What Community-Centered Leadership Looks Like in Practice
- barbaramumby1
- Feb 21
- 4 min read
From Merced County’s Hands On Heroes to San Francisco’s Artistic Legacy and Ebony McKinney Arts Leadership Awards
By Barbara Mumby Huerta
Community-centered leadership begins with a simple but transformative question:
Who is doing the work—and are we honoring them?
Across my career—from rural Merced County to the San Francisco Arts Commission—I have designed programs rooted in one principle: public systems must actively uplift the individuals who sustain community life, cultural continuity, and intergenerational care.
Recognition is not ceremonial. It is structural.
Three initiatives illustrate this approach in practice:
The Hands On Heroes Program (Merced County, 2010-present)
The Artistic Legacy Grant (ALG) (San Francisco Arts Commission, 2017–present)
The Ebony McKinney Arts Leadership Award (San Francisco Arts Commission, 2018–present)
Each was created to center the voices and labor of those often overlooked.
Hands On Heroes: Honoring Everyday Courage in Merced County
In 2010, Merced County adopted a formal Children’s Bill of Rights, affirming that all children have the right to:
Prepared and knowledgeable caregivers
Stable and nurturing relationships
Safety and freedom from abuse
Quality health care
Encouragement to dream big
A community that makes children its highest priority
That same year, I helped lead the Children’s Summit centered on these principles.
The Bill of Rights articulated shared values.
But values require embodiment.
In response, I conceptualized the Hands On Heroes Program to publicly recognize individuals and businesses who went above and beyond to support children—from prenatal through age 18—in ways that actively embodied those rights.
Community members submitted nominations, and honorees were celebrated annually at the Merced County Children’s Summit.
Hands On Heroes reframed the narrative around children’s wellbeing. Instead of focusing solely on deficits, we uplifted caregivers, educators, neighbors, health professionals, and advocates whose daily work created safety, opportunity, and dignity.
Recognition became a tool for civic alignment. It made visible the people already building the community we aspired to become.
From Child Advocacy to Cultural Equity
When I later joined the San Francisco Arts Commission, I carried forward the same philosophy: institutions must acknowledge the people who sustain them.
In 2017, the sudden passing of Ebony McKinney—a beloved arts leader and fierce advocate for cultural equity—left a profound impact on the Bay Area arts community.
Ebony dedicated her career to supporting leaders of color and increasing equitable access to the arts locally and nationally. She also co-founded EAP-SF/BA and Arts for a Better Bay Area. As a vital member of my team at the Arts Commission, she provided invaluable insight and her passing left an indelible mark.
To honor her legacy, I identified funding and conceptualized the Ebony McKinney Arts Leadership Award.
The Ebony McKinney Arts Leadership Award: Institutionalizing Equity Leadership
The Ebony McKinney Arts Leadership Award recognizes arts and culture administrators who:
Address critical issues facing San Francisco’s arts community
Advance equitable access to arts resources
Demonstrate commitment to cultivating leadership among underrepresented communities
The award was designed not as a memorial alone, but as a living continuation of Ebony’s work—uplifting administrators of color and ensuring that leadership equity remained embedded within SFAC’s funding structure.
By formalizing this recognition, we ensured that equity leadership was:
Visible
Resourced
Celebrated
Institutionally supported
In doing so, the Arts Commission affirmed that behind every vibrant arts ecosystem are administrators—often women and leaders of color—whose labor sustains organizations, artists, and communities.
The Artistic Legacy Grant: Honoring Cultural Continuity
Recognition at SFAC did not stop with administrators.
From 2017 to 2023, the Artistic Legacy Grant (ALG) acknowledged artistic directors who had served San Francisco-based arts organizations for 25 years or more.
Beginning in 2024, the grant evolved to recognize San Francisco-based artists who have:
Lived and practiced in the city for 25 consecutive years
Contributed meaningfully to its cultural ecosystem
Sustained artistic excellence across generations
Recipients—including Alleluia Panis, Patrick Makuakane, and Joan Pinkvoss—were honored at annual convenings designed collaboratively with community members.
ALG affirmed that cultural continuity is not accidental—it is stewarded.
The Throughline: Recognition as Redistribution
Across all three programs—Hands On Heroes, the Ebony McKinney Arts Leadership Award, and the Artistic Legacy Grant—the intention was the same:
Lift up the work and voices of those who often go unrecognized.
Caregivers who protect children
Administrators who build equitable arts infrastructure
Artists who sustain cultural identity for decades
Public recognition does more than celebrate individuals. It redistributes visibility and affirms shared values.
When institutions formally acknowledge community labor, they reshape what leadership looks like.
Why This Matters
Communities are sustained by people whose contributions are rarely centered in headlines.
By designing programs that honor:
Children’s advocates
Arts administrators of color
Long-term cultural stewards
we create ecosystems rooted in dignity, continuity, and equity.
Community-centered leadership is not about spotlighting oneself. It is about designing structures that spotlight others.
That is the throughline of my work—across counties, cities, and sectors.
About the Author
Barbara Mumby Huerta is an interdisciplinary artist, cultural strategist, and equity-centered systems leader. Her work spans child advocacy, public arts governance, and cultural policy reform, with a focus on designing institutional programs that uplift historically underrecognized community leaders.
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