Good Afternoon,

Here is the weekly roundup of  Black Lives Matter, protests, and equity-centered news.

Best,

Marissa Shadburn

Field Education Coordinator

Americans for the Arts

202.371.2830 x2027

Pronouns: she/her/hers

From: Ruby Lopez Harper <rharper@artsusa.org>
Sent: Wednesday, September 16, 2020 1:51 PM

Hello/hola, esteemed colleagues:

In response to requests for information, national context and what is happening in other communities, we are compiling this digest to support you in navigating current events and in your commitment to equity in the long term. We will circulate this news digest weekly, every Wednesday. While this is certainly not a comprehensive or exhaustive list, we hope it boosts you in your exploration, knowledge and awareness building.

We are also pleased to announce the launch of the Cultural Equity Resource Center. Similar to our Coronavirus (COVID-19) resource center, we will be updating information about programming, resources and news to assist you in your work. We will be adding more content in the coming weeks, such as, a directory of equity consultants and service providers. If there is something you think we’re missing or would like us to add, please let us know.

We are looking at additional ways to support your equity work and welcome resources, ideas, examples and opportunities to share with the field. Please send them to services@artsusa.org.

We invite you to share this news roundup with your networks and colleagues.

Thank you for your continued work.

PROGRAMMING/RESOURCES

(We will feature new offerings here – free to low-cost opportunities. Previous listings have been moved down to below the signature)

• Sep 17, 11:00a ET: Beyond Statements: People Power

Hosted by AAMC Foundation. A collaboration between Association of Art Museum Curators Foundation and Art Fund. Following up to the July program, “Beyond Statements: Taking Action” the Art Fund and AAMC Foundation are continuing the dialogue with two additional sessions. The conversation will bring together the internal and public voices leading movements seeking to hold organizations accountable and investigate how external pressure and public discourse can advance structural change.

• Sep 17, 1:00p ET: Decoding DEI for Marketers

Hosted by American Marketing Association. Building a Successful Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Formula

Marketers are leaders in ensuring their brands are creating content that meets business goals and aligns with moral responsibilities. In this interactive virtual training session, we’ll explore time-tested insights of how your organization can translate diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) practices into winning marketing strategies that are infused within your company’s DNA.

• Sep 21, 2:00p ET: 2020 Nonprofit Diversity Practices Survey Results Overview

Hosted by Nonprofit HR. For the second consecutive year, Nonprofit HR surveyed nonprofits in North America about their diversity efforts and for-profit social enterprises for the first time. As a leading talent management firm in the social impact sector for more than 20 years, we have worked with thousands of organizations to help advance their missions through their most important asset, their people. Tune in to this webinar to find out how North America social impact organizations currently fare in terms of diversity practices and gain valuable benchmarking data. By attending this webinar, you will gain insights to help your leadership prioritize diversity efforts and integrate diversity into your organization's strategy. You will also benefit from a lively discussion about HR practices that lead to a culture that embraces diversity.

• Sep 22-24, Times vary: Centering Justice: Indigenous Artists’ Perspectives on Art in Public Space
• Hosted by New England Foundation for the Arts. Recognizing that celebrations of colonization marginalize Indigenous people and minimize the realities for generations of people affected by genocide, slavery, and ethnic cleansing, we are presenting Centering Justice: Indigenous Artists’ Perspectives on Public Art. This virtual symposium aims to provide a critical counterpoint to these activities and create pathways for a strong Indigenous presence in public spaces that continue to exclude Native American peoples on their own land. We will host Indigenous artists and cultural practitioners from local, regional, and national tribal communities who are working across a range of art forms. They will come together as thought leaders to present their visions for how art in public space can generate momentum to increase intercultural understanding, build community, and bring about vital transformational change.
• Sep 22, 4:00p ET: Tools for Artists in Civic Engagement and Turning Out the Vote

Hosted by Creative Capital. This workshop will provide tools and information on how art can be used to help galvanize participation in the upcoming election. Artist and activist Favianna Rodriguez will be joined by electoral strategist Cristina Uribe and together they will provide an overview of the role of artists in powering political and cultural change. The upcoming 2020 General Election is an opportunity to unite in our shared power and have our voices heard. In a time where so much feels uncertain, art inspires and motivates us to take action for justice and a better future. This election year marks a historically significant moment. The pandemic has resulted in massive unemployment and racial health disparities. Across the nation, voters are experiencing voter repression and major challenges to their participation. This is why we need artists more than ever. This workshop will provide concrete examples and tools for artists on how their art can inspire people to participate in the upcoming election and give people the information they need to participate.

• Sep 23, 8:00p ET: Public Response: Kimisha Turner & Takiyah Ward

Presented by the Seattle Art Museum. Join us for a dynamic conversation with visual artists Kimisha Turner and Takiyah Ward discussing the role artists play in responding to the current moment and movements.

• Oct 1, 4:00p ET: Access in Content and Form

Hosted by Creative Capital. A discussion about the importance of disability representation and how artists who identify as disabled focus on accessibility in their work. “Access in Content and Form” is a conversation with and between Creative Capital Awardees writer Kenny Fries and visual artist and filmmaker Alison O’Daniel. As artists who identify as disabled, Kenny and Alison know the importance of access to buildings, sound, films, books, websites and, especially during the current pandemic, protection and care. However, what is most important to their practices is work that focuses on disability in both content and form. Kenny and Alison will talk about how their intersectional identities enter their work, the importance of disability representation and role models, and their upcoming creative collaboration on a film based on Kenny’s poem sequence In the Gardens of Japan.

• Oct 14-16, 2020, Times vary: Upswell 2020 (Early bird pricing through Sep 18)

Presented by Independent Sector. Upswell 2020 is about the two most important things facing every changemaker in the United States: ending racism and recovering from the pandemic.

How we respond in this moment of extreme urgency will determine nothing less than the future of our nation. So, we’re inviting you to show up. Claim your agency. Elevate your ideas. Amplify your voice. Get creative, innovative, passionate, and relentlessly determined. Because it’s going to take the very best you’ve got – and the very best the rest of us have got – to heal our nation and create a society where every person can thrive.

• Oct 19, 7:00p ET: 2020 3Arts Awards

Hosted by 3Arts. This year we’re bringing more joy than ever to our annual celebration of Chicago artists. We’ll announce the recipients of 2020 3Arts Awards and the Make a Wave grantees, share some big news about our expanding support for artists across our city, and begin a tradition of splitting donations with two admired organizations that are part of the ecosystem that supports artists--because we're all in this together.

• Oct 29, 7:00p ET: Ethical Storytelling Practices

Hosted by Creative Capital. This workshop takes artists through a framework for values-based storytelling and share examples of how to put those values into practice. As artists step into their power to build and shape narratives that affect the lives of those around them, it is important to consider not just what stories are told, but how stories are told. Values-based, ethical storytelling practices center the process as much as the outcome. Progressive cultural work requires that artists employ storytelling practices that are grounded in respect, ethics, nuance, and anti-racism. Led by creative strategist and documentary impact producer Sonya Childress, this workshop will take artists through a framework for values-based storytelling and share examples of how storytellers might put those values into practice. This workshop is taught by and for BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) artist disruptors to strengthen their craft, practice and build power.

• FUNDING
• Center for Cultural Innovation. Grant & Loan Fund for Early-Stage Arts, Creative, and Cultural Cooperatives. The Grant & Loan Fund will provide $125,000 in general operating support grants of up to $25,000 each to five creative-industry cooperative enterprises. We encourage applications from cooperative enterprises at their early-stage (i.e., there is a commitment to starting the cooperative or the cooperative is newly incorporated) or early-stage growth (i.e., still a young cooperative with an opportunity to realize new growth with additional capital). Although not a condition of eligibility, we are seeking opportunities wherein a combination of a $25,000 grant from CCI, a loan from Seed Commons (terms to be customized to awardees’ potential), and technical assistance from Uptima would be catalytic in the cooperative’s further development. Preference will go to cooperatives that serve cultural communities that would particularly benefit from the alternative economic-model of cooperatives, such as Black, Indigenous, People of Color, Immigrant, LGBTQ+, and/or disability communities.
• New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA) is excited to launch two new public art grant opportunities. These grants support artists and community collaborators across Massachusetts to imagine and create public art that fosters more just, more vibrant, more welcoming public spaces, and contributes to changing the course of our collective future for the better. Collective Imagination for Spatial Justice grants support teams of artists and co-conspirators to take the time to do the necessary work of imagining how to transform public spaces in their communities with grants ranging from $2,000-5,000. Public Art for Spatial Justice grants support Massachusetts-based artists and artistic collaborations. These project grants range from $5,000-$10,000. Next application deadlines for both opportunities are September 21 and October 19, 2020.

FIELD NEWS

• Hyperallergic: Five Latinx Art Spaces Band Together to Amplify Their Reach The Latinx Arts Alliance plans to address the lack of financial support for Latinx spaces, while also advancing and supporting Latinx arts programming in Los Angeles.
• BlackFilm: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Announces Next Phase of Equity and Inclusion Initiatives
• NYTimes: Academy Explains Diversity Rules for Best Picture Oscar Beginning in 2022, films aiming for the top award will have to turn in a confidential “inclusion standard form.” In 2024, they will have to meet two of four standards.
• Hyperallergic: A Museum Sells a Prized Pollock to Acquire Art by Underrepresented Artists The Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse, New York will sell the 1946 painting through Christie’s; it is estimated to garner between $12 and 18 million.
• Dwell: The Pendleton Problem: When Does Cultural Appreciation Tip Into Appropriation?
• Bikeportland.org: $25,000 PBOT grant will go to Albina businesses and street art to honor Black Portlanders
• The Champion: Decatur gets more BLM public art
• Hyperallergic: Frost Art Museum Presents an Online Panel With the Artists and Curators of Otros Lados Itzel Basualdo, Hugo Crosthwaite, and Judithe Hernández will join staff to discuss their work, the exhibition, and art by Mexicans and Mexican Americans.
• STAFFING
• Artnet News: Meow Wolf’s Santa Fe Workers Want to Unionize, But the Company Says Its Immersive Art Wonderland ‘Works Best Without a Union’ If the entertainment company does not voluntarily acknowledge the union, workers will have to organize a formal election.
• Playbill: Tiffani Gavin Named Executive Director of Eugene O'Neill Theater Center
• American Theatre: Lorraine Hansberry Theatre Names Margo Hall Artistic Director
• Hyperallergic: The Metropolitan Museum Hires Its First Full-Time Curator of Native American Art The appointment of Patricia Marroquin Norby is a historic milestone for the museum, which decided to display Indigenous art in its American Wing for the first time in 2017.

ARTS/ARTIST RESPONSE

• Hyperallergic: In Protest of School’s Actions During Black Lives Matter Demonstrations, Students Boycott Annual Show At the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, more than a dozen students are sitting out their final show and presenting their work at alternative, artist-run spaces instead.
• Palo Alto Online: Black Lives Matter muralists reflect on art, social justice Panel seeks more support for Black artists, police reform and community involvement
• Hyperallergic: Feminists Take Over Federal Building in Mexico City and Use Painting as a Weapon In protest of femicide, the artists painted over portraits of all-male historical figures hanging in the National Human Rights Commission.

NEWS

• Detroit MetroTimes: UM-Dearborn apologizes after it promoted a 'Non-POC Cafe' so white people could talk about their white feelings
• The Lily: How racism tore apart the early women’s suffrage movement Watch the second episode of ‘The Fight: How American Women Won the Right to Vote’
• BoardSource: The Value of Lived Experience
• Nonprofit Quarterly: “Diversify Your Board or Else!” Nonprofits Need a Standard, Too
• Time: BIPOC Entrepreneurs Have Been Hit Hard by the Pandemic—But as They Work to Save Their Businesses, They're Also Giving Back
• The Lily: These moms have a lot in common but faced a big difference: One got paid maternity leave and one didn’t Once they delivered, their paths diverged
• Fast Company: The extremely weird story of a remote-learning company that’s making parents livid Schools embraced an online learning program called Acellus because it promised convenience. Now, parents are cleaning up the mess.
• Fast Company: ‘I worry every moment’: 3 moms on parenting kids with developmental disabilities during COVID-19 Many caregivers of children with dyslexia, ADHD—or mental illnesses like depression and anxiety—say the pandemic has left them without the resources or educational support they need.

TAKE ACTION

• Nonprofit AF: Not showing the salary range in job postings is archaic and inequitable. So why do we keep doing it?
• NTEN: You’re not serious about equity if you don’t post salaries

Thanks for reading. We hope you find this news digest to be a helpful tool to support your equity work, and welcome feedback at services@artsusa.org. If you were forwarded this and want to sign up for the Local Arts Network listserv to receive it directly, click here.

____________________

Ruby Lopez Harper

Senior Director of Local Arts Advancement

Americans for the Arts

1000 Vermont Ave NW 6^th Floor

Washington, DC 20005-4940

202.371.2830 x2079

202.789.2830 fax

www.AmericansForTheArts.org

Follow us: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter

Follow me: Facebook

Pronouns: she/her/hers

PROGRAMMING

• Sep 21, 1:15p ET: WALK YOUR TALK Anti-Racist Grantmaking For White Funders

Produced by Camelback Ventures. Camelback Ventures has spent the past 6 years learning the needs and wants of these diverse founders, and have come to better understand the unjust conditions in which entrepreneurship exists. Through our Capital Collaborative program, we work with philanthropic leaders who want to deepen their individual and organizational commitment to racial and gender equity - but may not know how. Our unique approach brings together a community of white accomplices to engage in an introspective and concrete curriculum, to diversify their networks and make their grantmaking processes more equitable. It is with that lens that we present this panel moderated by leadership expert and "recovering fundraiser" Kishshana Palmer. This panel will share how white foundation staff are stepping forward to advance racial justice in their organizations as well as their own personal work.

• Sep 22 – Oct 1, Varies: Collective Trauma Summit 2020

Expert Talks, Group Panels, Live Musical Performances, Poetry Readings, and Healing Meditations to Address Collective Trauma in our World Today

• Sep 22, 6:30p ET: Town Hall: Arts as Civic Engagement

Asian American Arts Alliance (A4) invites you to participate in our September Town Hall: Arts as Civic Engagement, highlighting the momentous power to actively participate in civic issues through art. Participants will share how the act of voting or encouraging others to vote, completing the 2020 Census, and other forms of socially engaged art can build momentum towards lasting change. Join us as we spotlight a wide variety of work that focuses on mobilizing AAPI communities throughout the country and learn about civic-engagement-driven projects during Town Hall’s rapid-fire line-up of 60-second pitches.

• Sep 30, 12:00p ET: Conducting an Accessibility Walkthrough

Hosted by the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council. October is Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Awareness Month. This workshop is timed to acknowledge and celebrate regulations that ensure access. Many entities claim to be fully accessible when all they mean is they have one mostly-accessible bathroom stall or a theater seat that accommodates a wheelchair. What other facilities, equipment, and spaces are there to consider when checking for full accessibility for our staff members and guests? Let's talk about it!

• Oct 10, 1:00p ET: Racial Equity Institute Groundwater Training ($100)

Racism is a fierce, ever-present, challenging force, one which has structured the thinking, behavior, and actions of individuals and institutions since the beginning of U.S. history. To understand racism and effectively begin dismantling it requires an equally fierce, consistent, and committed effort.

• The Racial Equity Institute (REI) process is designed to help leaders and organizations that want to proactively understand and address racism, both in their organization and in the community where the organization is working. In this lively and participatory, three-hour presentation, REI organizers will use stories and data to present a perspective that racism is fundamentally structural in nature. By examining characteristics of modern-day racial inequity, the presentation introduces participants to an analysis that most find immediately helpful and relevant.
• Oct 28, 12:00p ET: Enhancing Cultural Awareness Through the Arts

Hosted by the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council. How does your organization determine which programs to present and whose cultures to privilege or promote? Do these discussions occur at all around your meeting tables? How can increased cultural awareness and understanding be an outcome of arts provision? Let's discuss over lunch!

• Nov 25, 12:00p ET: Inclusive Language for Accessibility

Hosted by the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council. Are you concerned you may be using the wrong titles, nomenclature, parts of speech, or colloquial terms when referring to, or speaking about, guests or visitors with disabilities? Wonder no more: enter a safe space where we can talk about just this and ensure that future conversations will be respectful and appropriate.

• Dec 16, 12:00p ET: Inclusive HR Practices: Being Considerate of Low-Income Employees, Various Family Structures, and More

Hosted by the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council. Sometimes when we talk about inclusive cultures, we focus only on race, ethnicity, sexuality, age, and gender expression. Let's not forget that there are other employees and guests who are underserved because of family-unfriendly policies or practices. Talking openly and beginning to solve these issues will go a long way towards full inclusion.