary artistry.

POC Food & Wine Website

Our Model: Educate. Connect. Amplify.

We believe in place-based transformation. Our work begins with training, grows through relationship, and culminates in public celebrations of JOY.

By supporting Queer, BIPOC, and global diasporic cultural workers to lead, Brave New Spaces is creating a living ecosystem of belonging – where intergenerational joy, cultural resilience, and economic opportunity come together.

I left Summit this year with a full heart and an overwhelming feeling of joy. I’m still at a loss for words. The impact you all have had on not only my life, but my family’s, my clients, and friends has changed our entire world.

Jamie Cardenas

Magpie Alchemy Founder

Why We Exist

Our work was born out of the urgency to reclaim space for BIPOC, immigrant, and working-class communities facing displacement.

Through our roots in SOMA Pilipinas and our founder, Gina Mariko Rosales’ work building UNDISCOVERED SF, we’ve proven that community-led cultural production can activate entire neighborhoods, build power, and shift narratives.

Now, Brave New Spaces is expanding that model. We’re creating a future where our festivals and events aren’t just community-based – they’re community-led, from idea to execution, with long-term sustainability at the heart of our work.