Supporting Immigrant Artists and Border Communities (Podcast Transcript)

This Podcast was recorded on February 10, 2020. The full transcript of this podcast is published below.
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Sherylynn Sealy:
Welcome to a podcast by Grantmakers in the Arts, a national association of public and private arts and culture funders. I’m Sherylynn Sealy, GIA’s Programs Manager. GIA is a community of practice with a shared vision of investing in arts and culture as a strategy for social change. In 2008, GIA has been elevating racial equity as a critical issue affecting the fields. To actualize this work within the sector, GIA published its racial equity and arts funding statement of purpose in 2015. Since then this journey has reaffirmed the many intersections at play as we leverage our dollars for the deepest impact and continue exploring new ways to be agents of change.

Sherylynn Sealy:
This podcast is a part of the 2020 Grantmakers in the Arts Racial Equity podcast series. In this podcast episode, we are glad to have the National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures, also known as NALAC, and Otros Dreams en Acción, also known as ODA, joining us. We’ll be hearing from Adriana Rios, the Director of Programs at NALAC, and Luisa Martinez, a socially engaged artist in the Artivistas in Residencia program out of ODA. And she’s joining us all the way from Tijuana. Now, the United States is a conglomerate of cultures, languages and races, all contributing something unique to what makes the US a place where people can find community and belonging. But the actual journey of migrants can vastly differ from this narrative and depends on the resources and support available to them. So Adriana and Luisa, thank you so much for joining us today to discuss your experience with this topic. Adriana, can you first introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about NALAC and your mission?

Adriana Rios:
Sure. Thank you so much for having me here for this conversation. So my name is Adriana Rios. I am the Director of Programs at NALAC. We are an organization that is exclusively dedicated to the promotion, advancement, development and cultivation of the latinx arts field. We just celebrated 30 years last may. And really our work focuses in kind of five or so central buckets. We do advocacy, research, grant funding, leadership development, and convenings for the latinx arts and culture field.

Sherylynn Sealy:
Great. And so when we think about racial justice and racial equity, we’re thinking about ensuring that all people, regardless of race, can no longer have their trajectory explained based on statistics. So how does NALAC support with this?

Adriana Rios:
Sure. There’s kind of two sides to this question. From just kind of initial thoughts. There’s, I think a good use of data and statistics and one that can kind of be limiting or compartmentalizing for how it is that we do this work, right. I think for NALAC, the way in which we’ve kind of done our grant funding, we’ve come to learn that this work is ever evolving, responsive. In a way we use a lot of our statistics to better understand who it is that we serve. And especially as we think about shifting patterns and demographics of the latinx arts and culture field, as well as just the latinx community in the US, it is statistics that we can use to kind of help inform how it is, who it is we’re funding.

Adriana Rios:
So there’s a level of adapting to the evolving statistics that we learn about art field to better respond to what’s happening to an extent the way in which artists work is evolving, right? There’s a shift in evaluation methods and criteria kind of surpasses the boxes, the way in which we’ve kind of collected those statistics in the past. So I think that comes with a lot of racial justice and equity work, we’re trying to kind of incorporate into our funding.

Sherylynn Sealy:
I think that’s great. And Luisa, as I said earlier, you’re joining us all the way from Tijuana. I’d love for you to share more about your work as an artist and how that your work has changed lives of so many people within the Latinx communities, Latinx border community specifically, and what you’d want listeners to know when offering support to those communities.

Luisa Martinez:
Thanks for having me again. Well, just to start off, working with ODA was already a very unique experience. They are an organization that kind of works with people that grew up in the United States but ended up in Mexico due to deportation or self deportation. And I think that’s a gray area that I didn’t know personally, that NALAC funded. All those categories of where you’re from or your nationality starts to break down or to become more complex than American non-citizen resident. So I think working with them was super inspiring and knowing that the residency was funded through NALAC and I would be going to Mexico City to work with people that had a similar background as… growing up at the border. So I think that’s the biggest takeaway for me from this opportunity, just acknowledging all the complexities and the different lives that people have that don’t fit into certain categories, which I know is difficult to deal with sometimes when we’re applying to things or granting things, it’s easy to… or it’s easier to check off boxes.

Luisa Martinez:
So allowing for this multiplicity is beautiful and important. So I think the residency that I did with Carolina Gomez the other artist that was the artivista in residence was exactly this, responding to the community that we were working with. I was happy that while there was producing and workshops, there was a lot of time to just get to know people and get to know the organization and be volunteering and hanging out and just chatting with everybody that was part of this org. So I think that was really just useful and a way that I like to work, slowly, and getting to know people. But at the end we did have hands on activities or art workshops that we were able to share with the community and people from outside of it. So we did a couple of arts workshops that included collage and drawing, but also dialogue is part of all this making and finalized with a… what do you call it peregrinación… like a march through the city that really highlighted… [crosstalk] What?

Sherylynn Sealy:
I said, thank you. I was like, “I’m not sure what…”

Luisa Martinez:
I don’t know if that’s the perfect translation, but we walk together through the city highlighting the work that the people from the organization had done, that this community had created together. And really Adriana and I were able to be guides and contributes something, but it was working together and allowing for this program and this funding and the materials to expand beyond us, which I think was really important.

Sherylynn Sealy:
And when you’re working with a community, I think a lot of what we talk about as well and philanthropy, and Adriana you might also be able to speak to this, doing to a community versus doing with the community. I think what you’ve described as now is exactly what we as a philanthropic community want to do more of. And so for both of you, what are some sort of pro tips that you might recommend to those who want to fund immigrant artists or things to keep in mind if someone is already funding immigrant artists or migrant artists, or I don’t know, maybe your top five tips that you might suggest for our listeners.

Adriana Rios:
That’s a great question. Luisa, do you want to kick off or would you like me to do so?

Luisa Martinez:
Sure. I mean, the first thing I thought of was just, I don’t know, taking your time in selecting who these funds, the support will go to. I had the privilege of working with ODA, who’s been working for a couple of years, so they’re pretty established. And I have the privilege of having gone to NYU and having a certain path that allows me to write an application, but all of the people I’ve met could have been the artists selected for this funding. So I think really just taking our time with sharing the application and making sure it goes out to everybody possible and maybe making sure we have different ways of applying. And I know that’s a really huge thing to ask or it’s complex, but just-

Sherylynn Sealy:
No, but it’s important. It’s necessary.

Luisa Martinez:
People speak and express themselves in different ways. So just acknowledging that I think is my first takeaway.

Adriana Rios:
I’m in agreement. I think that… I’m really appreciative that we’re having this type of conversation because one of the biggest things I’ve learned in kind of being with an organization that funds is the importance of talking with artists. If there’s a certain group that you want to engage the importance of bringing them into the conversation around how your opportunities are developing, right. So I think, I mentioned to you before Sherylynn, that it was actually in a conversation with ODA where they asked us questions around how we were working with this huge diaspora of deported artists that were very much a part of the US Latinx community. How it was that we were engaging them. And that was… when you’re working with them an organization and you’ve got your routines, you’ve got your programs and you’ve been doing them for a bit.

Adriana Rios:
There’s a constant need to be checking in with the field to have… how those needs are evolving. I think also specifically around working with immigrant artists, it’s important to familiarize yourself with the legal systems, the policy changes that are happening within the United States that are affecting immigrant artists. There’s a level of, I think we had talked about this earlier is just, an understanding of what it means to not only verbally commit or commit in writing, but what it means to really stand with an artist and understand that if you are going to support immigrant artists, that there may be different ways in which you have to navigate how that funding is going to reach an artist. How opportunities are communicated to the communities you’re hoping to reach.

Adriana Rios:
So those are kind of two things that come to mind. I think the final one that comes to mind is kind of an ongoing conversation around consent and how it is that projects that are funded and promoted through the organizations funding are shared, right. I think there’s varying statuses in the US and I think it’s important to have that back and forth again with the artists that you’re funding around, how you will collaborate.

Luisa Martinez:
I would add kind of touching the last thing Adriana said. To me it’s really important to have… funding alone can only go so far. So thinking of other systems of support that you can add to the mix, maybe… I had the opportunity of working with human artiste, which is part of ODA, but just having somebody to give feedback to the artist, to just coordinate the whole experience to follow through was really important. And sometimes orgs don’t have that person already. So maybe also as a funder thinking of who’s going to be… there’s an artist, but also who’s going to be following through or coordinating, or just having a dialogue about the whole process with the artists in the community.

Sherylynn Sealy:
That’s great. Well, before we close, I want to know if you have any more thoughts that you want to share, any final words, and there’s a new grant that you have coming out of NALAC, Adriana, I think for artists who want to do racial justice work. I would love to hear about that in these final words.

Adriana Rios:
Yes. Yes. So we are in many ways actually putting racial justice and racial equity really at the front and center of a new grant initiative that we are starting. It’s the Catalyst for Change Award. It’s a $25,000 grant. Kind of done in partnership with the Surdna Foundation to really focus on artists who are doing community based work that is addressing racial injustice. And not only through kind of bringing an awareness to the very real reality that it exists, but also bringing up those kinds of new solutions, how to put a new system in place that essentially dismantles the oppressions that we have today. Something that I’ve been thinking about as we just entered this conversation is just thinking about how it is that in centering justice and equity within philanthropy, to an extent I find that it means slowing down.

Adriana Rios:
I think we mentioned it earlier, community based work where it’s community front and center, it takes time. And I think when we look at just to your earlier question around this trajectory, that’s so grounded in statistics, how impact can be so dependent on statistics is hard when you’re trying to do these shifts. It doesn’t mean that numbers and stats can’t come into better understanding the impact, but I think there’s a level of taking a step back and kind of really reevaluating and centering what it is that is the goal and the objectives in doing this work. So I share that because that’s work that NALAC is doing in this moment to develop this new grant opportunity.

Sherylynn Sealy:
Thank you. And Luisa did you have anything?

Luisa Martinez:
Yeah, I just wanted to basically echo what Adriana saying from the perspective of the funded artists, I’m really appreciative of NALAC and especially ODA for allowing this gray and fuzzy and fruitful residency to happen and for looking for different types of artists, members of deported community and members of from Theresa, from the border and just allowing categories to be blurred when reviewing these applications, I think just generated something very beautiful over the summer that the residency occurred. And like Adriana said, just going slow, allowing for time. I mean, I’m always looking at different residents applications and often there’s language of producing and timelines that are two to three weeks. And I think being in Mexico City for a month and a half with this community, and just basically saying, “As long as you’re engaging with our organization or community, you can do whatever you want.” I think that was really freeing and generative.

Sherylynn Sealy:
That’s helpful. Thank you for sharing that. And Adriana, I’m sure in your work, you’ve seen the difference when you take a second and step back and leave some time rather than hustling to reach deadlines, deadlines, deadlines, which are important of course, but ultimately the goal is to support communities and whatever it takes.

Adriana Rios:
And I think… I was in a recent gathering for this new grant initiative that we’re doing. One of the artists there said… they’re based out of Chicago. They said that, “Progress can only move at the speed of trust.” And I think this is a lot of what it means to work in community, to work for justice, to work towards equity-

Sherylynn Sealy:
This time, last year we had our Narrative Change series and Jeff Chang said something very similar change happens at the speed of trust. And so I think that’s a common theme and I’m glad that it came up today in our conversation. So thank you both so much for sharing your personal experiences and experiences as it relates to the work and participating in our Racial Equity podcast series. Your insight as a funder and activist, Luisa, include examples that others can model after, and day to day experiences that others can learn from. And I always learn so much from these conversations, so thank you for sharing. And to our listeners, we look forward to continuing these conversations. So be sure to tune in to the Grantmakers in the arts Racial Equity podcast series, and be sure to follow us on Facebook @GIarts, Twitter @GIarts and Instagram @grantmakersinthearts. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me, Sherylynn Sealy at sherylynn@giarts.org. And remember, as Dolores Huerta said, “Every moment is an organizing opportunity, every person a potential activist and every minute a chance to change the world.” Thanks so much for listening.