Spirit/ARTS! Project

Who is Spirit/ARTS! Project!

Ouida Joi Cooper-Rodriguez, M.A.

Spirit/ARTS! Project Founder/Executive Director

Professional Member, International Expressive Arts Association (IEATA)

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Ouida Joi is a spiritual explorer, transformative improvisational performance artist, facilitator, writer, storyteller, sacred drummer, chant circle leader, and interdisciplinary arts producer whose work explores the intersection of the creative arts, culture, and sacred traditions. She is also a student of traditional Core Shamanism, and the Neo-Shamanic practice of Trance Dance. She has studied Butoh, the Japanese art of expressive movement, for more than eight years with her esteemed internationally recognized teacher, Judith Kajiwara.

Ouida Joi is an Amherst Writers & Artists Affiliate Workshop Leader and a Veriditas-Trained Labyrinth Workshop Trainer, and she is honored to have studied with Rev. Dr. Lauren Artress, Founder of Veriditas.

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An Ordained Interfaith Minister, she has served in radically inclusive, interspiritual, New Thought (CSL & Unity), and Interfaith leadership for more than two decades, creating welcoming spaces that honor diverse wisdom traditions, while embracing people of all faiths, cultures, gender identities and expressions, sexual orientations, and backgrounds.

In 2012, Ouida Joi founded the Spirit/ARTS! Project in Oakland, CA to create participatory artistic experiences that foster creativity, belonging, cultural understanding, and transformation. She also created and produced the flagship program, Spirit/JAZZ!, a monthly jazz performance series that showcased emerging and established women musicians, vocalists, and poets. Featured renowned San Francisco Bay Area artists included, Mary Watkins, Tammy Hall, Cava Menzies, Victoria Theodore, Donna Keiko Ozawa, Robin Nzingah Smith, Jan Martinelli, Stephanie Lee, Anna Maria Flechero, Lady Sunrise, Queen Michelle Jordan, Cheri Anderson, and Lisa Cohen.

After more than three decades in executive nonprofit leadership, Ouida Joi is now dedicating her encore career to expanding the Spirit/ARTS! Project. Throughout her nonprofit career, she has served as an Executive Director, Chief Operating Officer, Consultant, and Organizational Strategist. She also served as Administrator for Fifth Stream Music in San Francisco, home of the internationally acclaimed Asian American [Jazz] Orchestra, an experience that further deepened her appreciation for the transformative power of music and artistic collaboration.

Ouida Joi's artistic vision is to create opportunities for individuals to experience joy, peace, belonging, and greater understanding of one another through shared creative experiences that blend music, storytelling, movement, visual arts, and spiritual and cultural traditions.

​Ouida Joi holds a Master of Arts in Management and a Bachelor of Arts in Behavioral Science/Psychology (Magna Cum Laude). 

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An Air Force veteran, mother, grandmother, lifelong adventurer, and Jazz and arts enthusiast, Ouida Joi is relocating to the greater Las Vegas area in late 2026 to expand the Spirit/ARTS! Project, and develop new collaborations with artists, cultural organizations, and community partners.​