Mission and Work

BareBones exists to present the Halloween Extravaganza. The Extravaganza offers us and our communities the opportunity to name, mourn, and honor the dead. We remember both the known and unknown dead, including the victims of neglect, police brutality, and genocide. The extravaganza is a way to turn our personal and collective loss and grief into community ritual and art as we enter the coldest and darkest time of the year. As artists, our tools are vision, manifestation, and transformation. We need this.

BareBones, and each of us in the framework of the United States, exist within a history of extraction, theft, genocide, slavery, and white-body supremacy. We live and work and make art in the context of systems which–historically and currently–build inequity and division. These systems create a context of massive brutality by those in power at every level, which rips from us our humanity and our connection to each other, to our bodies, and the earth.

In recent years we have taken steps towards undoing white-body supremacy within BareBones, with an eye on Minneapolis and the larger culture of patriarchy, capitalism and fascism. We promise to keep doing that. Here are some specific actions we will take towards this goal.

Removing barriers to participation: In addition to increasing staff pay, as able, we provide food at every build and rehearsal. We set aside money for extra childcare and transportation needs.

Hiring: We aim to hire — especially in leadership positions — more than 50% people who are Black, Indigenous, people of the global majority, transgender, and people with disabilities.

Accessibility: BareBones strives to build a culture of accessibility to meet as many needs as our resources and understanding allow. We provide ASL interpretation and an ADA compliant buildspace for artists. For the audience, we delineate “masked-only” sections for seating, hire pedicabs and pay for wheelchair accessible equipment, and offer performances with ASL interpretation and audio description. BareBones is aware we are not able to meet every accessibility need, but we will continue to respond to contemporary community asks.

Learning/unlearning: We believe in life-long learning and culture-building. To that end, we offer specific workshops and events around:

Unlearning white supremacy

Supporting staff and volunteers of the global majority

Creating cultures of care, curiosity and consent

Turning away from cultural appropriation towards both inclusion and self-reflection

Safety and abolitionism: We are trying to move towards a community and culture without policing or punishment. That looks like people helping each other solve conflicts. That looks like building relationships and meeting difficulties with bravery, curiosity, and compassion. That looks like building our capacity to handle conflict and difference. That looks like training and education and commitment. That looks like a community-based security structure as a police-free alternative for keeping our audiences and artists safer.

Permissions: We want to deeply listen to land, bodies, and the stories of the many peoples and creatures within our communities. We want to hear, honor, and include without using, taking, or stealing.

We invite you to join us in making BareBones 2026 what the community needs it to be.