Beth, I have some related experience to offer from my years as a corporate curator. From 2001-2008 I was the curator of the Sprint Art Collection. When I joined Sprint, there was already a small acquisitions committee (about 8 people) that included an individual from Sprint's supply chain management group whose job was to focus on supplier diversity and inclusion. Later during my tenure, a very high-level Office of Diversity and Inclusion was established that reported directly to the CEO. In other words, diversity and inclusion was extremely important to the corporate culture as a whole, so we made it a priority with the art collection. (It's also important to me personally, so that made that part of the job very gratifying).

In terms of your situation, I recommend that someone from the ad-hoc committee be made a full voting member of the appointed arts commission.

If I were to do it all over again, I would focus on relationships more than numbers. I was able to build great relationships with KC-area artists, but relationships with internal employee groups could have been better.

In any case, we had a lot of success in terms of numbers. The full-time art registrar was able to track gender and ethnicity for about 85% of the collection. Of the works tracked, 62% were made by a female or minority artist.

I hope that helps!

James Martin
http://artinkc.biz

On Wed, Feb 7, 2018 at 10:04 AM, Beth Tobey <btobey@cityofsantacruz.com> wrote:

We are considering forming some kind of ad hoc advisory committee to review projects through the lens of Equity & Inclusivity. I’m wondering if any of you have done something like this and if so, how did they interact with the appointed Arts Commission? Any words of advice or cautionary tales? While I do often try and recruit a diverse selection/review panel for specific projects, this ad hoc group would advise the Arts Commission both specifically and generally.

 

Thanks,

 

Description: Description: Description: Description: Description: Description: sced-logo-darkBeth Tobey

Arts Program Manager

City of Santa Cruz Economic Development Office

(831) 420-5154 | btobey@cityofsantacruz.com
www.SantaCruzCityArts.com

 

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--
James Martin
Art consultant, curator, educator, writer
artinkc@gmail.com
913-485-5267