Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Edirin Oputu from Temple News interviewed Linda Earle, associate graduate director in the Art History Department for the arts management MA at the Tyler School of Art and Architecture. Oputu summarized, “We spoke with her about how organizations and artists can push for greater equity, how the arts scene is developing and what needs to be done to bring about institutional change.”

“Due to historical inequalities, young people of color embarking on an art museum career are less likely to have families that can fund their unpaid internships or volunteer work. Done right, these types of early training opportunities help ensure that candidates of color will join the pipeline of museum professionals,” proposes Lisa M. Strong, director of the Art and Museum Studies MA Program and professor of the Practice, Georgetown University in the newsletter, The Conversation.

The Barr Foundation has awarded $545,000 to the Worcester Cultural Coalition (WCC) to support the arts community, with an emphasis on uplifting historically marginalized and underrepresented groups. In particular, the Jean McDonough Arts Center (JMAC) will receive funding to expand equitable use and access.

The Association of Performing Arts Professionals (APAP) announced recently that it received $3 million from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for APAP ArtsForward, a new program to support the performing arts field’s safe, vibrant, and equitable reopening and recovery.

The Latinx Artist Fellowship, a new program, will award $50,000 each to a multigenerational cohort of 15 Latinx visual artists each year for an initial commitment of five years, according to the recent announcement.

NDN Collective expects to open an Indigenous-led, culture-based school in Rapid City, South Dakota, in Fall 2022. The school, set to serve 40 students in the first year, "will be the first Indigenous-led school designed specifically for students in the Rapid City community," as the announcement explains.

Setting the Stage

With a population of over 2.3 million and one-in-four residents being foreign-born, Houston is the most ethnically diverse metro area in the nation. The city’s arts programs and cultural offerings are robust in number and breadth, and its vibrancy unfolds along the numerous bayous and highways. Most years see 11 to 16 million visitors traveling to the city for arts and cultural events. Houston’s nonprofit arts and culture sector, a $1.1 billion industry, employs more than 25,000 people.

In William Faulkner’s novel, As I Lay Dying, a young character by the name of Vardaman is allowed to believe that his “mother is a fish,” because no one takes the time to tell him that his mother is dead. Instead he associates what he witnesses with the reality he understands within a highly dysfunctional family. In the novel, he repeats, “fish. fish. fish.” Similarly, I would offer that we are currently operating in a highly dysfunctional philanthropic family. I believe in the potential of our work.

Over the course of decades of working with nonprofits, particularly arts- and community-based organizations, we’ve seen an unfortunate pattern emerge. With the regularity of waves, many nonprofits move in and out of cycles of fiscal instability. The factors are familiar and well-known: drops in earned revenue for various reasons, often out of leaders’ control; shifts in the priorities of donors; turmoil in staffing and leadership; and restrictions placed on funds.

Grantmakers in the Arts joins a community statement from Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta & Georgia NAACP in response to violence against Asian American communities and as we grieve the tragedy on March 16, in which eight people, including six Asian women, were killed at three spas.