| The Future of Diversity and Equity in Museums | 42576 | GP0|#a2eb43fb-abab-4f1c-ae41-72fd1022ddb0;L0|#0a2eb43fb-abab-4f1c-ae41-72fd1022ddb0|The Arts;GTSet|#a1e8653d-64cb-48e0-8015-b5826f8c5b61 | <p>What does a commitment to diversity, equity, accessibility and inclusion look like for a fine arts museum, a children’s museum or a historical society? What about zoos and aquariums? <br></p><p>The American Alliance of Museums, which provides resources and guidance for each of these types of organizations and more, is now embedding DEAI as an integral part of museum excellence. Its <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/13/arts/design/american-alliance-of-museums-diversity-equity-inclusion.html" target="_blank">new initiative</a> will update its accreditation and the standards it sets for professional practices for member organizations.</p><p>In addition to DEAI, AAM’s Core Standards for Museums include guidelines on risk management, financial stability, public trust, collections stewardship, and planning. This is the first time in 20 years that the organization has updated its standards. Once finalized, the new standards will become required of the 1,096 accredited member museums and considered professional practice for the remaining 35,000 individual members. The multi-year process will be led by an advisory committee of six to eight people from the industry through conversations with professionals from across the field, including those often underrepresented in the establishment of museum standards, such as emerging museum professionals, Chief Diversity Officers, and museum professionals of color. </p><p>We spoke to <a href="https://www.aam-us.org/programs/about-aam/our-staff/" target="_blank">Laura Lott</a>, CEO and President of AAM, to discuss the state of DEAI work at museums, the impetus for this initiative, and what they anticipate the implementation process will look like. </p><p><strong>Wallace Foundation: What prompted the organization’s decision to start this initiative and the process of updating AAM’s standards to reflect diversity, equity, and inclusion concerns?</strong> </p><p>Laura Lott: This really started back in 2016 when diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion in all aspects of museum structure and programming was prioritized in our strategic plan as one of three focus areas for AAM. That came out of dozens of conversations with thousands of museum directors and professionals across the sector who told us that DEAI was a top concern for them, along with financial sustainability and how they were positioned in communities related to the education system. </p><p>One of the first things that we did was develop a DEAI working group made up of people who had been doing DEAI work in the field, some for decades. Generally, the consensus was that they hadn't seen as much change as they'd hoped. And so the working group was charged with asking the question: Why? </p><p>That group issued <a href="https://www.aam-us.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/AAM-DEAI-Working-Group-Full-Report-2018.pdf" target="_blank">a report</a> in 2018, which identified and examined five ways that DEAI work hadn't stuck or made as much change in museums as hoped. One of those five insights was the value of systemic change. Oftentimes we found that DEAI initiatives were focused externally; they were about the audience that the museum was reaching or the programming it was doing, but not necessarily the systemic change to its culture, processes, systems, budgets, and values—everything that would really be needed. </p><p>Within that same timeframe, someone said to me, “We really should only be talking about excellence in museums,” rather than topics like DEAI. It was an <em>Aha! </em>moment: we need to make sure that people understand DEAI <em>is </em>museum excellence. Excellence is the term that we use for the whole continuum from when a museum first joins the professional alliance to becoming accredited, and DEAI needed to be part of that system in order to make the sustained change that our field needs and our communities deserve.</p><p><strong>WF: When you look at museums across the country, what are some of the more specific issues that you have been seeing regarding DEAI?</strong></p><p>LL: There are three big things: One is the history and culture of museums, which from the founding of the concept of a museum, has been colonialist and racist. That means it's pretty hard to change because it's at the core of how museums were founded, what they were originally meant to do, and who founded them, too. It's a problematic history.</p><p>The second is resource limitations in the museum field. We know lots of arts and cultural organizations—and nonprofits overall—are always struggling to find new dollars to do new work. DEAI takes resources and a sustained investment of time and money for the expertise that's needed and oftentimes not within a museum already, such as training for existing boards and staffs.</p><p>The third is just the nature of DEAI work. Unlike mounting an exhibit, where there's a very defined beginning, middle, and end, DEAI work is never ending. It's people and culture work, so it's a different way that we have to learn to work. Each person and organization has to do that work—there's no shortcut. </p><p><strong>WF: That said, can you share any examples of strong and effective DEAI initiatives that you've started to see as well? </strong></p><p>LL: First and foremost, some of the most impactful work that results in actual change isn't the big, grand initiatives or something that's announced, launched, done, and celebrated. I think the most impactful work is the thoughtful, steady—sometimes incremental or too slow, it seems, for all of our patience levels—changes happening in museums. </p><p>For example, we've seen in the last year or two a significant increase in the number of Chief Diversity Officer or DEAI leadership positions in museums, which is a huge dedication of resources by museums to find the expertise and have that as a core part of their leadership teams. The Phillips Collection, here in Washington D.C., was one of the first to create a Chief Diversity Officer position, get it endowed so that it doesn't go away, and work with the person in that position—Makeba Clay, at the time—to really make these kinds of changes throughout the institution and to look at how they partnered in a bigger way with the D.C. community, not just a portion of the D.C. community.</p><p>Additionally, the Burke Museum in Seattle is a leader in being in community with their Native populations. When you walk into that museum, there is a <a href="https://www.burkemuseum.org/news/acknowledging-land-building-deeper-relationships" target="_blank">statement right on the wall</a>—that I'm certain was a years-long process and a difficult thing to do—addressing their history and culpability in collecting from and not including the voices of the Native folks that they were interpreting or talking about. They now have a committee as part of their governance structure that is comprised of Native people and it’s part and parcel of how they make decisions now. That's another example of years-long structural change that really has impacted the way that the museum works and collects.</p><p><strong>WF: Can you talk about what the process of updating the standards will look like? </strong></p><p>LL: It's a consensus-building process that started with the “Excellence in DEAI” task force, part of our “Facing Change” initiative, that issued a <a href="https://www.aam-us.org/2022/08/02/excellence-in-deai-report/" target="_blank">report</a> a couple of months ago. That task force was charged with examining what excellence in DEAI looks like and the indicators of a museum really progressing through a DEAI journey. I'm so grateful to that committee, which began their work in 2019, so it was not a short or easy process, especially during pandemic times, to define specific core concepts and key indicators that can be built into the new standards and the application of the standards. </p><p>After the new year, we'll appoint a steering committee of Chief Diversity Officers, museum leaders, and AAM volunteer leadership. I expect some of the biggest changes to be not necessarily in the language of the standards, though there will be some, but in how they're applied and evaluated by the accreditation commission and peer reviewers. It's a little bit behind the scenes, but it will change a lot about what we actually ask museums to tell us in their self-studies—what the peer reviewers look for, and what they observe when they're doing their visits. Our goal is to nurture excellence, so part of our job is providing the case studies, resources, and training on how to actually implement the standards. </p><p><strong>WF: With your member organizations spanning different sizes, areas of focus, and audience bases, how do you account for the variety of programs and approaches museums might take in this work?</strong> </p><p>LL: It's definitely not one size fits all—certainly not with DEAI—but it isn't really with anything that's in the standards. It's such a broad field, and it's why the standards, if you look at them now, are a little vague. They have to be adaptable to zoos, children's museums, big institutions, and very old institutions, as well as ones that are brand new. That's why a lot of the changes that I feel will be most important through this process will be in how the standards are applied and how they're evaluated because we can't expect to see the same thing and call it progress or excellence in each institution's case. </p><p>For example, one of the core concepts is about DEAI demanding an ongoing commitment of resources, and one of the indicators of this commitment is that an organization has allocated a budget for the work. Then the question becomes how much is enough? And that's obviously going to be a very different answer depending on the type of institution and where it is. It probably won't be in the standards that museums need to dedicate a certain percent of their budget, but in the self-study, how we frame this indicator and how it's evaluated by the peer reviewers and the accreditation commission will be where that definition comes in. It's never easy for our field, but that's where this idea of even having core concepts and key indicators helps us get more precise about what we’re looking for.</p><p><strong>WF: Finally, what impact do you hope the new standards will have? </strong></p><p>LL: Even just declaring that we're doing this work is a step so that DEAI is understood as part of professional practice for all museums. It's just like collection stewardship and interpretation, which are also practices that are constantly being refined and improved. It's not like we handle collections care now in the same way that we did a hundred years ago—there's new technology, tactics, and learnings. DEAI is very similar in that way, but it needs to be understood as part of best practice, taught as best practice in museum studies programs, and implemented by museums as core functions of the institution and embedded throughout them.</p><p><em>The American Alliance of Museums is a partner with The Wallace Foundation.</em></p> | Wallace editorial team | 79 | | 2023-02-14T05:00:00Z | Your source for research and ideas to expand high quality learning and enrichment opportunities. Supporting: School Leadership, After School, Summer and Extended Learning Time, Arts Education and Building Audiences for the Arts. | | 2/14/2023 3:14:52 PM | The Wallace Foundation / News and Media / Wallace Blog / The Future of Diversity and Equity in Museums For the first time in 20 years, the American Alliance of Museums is updating | 1692 | https://www.wallacefoundation.org/News-and-Media/Blog/Pages/Forms/AllItems.aspx | html | False | aspx | |
| It's Here: Wallace's Top Ten Posts of 2022 | 42593 | GP0|#b68a91d0-1c13-4d82-b12d-2b08588c04d7;L0|#0b68a91d0-1c13-4d82-b12d-2b08588c04d7|News;GTSet|#a1e8653d-64cb-48e0-8015-b5826f8c5b61 | <p>It has been a busy year here at Wallace. But don’t just take our word for it. Let’s look at a few numbers. Since January 1, 2022, we’ve:</p><div class="wf-Element-BlueBullet"> Launched a new five-year arts initiative with 18 arts organizations of color </div><p></p><div class="wf-Element-BlueBullet">Received  more than 1,700 submissions for a new funding  opportunity focused on adolescents</div><div class="wf-Element-BlueBullet">Continued working with eight large school districts to explore how to build pipelines that can produce school leaders capable of advancing their own district’s vision of equity</div><div class="wf-Element-BlueBullet">Published more than 50 reports and articles, including the last of three “knowledge syntheses” examining what recent research says about important topics in school leadership</div><div class="wf-Element-BlueBullet">Launched two podcast series</div><div class="wf-Element-BlueBullet">Hosted several webinars and events, some with thousands of attendees</div><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Much of this work has been captured by our editorial staff and guest authors on The Wallace Blog, as you'll see in our annual Top Ten Blog Posts. We think the list gives a good sense of the breadth of our work while highlighting common themes, such as how people working in education and the arts are still experiencing effects from the pandemic, and how everyone is craving conversation (online or, thankfully this year, sometimes in person) with experts and their peers along with data and research.<br><br> We hope you enjoy revisiting these stories, and we hope you learn something new!<br><br><strong>10. </strong>
<a href="/News-and-Media/Blog/pages/focusing-on-principal-wellness-6-questions-for-school-leaders.aspx">
<strong>Focusing on Principal Wellness: 6 Questions for School Leaders:</strong></a><strong> </strong>Four principals—who, together, have more than 30 years of experience as school leaders—discuss what inspired them to become principals, how they deal with burnout and the impact of the pandemic, among other topics. 
<strong></strong>
<br>
<br>
<strong>9. </strong>
<a href="/News-and-Media/Blog/pages/how-can-music-organizations-be-more-inclusive.aspx">
<strong>How Can Music Organizations Be More Inclusive?</strong></a><strong> </strong>In a Chamber Music America podcast episode, Slover Linett researcher Melody Buyukozer Dawkins highlights several insights from a recent study exploring 50 Black Americans’ perception of the arts. She also gives a few key takeaways for ensemble music professionals to use in their own work.<strong></strong><br><br><strong>8. </strong>
<a href="/news-and-media/blog/pages/three-districts-one-principal-pipeline.aspx">
<strong>Three Districts, One Principal Pipeline:</strong></a><strong> </strong>In this deep-dive into a sparsely populated section of rural Nebraska, we see how three small districts pooled their talent and resources to implement systemic improvements to the preparation, hiring, support and management of principals.<br><br><strong>7. </strong>
<a href="/News-and-Media/Blog/pages/how-can-arts-and-culture-organizations-be-more-welcoming.aspx">
<strong>How Can Arts and Culture Organizations Be More Welcoming?</strong></a><strong> </strong>Slover Linett researchers hit our Top 10 list twice this year, this time in a conversation upon the release of their report exploring Black Americans’ perspectives on arts and culture. The report also delves into how organizations can better support Black communities and work to earn their trust and make them feel welcome.<strong></strong><br><br><strong>6. </strong>
<a href="/News-and-Media/Blog/pages/five-takeaways-for-developing-high-quality-principals.aspx">
<strong>Five Takeaways for Developing High-Quality Principals:</strong></a><strong> </strong>Two reports released in 2022 show how states, districts and universities all have a role to play in improving the quality of principal preparation. Authors from the two research teams presented highlights from their work, along with a panel of experts to help dig into the findings. This blog post recaps five key takeaways from that conversation.
<strong></strong>
<br>
<br>
<strong>5. </strong>
<a href="/News-and-Media/Blog/pages/why-afterschool-programs-need-social-and-emotional-learning-sel-now.aspx">
<strong>Why Afterschool Programs Need Social and Emotional Learning Now:</strong></a><strong> </strong>Read highlights from a webinar jointly hosted by The Afterschool Alliance, Every Hour Counts and the Forum for Youth Investment, which emphasizes how afterschool programs have used SEL strategies to help children throughout the pandemic.<strong></strong><br><br><strong>4. </strong>
<a href="/News-and-Media/Blog/pages/social-and-emotional-learning-in-the-spotlight.aspx">
<strong>Social and Emotional Learning in the Spotlight:</strong></a><strong> </strong>This post breaks down our three-part podcast series,
<em>Let’s Talk Social and Emotional Learning</em>, into short video clips in which Harvard’s Stephanie Jones highlights key topics in
<em>Navigating SEL From the Inside Out</em>.
<br><br><strong>3. </strong>
<a href="/News-and-Media/Blog/pages/helping-arts-workers-navigate-pandemic-induced-burnout.aspx">
<strong>Helping Arts Workers Navigate Pandemic-Induced Burnout:</strong></a><strong> </strong>Arts organizations offer up a slew of resources and ideas to support health and wellness for people working in the arts.
<strong></strong>
<br>
<br>
<strong>2. </strong>
<a href="/News-and-Media/Blog/pages/two-summer-programs-inch-towards-normal-as-covid-subsides.aspx">
<strong>Two Summer Programs Inch Towards Normal as Covid Subsides:</strong></a><strong> </strong>What can summer do to help overcome the havoc Covid-19 has wreaked on young people’s lives? A fair bit, according to the parents, kids and staff we interviewed at two summer programs in New York and New Jersey. In the number two blog post of the year, they talk about their experiences, how the programs had to adapt due to the pandemic and what their plans are for the future. <strong> </strong>
<br>
<br>
<strong>1. </strong>
<a href="/News-and-Media/Blog/pages/new-research-points-to-a-looming-principal-shortage.aspx">
<strong>New Research Points to a Looming Principal Shortage:</strong></a><strong> </strong>Teacher burnout and shortages have been hot topics all year in the news. But what about principals? In the most viewed blog post of 2022, school leaders discuss how the principal role is changing, why four in ten principals surveyed said they might soon leave the profession and what to do about it.<br><br></p> | Jenna Doleh | 91 | | 2022-12-13T05:00:00Z | Your favorite reads this year touched on everything from SEL to principals to community arts | | 12/13/2022 3:37:27 PM | The Wallace Foundation / News and Media / Wallace Blog / It's Here: Wallace's Top Ten Posts of 2022 Your favorite reads this year touched on everything from SEL to principals to | 988 | https://www.wallacefoundation.org/News-and-Media/Blog/Pages/Forms/AllItems.aspx | html | False | aspx | |
| Exploring History and Culture with Arts Organizations of Color | 23761 | GP0|#a2eb43fb-abab-4f1c-ae41-72fd1022ddb0;L0|#0a2eb43fb-abab-4f1c-ae41-72fd1022ddb0|The Arts;GTSet|#a1e8653d-64cb-48e0-8015-b5826f8c5b61 | <p>Arts organizations founded by, with and for communities of color are relatively underrepresented in research, with limited information available about their founding histories and how these histories might shape an organization’s purpose, culture and work. That’s why, when we launched
<a href="/News-and-Media/Blog/pages/arts-open-call-yields-250-submissions-from-organizations-of-color.aspx">our latest arts initiative</a> beginning with 18 organizations rooted in communities of color, we commissioned the
<a href="https://www.ssrc.org/programs/arts-research-with-communities-of-color-program-arcc/" target="_blank">Social Science Research Council </a>(SSRC) to create a fellowship that could not only help document the organizations’ history and culture, but could also build research capacity in the field through the support of early career scholars.</p><p>SSRC has now selected a group of research fellows, who will receive funding to conduct 12-month qualitative ethnographic studies in collaboration with the organizations in the initiative. The fellowship program seeks to support early career researchers who are deeply engaged with the arts organizations of color. The group will participate in conversations with one another and with the broader network of researchers and practitioners in the Wallace initiative. </p><p>Each research fellow will be paired with a specific organization to help explore its unique history, culture and context. The goal is to produce useful information for the organization itself and for other arts organizations of color. Collectively, through cross-cutting analyses, the fellows’ research could also contribute novel insights to the broader body of research and public policy. </p><p>
<strong>Meet the first group of fellows:</strong><br> </p><p style="text-align:left;">
<strong>
<img src="/News-and-Media/Blog/PublishingImages/Pages/exploring-history-and-culture-with-arts-organizations-of-color/Monica-Barra2.jpg" alt="Monica-Barra2.jpg" class="wf-Image-Left" style="margin:5px;width:165px;height:220px;" />Monica Patrice Barra</strong> (she/her/hers) is a cultural anthropologist, ceramicist, and assistant professor at the University of South Carolina. Broadly, her research examines the relationship between race, inequality, and geography in the United States. She has explored these topics over the past decade in collaboration with visual and performing artists, policymakers, scientists, community based organizations, and fishermen. Her experience and research has been supported by a variety of institutions across the arts, sciences, and humanities, including: The Princeton University Art Museum, the National Academies of Sciences, the Wenner-Gren Foundation, and the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities. Her writings on place-based arts, environmental change, and race have appeared in edited volumes and journals in the fields of anthropology, geography, and interdisciplinary humanities. Her first book, Good Sediment: Race, Science, and the Politics of Restoration, is an ethnographic study of wetland loss, environmental restoration, and Black placemaking practices in south Louisiana. She is currently at work on a second ethnographic project on heirs’ property and Black land loss in the US South.</p><p>
<em>Monica will be partnering with the
<a href="https://www.ganttcenter.org/" target="_blank">Gantt Center for African American Arts + Culture</a>.<br><br></em></p><p>
<strong><img src="/News-and-Media/Blog/PublishingImages/Pages/exploring-history-and-culture-with-arts-organizations-of-color/Ying-Diao.jpeg" alt="Ying-Diao.jpeg" class="wf-Image-Right" style="margin:5px;width:159px;height:253px;" />Ying Diao</strong> is an ethnomusicologist and cultural anthropologist with research expertise in relationships between cultural production, ethnicity, and politics, and in the anthropology of religion, voice, and mediation. Her work has focused on the musical dynamics of cross-border ethnoreligious development and resilience among upland communities in southwest China and mainland Southeast Asia. Supported by the SEM Deborah Wong Research & Publication Award and AAS Publication Support Grant, her book project, Muted, Mediated, and Mobilized: Faith by Aurality on the China-Myanmar Border, examines how transnational sound production, circulation, and consumption become integral to the Lisu perception and striving after Christian faith amidst constraints and uncertainties. She earned her Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from the University of Maryland, College Park (2016). She was a Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, Germany, from 2017-2019, and a lecturer at the University of Minnesota in Spring 2022.</p><p>
<em>Ying will be partnering with
<a href="https://www.ragamaladance.org/" target="_blank">Ragamala Dance Company</a>.<br><br></em></p><p>
<strong><img src="/News-and-Media/Blog/PublishingImages/Pages/exploring-history-and-culture-with-arts-organizations-of-color/Timnet-Gedar.jpeg" alt="Timnet-Gedar.jpeg" class="wf-Image-Left" style="margin:5px;width:159px;height:212px;" />Timnet Gedar</strong> is a historian with commitments to community engaged research and social justice. She holds an MSc in Social Development Practice, and graduate certificates in African Studies and Museum Studies. Her work includes research, teaching, and practice in intellectual history, political and social movements, Black print cultures, museums, education, and community engagement. She is a daughter of Eritrea and a proud Chicagoan.</p><p>
<em>Timnet will be partnering with </em>
<a href="https://chicagosinfonietta.org/" target="_blank">
<em>Chicago Sinfonietta</em></a>.<br><br></p><p>
<strong><strong style="color:#555555;font-size:14px;"><img src="/News-and-Media/Blog/PublishingImages/Pages/exploring-history-and-culture-with-arts-organizations-of-color/Nazanin-Ghaffari.jpg" alt="Nazanin-Ghaffari.jpg" class="wf-Image-Right" style="margin:5px;width:159px;" /></strong>Nazanin Ghaffari</strong> holds a Ph.D. in urban planning and public policy from the University of Texas at Arlington. She is interested in navigating disciplinary terrain in urban planning, public administration, feminist geography, and social anthropology to highlight the racialized, classed, gendered, and sexualized blind spots and biases found within conceptualizations of public spaces. Her research concerns inclusionary and/or exclusionary strategies incorporated by signature public spaces governance regimes through design, programming, policing, and management processes. She also investigates how design and planning empower historically marginalized communities through artistic interventions and bottom-up innovations to advance social, racial, and climate justice. Trained as an architect, urban designer, and urban planner, Nazanin has over a decade of professional experience with the United Nations Development Programme, UN-Habitat Mitigation Office, Asia-Pacific Slum Upgrading Working Group, Tehran Municipality Research Center, private design firms, grassroots and community organizations in the Middle East and North Texas.</p><p><em>Ghaffari will be partnering with <a href="https://www.rebuild-foundation.org/" target="_blank">Rebuild</a></em>.</p>
<p>
<b></b></p><p>
<strong><img src="/News-and-Media/Blog/PublishingImages/Pages/exploring-history-and-culture-with-arts-organizations-of-color/Davinia-Gregory-Kameka.JPG" alt="Davinia-Gregory-Kameka.JPG" class="wf-Image-Left" style="margin:5px;width:164px;height:179px;" />Davinia Gregory-</strong><strong>Kameka</strong>’s most recent research focuses on sociology of the role of arts organizations and their cultural policy landscape in sustaining or disrupting racial capitalism (Robinson, 1983). Her doctoral work (2015-20) was the first piece of research to fully document the closure, aftermath and legacy creation of a Black-led arts organization; the first empirical analysis of what happens at this point of stress. Such closures often happen quickly and are complex. They are sometimes documented after the fact using document analysis and archival material. However, this empirical, data-rich analysis of what happens in real time when an organization implodes is important because it bridges the gap between what policy documents say about the role and function of what policy calls “cultural diversity in the arts” and what happens (and is needed) on the ground. Among other things, her work asks, what is the importance of Black space in the arts in multiple locations across the Black Atlantic, and how is that space created, contested and supported in the pandemic age?</p><p>
<em>Davinia will be partnering with
<a href="https://www.blackstarfest.org/" target="_blank">BlackStar</a>.<br><br></em></p><p>
<strong><img src="/News-and-Media/Blog/PublishingImages/Pages/exploring-history-and-culture-with-arts-organizations-of-color/Cameron-Herman.jpg" alt="Cameron-Herman.jpg" class="wf-Image-Right" style="margin:5px;width:165px;height:228px;" />Dr. Cameron Herman</strong> is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology and an affiliate faculty member in Africana Studies at Buffalo State College. His teaching and research broadly focuses on understanding the ways marginalized groups experience and navigate social inequalities in urban environments. Cameron has published solo and collaborative journal articles, chapters in edited volumes and online publications on a range of topics including Black artists’ response to gentrification, housing activism and neoliberal governance, Black masculinity in hip hop. In the wake of COVID-19’s onset, Cameron’s research agenda has expanded through collaborations with community partners and equity-minded scholars in the UB Food Systems and Healthy Communities lab to support community-based responses to inequitable food systems in Buffalo, NY. In his free time, Cameron enjoys spending time with his wife and daughter, exploring neighborhoods on his bicycle and photographing everyday life.</p><p>
<em>Cameron will be partnering with
<a href="https://www.1hood.org/" target="_blank">1Hood Media</a>.<br><br></em></p><p>
<strong><img src="/News-and-Media/Blog/PublishingImages/Pages/exploring-history-and-culture-with-arts-organizations-of-color/Raquel-Jimenez.jpg" alt="Raquel-Jimenez.jpg" class="wf-Image-Left" style="margin:5px;width:164px;height:246px;" />Raquel Jimenez</strong>’s research explores socially-engaged creative practices and the distinct place-based logics that guide community arts organizations. This interest is reflected in her dissertation, “Taking Up Space: Youth Culture and Creative Resistance in a Gentrifying City,” an ethnographic study that examines how youth engage with public artmaking strategies to resist gentrification, while investigating how community arts education structures this process. Raquel teaches courses on art and culture at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and designs participatory community arts programs at the intersection of art, education, and cultural organizing. Her work has been supported by the Ford Foundation and the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Apart from research and teaching, Raquel is a member of the Sirens Crew, an all-womxn public art collective working to feminize public space through a variety of visual intervention strategies.</p><p>
<em>Raquel will be partnering with
<a href="https://pregonesprtt.org/" target="_blank">Pregones PRTT</a>.<br></em><br> </p><p>
<strong><img src="/News-and-Media/Blog/PublishingImages/Pages/exploring-history-and-culture-with-arts-organizations-of-color/Asif-Majid.jpg" alt="Asif-Majid.jpg" class="wf-Image-Right" style="margin:5px;width:249px;height:166px;" />Asif Majid</strong> is a scholar-artist-educator working at the intersection of racialized sociopolitical identities, multimedia, marginality, and new performance, particularly through devising community-based participatory theatre, making improvisational music, and addressing the nexus of Islam and performance. He has published in a range of academic and popular media outlets, and his performance credits include work with the Kennedy Center in the US and the Royal Exchange Theatre in the UK, among others. Asif was a Mellon/ACLS Public Fellow with the San Francisco Arts Commission and a Lab Fellow with The Laboratory for Global Performance and Performance. He earned his PhD in Anthropology, Media, and Performance from The University of Manchester. Currently, Asif is Assistant Professor of Theatre and Human Rights at the University of Connecticut, where he is at work on a book project titled Making Muslimness: Race, Religion, and Performance in Contemporary Britain. Asif can be found online at
<a href="http://www.asifmajid.com/" target="_blank">www.asifmajid.com</a>.</p><p>
<em>Asif will be partnering with the
<a href="https://arabamericanmuseum.org/" target="_blank">Arab American National Museum</a>.<br><br></em><u></u></p><p>
<strong><img src="/News-and-Media/Blog/PublishingImages/Pages/exploring-history-and-culture-with-arts-organizations-of-color/Jason-J-Price.jpg" alt="Jason-J-Price.jpg" class="wf-Image-Left" style="margin:5px;width:165px;height:165px;" />Jason J. Price</strong> is an Arts Research with Communities of Color (ARCC) Fellow, working in collaboration with his matched organization to explore how social science research can contribute to a thriving and more equitable arts field. He earned a PhD in sociocultural anthropology from UC Berkeley and an Advanced Certificate in Culture & Media from NYU. His dissertation research, funded by the Fulbright Program, focused on the cultivation of endurance in a Pentecostal ministry in Malawi. His documentary short, The Professor, a portrait of former Interim President of Liberia, David Kpormakpor, has screened at festivals worldwide. From 2018-2020, he was Postdoctoral Researcher at IUPUI’s Arts & Humanities Institute, where he worked with equity-driven arts organizations to improve their reach and efficacy.</p><p>
<em>Jason will be partnering with
<a href="https://pillsburyhouseandtheatre.org/" target="_blank">Pillsbury House + Theater</a>.<br></em><br> </p><p>
<strong><img src="/News-and-Media/Blog/PublishingImages/Pages/exploring-history-and-culture-with-arts-organizations-of-color/Jason-C-White.jpg" alt="Jason-C-White.jpg" class="wf-Image-Right" style="margin:5px;width:214px;height:171px;" />Dr. Jason C. White</strong> is an Assistant Professor of Arts Administration in the Department of Art at Xavier University, where he prepares students for diverse careers in arts administration. An accomplished researcher, educator, author and theorist, White has published in Artivate: A Journal of Entrepreneurship in the Arts, Journal of Arts Management, Law and Society, Innovative Higher Education, and Arts Education Policy Review. White is also the author of Innovation in the Arts: Concepts, Theories and Practices, a recent Routledge publication. White is one of the co-creators of the AAAE Undergraduate Standards for Arts Administration Education. Prior to receiving his PhD in Arts Administration, Education and Policy from The Ohio State University, White earned a BFA from California Institute of the Arts and attended The University of Akron; obtaining a Masters degree in Arts Administration and a Masters degree in Educational Assessment. Learn more about Dr. White at
<a href="http://www.innovationinthearts.com/" target="_blank">www.innovationinthearts.com</a>.</p><p>
<em>Jason will be partnering with
<a href="https://www.u-ca.org/" target="_blank">The Union for Contemporary Art</a>.<br></em><a href="https://www.u-ca.org/"></a><br><br></p><p>
<strong><img src="/News-and-Media/Blog/PublishingImages/Pages/exploring-history-and-culture-with-arts-organizations-of-color/DeRon-Williams.jpeg" alt="DeRon-Williams.jpeg" class="wf-Image-Left" style="margin:5px;width:164px;height:291px;" />DeRon S. Williams</strong> is an Assistant Professor of Theatre in the Department of Fine and Performing Arts at Loyola University Chicago and a freelance director and dramaturg. He has published in The Journal of American Drama and Theatre, Continuum: The Journal of African Diaspora Drama. His directing credits include Tarell Alvin McCraney’s The Brothers Size, Regina Taylor’s Crowns, Bruce Norris’s Clybourne Park, and Africa to America: A Celebration of Who We Are, an interdisciplinary performance written by Wendy R. Coleman. DeRon is also co-editor of the forthcoming edited volume titled Contemporary Black Theatre & Performance: Acts of Rebellion, Activism, and Solidarity, as a part of the Methuen Drama Agitations: Politics, Text, Performance series.</p><p>
<em>DeRon will be partnering with
<a href="https://philadanco.org/" target="_blank">PHILADANCO!</a></em><a href="https://philadanco.org/"></a></p> <br><br><br> | Wallace editorial team | 79 | | 2022-10-11T04:00:00Z | Eleven fellows tapped by Social Science Research Council will work with organizations in Wallace’s art initiative | | 11/3/2022 8:07:35 PM | The Wallace Foundation / News and Media / Wallace Blog / Exploring History and Culture with Arts Organizations of Color Eleven fellows tapped by Social Science Research Council | 1827 | https://www.wallacefoundation.org/News-and-Media/Blog/Pages/Forms/AllItems.aspx | html | False | aspx | |
| How Can Arts and Culture Organizations Be More Welcoming? | 42453 | GP0|#8056f3bc-89c1-4297-814a-3e71542163be;L0|#08056f3bc-89c1-4297-814a-3e71542163be|Building Audiences for the Arts;GTSet|#a1e8653d-64cb-48e0-8015-b5826f8c5b61 | <p>What kinds of arts experiences foster feelings of connection and well-being? A new report reveals some insights from Black and African American participants, a viewpoint historically sidelined from research and planning efforts in the arts. In-depth interviews with 50 Black and African American participants revealed common threads that demonstrate the importance of four key practices for arts and culture organizations in creating a positive environment: celebrating personal and community creativity, supporting self-care, working to be more trustworthy and creating a sense of welcome and belonging.<br></p><p>The qualitative study,
<a href="/knowledge-center/pages/a-place-to-be-heard-a-space-to-feel-held-black-perspectives.aspx?utm_source=The+Wallace+Foundation&utm_campaign=bfe7509f3a-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2022_01_07_04_25&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_59ab24ca7b-bfe7509f3a-211159397&_ga=2.77163926.2027710580.1650894280-1368872614.1650558612">
<em>A Place to Be Heard, A Space to Feel Held: Black Perspectives on Creativity, Trustworthiness, Welcome and Well Being</em></a>, was funded in part by Wallace, with research conducted in 2021. The project is part of a pandemic-era, equity-focused research collaboration with Slover Linett, LaPlaca Cohen and Yancey Consulting called
<a href="https://culturetrack.com/research/transformation/" target="_blank">
<em>Culture + Community in a Time of Transformation: A Special Edition of Culture Track</em></a>. The initial survey research found that people
<a href="/News-and-Media/Blog/pages/what-we-need-from-arts-and-culture-right-now.aspx?_ga=2.77163926.2027710580.1650894280-1368872614.1650558612">crave more racial inclusion and connection</a> from the arts, and a follow-up survey determined that
<a href="/News-and-Media/Blog/pages/as-the-pandemic-shifts-so-does-peoples-thinking-about-arts-and-culture.aspx?_ga=2.77163926.2027710580.1650894280-1368872614.1650558612">people’s attitudes were shifting</a> throughout the pandemic, with the desire for arts organizations to be more community-oriented only growing stronger. The new report homes in on perspectives from Black and African American participants, exploring how organizations can better support Black communities, work to earn their trust and make them feel welcome. </p><p>To examine some of the report’s key takeaways, the Wallace blog connected with the team from Slover Linett who co-authored the study (along with Ciara C. Knight): researcher Melody Buyukozer Dawkins, research coordinator Camila Guerrero and vice president and director of research Tanya Treptow. </p><p>
</p><strong style="color:#555555;font-size:14px;"><img src="/News-and-Media/Blog/PublishingImages/Pages/how-can-arts-and-culture-organizations-be-more-welcoming/Melody_Buyukozer_Dawkins_Slover_Linett_Audience_Research.jpg" alt="Melody_Buyukozer_Dawkins_Slover_Linett_Audience_Research.jpg" class="wf-Image-Left" style="margin:5px;width:160px;height:200px;" /><span></span></strong><div><strong>Wallace Foundation: How did the four themes of creativity, self-care, trustworthiness, and welcome and belonging come into focus during the interviews?</strong></div><div><strong><br></strong></div><div><strong></strong><strong>Melody Buyukozer Dawkins:</strong> Our initial focus on the main themes of creativity, trustworthiness and welcome and belonging came from the first wave of quantitative findings from the
<a href="https://sloverlinett.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Centering-the-Picture-full-report-CCTC-Wave-1-findings.pdf" target="_blank">
<em>Culture + Community: The Role of Race and Ethnicity in cultural engagement in the U.S.</em></a> report. Those findings provided guidance at several levels:</div><p></p><div class="wf-Element-BlueBullet">The findings indicated that Black and African American respondents were less likely to participate in the range of cultural activities included in the survey, even though those that did participate did so at the same frequency as the other racial and ethnic groups. One discussion our team had was whether the list of activities that we included in the survey was comprehensive enough to cover all potential activities Black respondents participated in. To this end, we took an open-ended approach in our interviews and asked participants about the general creative activities they partake in to expand this list.</div><p></p><div class="wf-Element-BlueBullet">Over three quarters of Black and African American respondents desired change in arts and culture organizations and it was particularly important for them to engage with diverse voices and faces, more than any other racial and ethnic groups. About one third also wanted to see friendly approaches to diverse people. To examine in our interviews what dynamics come into play in these processes, we explored welcome and belonging.</div><div class="wf-Element-BlueBullet">Black and African American respondents were also more likely than other groups to want to stay informed with trustworthy sources of information, so building on this finding we aimed to explore the factors that affect the trustworthiness of any organization or person.</div><p>We initially didn’t seek to examine self-care within our interviews but as we spoke to people, this theme emerged organically, especially as people talked about how they have been living through the pandemic era. </p><p>
<strong>WF: Against the backdrop of the larger
<em>Culture + Community</em> study, why was it important to conduct this qualitative study to gain the perspective of Black and African American participants regarding community and culture organizations? What are the benefits and tradeoffs or pitfalls of conducting research that delves deeper into understanding the experience of a particular group? </strong></p><p>
<strong>MBD:</strong> This is a question we heard often throughout both the research and dissemination process. One way we found very helpful to answer this question is to take a system-level approach and ask ourselves why the question of the importance of Black perspectives really exists in the first place. What structures and conditions that historically excluded Black people make this kind of research necessary? And why do we try to assess what there is to gain (or to lose) from this kind of research, rather than focus on how research can shift our paradigms and help us transform? With our research, we intentionally tried to stay away from the impulse to justify, but instead to amplify and celebrate Black voices, stories and wisdom, authentically and unapologetically.   </p><p>
<strong>
<img src="/News-and-Media/Blog/PublishingImages/Pages/how-can-arts-and-culture-organizations-be-more-welcoming/Tanya_Treptow_Slover_Linett_Audience_Research.jpg" alt="Tanya_Treptow_Slover_Linett_Audience_Research.jpg" class="wf-Image-Right" style="margin:5px;width:175px;height:219px;" />Tanya Treptow:</strong> And we felt like a qualitative study could be an important complement to—and a check on—the quantitative components of the
<em>Culture + Community</em> work. In qualitative research, we’re inherently not looking to generalize research findings, but instead to hear people deeply as holistic individuals and to understand the emotional undertones of people’s values, philosophies and actions. In this case, we were able to explore how culture and community experiences and organizations naturally fit into people’s broader lives. </p><p>
<strong>WF: What most surprised or had an impact on you</strong><strong> while working on this study? </strong></p><p>
<strong>
<img src="/News-and-Media/Blog/PublishingImages/Pages/how-can-arts-and-culture-organizations-be-more-welcoming/Camila_Guerrero_Slover_Linett_Audience_Research.jpg" alt="Camila_Guerrero_Slover_Linett_Audience_Research.jpg" class="wf-Image-Left" style="margin:5px;width:179px;height:224px;" />Camila Guerrero</strong>: These were the first qualitative interviews I’d been a part of at Slover Linett and the loose structure of the interview, paired with people’s openness, seemed to create a space for vulnerability. The extent of how vulnerable people were willing to be, to talk about certain experiences they’d gone through was unexpected, because we were strangers and they didn’t owe us their unfiltered emotions, thoughts or experiences. The space we created in these interviews was safe not just for the participants, but also for us, the researchers. The interviews almost felt like a conversation I’d have with a friend even though they were for the purposes of this study. They all started off with “how are you feeling?” and despite our guiding question we still went in whatever direction felt most natural and comfortable. Each conversation brought something personal and eye-opening about the individual. One of many of those moments that still stands out to me is when one participant shared a beautiful moment of connection she had with her late mother through nature. I felt myself tearing up as she described her experience, and although perhaps at first glance it may have seemed unrelated to the themes we focused on in this study, it all circles back somehow. That very personal moment she gave us the privilege of exploring was what ultimately led to her love for photography, just one of the many ways she engaged with art. </p><p>
<strong>TT:</strong> I definitely agree with Camila. I’ve been referring back to our conversations in professional contexts and in my personal life to a much greater degree than in other studies I’ve been a part of. I think it’s because of the open-ended framing of our conversations, where people could share what was most meaningful to themselves. In a lot of social research in the arts and culture realm, research is constrained to a somewhat narrower frame, such as attendance or participation at specific kinds of institutions.  In this case, we didn’t constrain our conversations, yet as in Camila’s example, people naturally still shared stories about the arts and culture in their lives. </p><p>
<strong>WF: Where do you think there are more opportunities for this kind of research and what would be a future priority from your perspective?</strong></p><p>
<strong>MBD:</strong> Shifting paradigms and building community. Thanks to the deep insights of our participants, we were able to examine the distinctions between trust and trustworthiness, and between welcome and belonging; explore the role of creativity and self-care in individual and community well-being; and question what “relevance” really means in the context of cultural experiences. One of the exciting outcomes of our study was that for each of our four thematic areas—creativity, self-care, trustworthiness and welcome—there were revelations that led to potential paradigm-shifting approaches to commonly used terms and concepts when equity and inclusion are talked about. So, one potential future priority for me is to rethink how we approach these concepts and how we ask questions in the first place. </p><p>
<strong>CG:</strong> This study felt more like it was about amplifying voices and perspectives than about serving institutions and organizations. I hope it encourages others to move more in this direction, to be participant-centered. Although much of the focus of this study was to support institutions through our findings, throughout the process we found ourselves thinking about the interview participants as not just the main focus, but the main
<em>audience</em> for our report. During our debriefs as a team it came up time and time again, that we wanted this to be something all the participants could read through and understand, because their insights were what even allowed us to get to this point. This participant-centered approach is something I hope to see more of in studies because without participants we have no research, no findings, no ability to take action.</p><p>
<strong>WF: What implications does this study have for the arts and culture sector more broadly?</strong></p><p>
<strong>MBD:</strong> When we started this process, we were thinking about the audiences for this report. As we went through our conversations and started to identify themes, it became very apparent that the findings and insights went beyond the audiences (cultural practitioners and funders) we initially thought about. So, we shifted our focus to the “culture and community” sector, very broadly defined to include not only cultural sector practitioners and funders but also organizations, activists, policy makers and anybody who connects personally with or connects others around culture and community. Excitingly, we have already started hearing reverberations of our findings for people across a wide variety of fields like higher education, creative placemaking, civic engagement and sociological research on places and participation—many of the areas that have been working to incorporate the arts in comprehensive community development. I think one of the next steps is to capitalize on these reverberations and build community around how these learnings can translate into meaningful change, action and also more questions and research. </p><p>
<strong>TT: </strong>I think there also needs to be a continued reckoning in the arts and culture field in accepting, celebrating and ultimately financially supporting arts and culture organizations and initiatives that support deep extrinsic goals, such as individual and community wellness (getting beyond art for art’s sake). Arts organizations that promote these goals explicitly are sometimes given less prestige than those focused on the quality of their collections alone. And that runs contrary to what we heard from the people we spoke to in this study in how they valued arts, culture and creativity in their lives. </p><p>
<img src="/News-and-Media/Blog/PublishingImages/Pages/how-can-arts-and-culture-organizations-be-more-welcoming/Final_updated_qual_report_diagram_V2_2_A_Place_to_Be_Heard.jpg" alt="Final_updated_qual_report_diagram_V2_2_A_Place_to_Be_Heard.jpg" style="margin:5px;" />
<br>
<br>
</p><p>We didn’t frame conversations around self-care or wellness, but these topics emerged anyways in very central ways. And I think this intersects with how the field should value and support BIPOC-led and BIPOC-centered organizations, which may be more likely to take an ‘arts and…’ approach. We do already see encouraging shifts in the sector, such as with John Falk’s 2021 publication,
<a href="https://www.instituteforlearninginnovation.org/the-value-of-museums-enhancing-societal-well-being/" target="_blank">
<em>The Value of Museums: Enhancing Societal Well-Being</em></a>, but there is so much more to do. I’d love to see continued centering of individual and community-level wellness at conferences, in the framing of funding opportunities and within individual organizational practice. </p><p>
<em>The included chart is excerpted from the study, </em>
<a href="/knowledge-center/pages/a-place-to-be-heard-a-space-to-feel-held-black-perspectives.aspx?utm_source=The+Wallace+Foundation&utm_campaign=bfe7509f3a-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2022_01_07_04_25&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_59ab24ca7b-bfe7509f3a-211159397">
<em>A Place to Be Heard, A Space to Feel Held: Black Perspectives on Creativity, Trustworthiness, Welcome and Well Being</em></a>.</p><br><br><br><br><br> | Wallace editorial team | 79 | | 2022-05-03T04:00:00Z | Authors of new report break down what they learned about arts participation from in-depth interviews with 50 Black Americans | | 5/3/2022 4:13:35 PM | The Wallace Foundation / News and Media / Wallace Blog / How Can Arts and Culture Organizations Be More Welcoming Authors of new report break down what they learned about arts | 2521 | https://www.wallacefoundation.org/News-and-Media/Blog/Pages/Forms/AllItems.aspx | html | False | aspx | |
| As the Pandemic Shifts So Does People’s Thinking About Arts and Culture | 23688 | GP0|#8056f3bc-89c1-4297-814a-3e71542163be;L0|#08056f3bc-89c1-4297-814a-3e71542163be|Building Audiences for the Arts;GTSet|#a1e8653d-64cb-48e0-8015-b5826f8c5b61 | <p>More than half of Americans say that arts and culture organizations are important to them, according to a new study. The results are part of an ongoing research effort by the companies LaPlaca Cohen and Slover Linett Audience Research, called <em>Culture + Community in a Time of Transformation</em>. </p><p>This <a href="https://culturetrack.com/research/transformation/" target="_blank">second wave of research</a> is based on surveys conducted in May 2021. Along with its companion report, <a href="https://sloverlinett.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Rethinking-Relevance-Rebuilding-Engagement-CCTT-Wave-2-Survey-Full-Report.pdf" target="_blank"><em>Rethinking relevance, rebuilding engagement</em></a>, the survey finds that most Americans believe that arts organizations can play a critical role in helping their communities during this time of continuing change and crises. In fact, a majority of respondents said they wanted arts and culture organizations to actively address social justice issues in their community.  </p><p><img src="/News-and-Media/Blog/PublishingImages/Pages/as-the-pandemic-shifts-so-does-people’s-thinking-about-arts-and-culture/blog-JenBenoitBryan-cropped.jpg" alt="blog-JenBenoitBryan-cropped.jpg" class="wf-Image-Left" style="margin:5px;width:195px;height:226px;" />To help break down some of these findings and their implications, we spoke via email with Jen Benoit-Bryan, Vice President and Co-Director of Research at Slover Linett. You can also see information on the earlier Culture Track work and study <a href="https://culturetrack.com/research/covidstudy/" target="_blank">here</a>. </p><p><strong>Wallace Foundation: What does this study tell us about how Americans might be thinking about the value of the arts? Compared to other research, is there anything new or perhaps surprising about what this survey found? </strong></p><p>Jen Benoit-Bryan: Going into the second wave of this study in early 2021, we anticipated that the personal salience of arts and culture organizations might have declined as people generally hadn’t been as involved in-person with these organizations, and many were grappling with illness and uncertainty in their lives. Instead, we saw a substantial increase in the proportion of Americans who viewed arts and culture organizations as important to them in May 2021 at 56 percent compared with 37 percent who said they were important when reflecting back to before the pandemic. </p><p>We’re not aware of any other national studies that have tracked the importance of the arts across the pandemic, but a study of residents in Washington state found similar patterns. <a href="https://www.artsfund.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/ArtsFund_COVID_Cultural_Impact_Study-Spreads.pdf" target="_blank">ArtsFund’</a>s omnibus panel of WA residents conducted in Fall 2021 found that about a third of residents value cultural programming more now than prior to the pandemic, while 55 percent value it about the same and just 14 percent value it less than they did before the pandemic.</p><p><img src="/News-and-Media/Blog/PublishingImages/Pages/as-the-pandemic-shifts-so-does-people’s-thinking-about-arts-and-culture/chart-culture-rising-sentiment-arts-culture-community-p22.jpg" alt="chart-culture-rising-sentiment-arts-culture-community-p22.jpg" style="margin:5px;width:774px;height:436px;" /><br>This can be seen as a point of pride for the sector and as a statistic to cite in advocacy efforts. Of course, the increase could be due to Americans focusing more on their immediate needs during those early months of the pandemic, when the Wave 1 responses were gathered, and now having more room to explore other aspects of life, including culture and the arts. </p><p><strong>WF: While the responses indicate that a majority of Americans want arts and culture organizations to actively address social issues, they place different priorities on specific issues (e.g., racial justice 42 percent, wealth inequality 31 percent and climate justice 31 percent). How should organizations apply these complicated findings in their own contexts? </strong></p><p>JBB: While racial justice was the most-often selected issue that Americans want to see these organizations address, no single issue was selected by a majority of the respondents. That suggests that addressing multiple issues may be important to meeting the needs of many communities. There are some interesting patterns around which issues matter most to whom—for example, racial justice was a priority issue for a majority of Asians/Pacific Islanders and Black/African Americans (65 percent and 59 percent, respectively) and climate change was more likely to be a priority issue among Americans in coastal regions. We recommend that organizations think about what communities they hope to serve in the future (whether defined by geography, race and ethnicity or age, etc.), and then determine which issues to address. </p><p><img src="/News-and-Media/Blog/PublishingImages/Pages/as-the-pandemic-shifts-so-does-people’s-thinking-about-arts-and-culture/chart-culture-community-changes-wish-to-see-p29.jpg" alt="chart-culture-community-changes-wish-to-see-p29.jpg" style="margin:5px;width:774px;height:436px;" /><br><br></p><p>Then there’s the question of what it means for an arts or culture organization to “address” those kinds of issues. We didn’t investigate that in the survey, but there are many examples around the field, and they span the spectrum of internal, programmatic and external or community action. For example, addressing climate change could take place internally (e.g. a recycling program, rainwater reuse, a LEED-certified building expansion, etc.); in programming (a theater production or sound art exhibition on the topic) and/or externally (a partnership with local nonprofit focused on installing solar arrays in new housing developments). </p><p><strong>WF: When considering these findings, it’s important to remember that Americans are not a monolith, as you note throughout the report. Did you find any differences in responses when sorting the population by characteristics other than race, such as geography, income or education level?</strong></p><p>JBB: Absolutely. We focused primarily on the lens of race and ethnicity in this report because we believe that amplifying BIPOC voices is critical to a more inclusive and representative cultural sector, and there are consistent and sizeable differences by race and ethnicity for most of our questions. But at various points in the report, we also highlight geographic, income, disability status and age differences in the responses. A deeper dive into the co-variation of some of these demographics with race and ethnicity would be a fascinating follow-up analysis. That could be particularly valuable for questions where we see clear differences by demographics, such as addressing social issues, perceptions of systemic racism and desires for change in the sector.</p><p>Because this data offers such a wealth of information—more than we can explore even in this rather lengthy new report—we’re making the data sets for both survey waves freely available to researchers and academics for additional analysis. </p><p><strong>WF: The situation in the country changed while the data for the report were being collected and synthesized, from vaccines and new COVID-19 variants to political races across the country focusing on policing, public safety, race and education, and, more recently, escalating global conflict. How should readers of the report account for shifts like this when thinking about the survey data?</strong></p><p>JBB: This is the perpetual problem of doing real, policy-level research as the world continues to change so fast. In a political poll, where the statistical weighting is simple and the analysis is just crosstabs, results can be provided quickly. In deep-dive studies like this, where the weighting to combine the data sources into one national picture took weeks, and the exploratory analysis took months, we knew we’d still be making meaning from responses collected at a fixed time in the past. That’s why we focused many of the survey questions on broad themes that we expect to change slowly—things that aren’t really COVID-dependent, like the role of arts and culture in society, the kinds of change people hope to see across the sector and the value people receive through different kinds of engagement. In contrast, projects like <a href="https://www.audienceoutlookmonitor.com/" target="_blank">WolfBrown’s Audience Outlook Monitor</a> fill the important role of providing more rapid, repeating assessments of more highly variable questions, like how audiences feel about going out again and what will make them feel safe attending in person. </p><p>As with all data, I’d recommend reading our Culture + Community/Culture Track findings with an eye to both your local context and how the world as a whole has been changing since the Wave 2 data collection in May 2021. </p><p><em>This is part one of a two-part blog series focused on recent reports published by Slover Linett as part of </em><a href="https://culturetrack.com/research/transformation/" target="_blank">Culture + Community in a Time of Transformation: A Special Edition of Culture Track</a><em>. The second part, to be published in the coming weeks, will focus on </em><a href="/knowledge-center/pages/a-place-to-be-heard-a-space-to-feel-held-black-perspectives.aspx?_ga=2.210986325.1369777494.1647372834-1352763000.1643649010">A Place to Be Heard; A Space to Feel Held</a><em>, a qualitative study of the perspectives of Black Americans on creativity, trustworthiness, welcome, and well-being. </em><strong> </strong></p><p><em>For more information on this report, or to request the complete data sets for both survey waves, email </em><a href="mailto:CCTT@sloverlinett.com"><em>CCTT@sloverlinett.com</em></a></p><p><em>The included charts are excerpted from the </em><a href="https://s28475.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/CCTT-Key-Findings-from-Wave-2.pdf" target="_blank">Culture + Community in a Time of Transformation: A Special Edition of Culture Track</a> <em>report.</em></p> | Wallace editorial team | 79 | | 2022-03-17T04:00:00Z | New research reveals Americans' evolving relationships with arts and culture and the changes they wish to see from the sector | | 3/17/2022 6:05:59 PM | The Wallace Foundation / News and Media / Wallace Blog / As the Pandemic Shifts So Does People’s Thinking About Arts and Culture More than half of Americans say that arts and | 2030 | https://www.wallacefoundation.org/News-and-Media/Blog/Pages/Forms/AllItems.aspx | html | False | aspx | |
| Helping Arts Workers Navigate Pandemic-Induced Burnout | 42445 | GP0|#a2eb43fb-abab-4f1c-ae41-72fd1022ddb0;L0|#0a2eb43fb-abab-4f1c-ae41-72fd1022ddb0|The Arts;GTSet|#a1e8653d-64cb-48e0-8015-b5826f8c5b61 | <p>The arts—in virtual, masked or socially distanced forms—have been a much-needed salve during the past two years, offering moments of levity, inspiration and even simply a distraction from the pandemic and its stresses. Within the field, however, many arts workers have been facing their own stress and burnout with increased demands on their time and resources and the ever-present concerns about renewed lockdowns, unemployment and other looming uncertainties. Though many employers at the beginning of the initial lockdowns struggled to address these concerns, more and more arts organizations are now focused on providing their employees with tools to help address their mental health needs, especially important as we begin another year colored by the pandemic.<br></p><p>In a
<a href="https://www.aam-us.org/2021/05/05/combating-burnout-in-the-museum-sector/" target="_blank">recent blog post</a>, Elizabeth Merritt, American Alliance of Museums’ (AAM) vice president of strategic foresight and founding director of the Center for the Future of Museums, offered a bit of advice to arts workers from her own experience: “[N]ever be afraid to ask for help. Our work culture, (heck, American culture overall) often stigmatizes vulnerability as weakness. Knowing when you need support, and asking people to play a role in your recovery, isn’t a weakness but a strength.” (Note: AAM is the national service organization for museums and museum professionals.)</p><p>
<strong>Burnout Is Real</strong></p><p>Merritt listed steps both organizations and individuals could take to combat fatigue and hopelessness on the job, even suggesting that staff create an “burnout plan.” Such measures are essential, Merritt says, to adequately support people working at museums, who according to an AAM survey from March 2021, reported to be suffering from many variations of burnout.</p><p>Administered one year after many museums temporarily shut their doors, the
<a href="https://www.aam-us.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Measuring-the-Impact-of-COVID-19-on-People-in-the-Museum-Field-Report.pdf" target="_blank">survey </a>found that a large portion of the nearly 2,700 respondents suffered from mental and financial stress. When AAM fielded the survey, the unemployment rate was six percent,
<a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/empsit_04022021.htm" target="_blank">according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics</a>, which was considerably lower than the rate’s high in April 2020 but still 2.5 percentage points higher than its pre-pandemic level in February 2020. Nearly half of paid museum staff surveyed reported increased workload, and more than 40 percent of respondents reported that they lost income due to the pandemic (on average, over 30 percent of their total income). Further demonstrating this strain, respondents assigned an average rating of 6.6 (on a scale of 0-10 where 10 indicates very strong negative impact) to the impact of the pandemic on their mental health and well-being.</p><p>The survey also underscored that the pandemic had exacerbated existing race and gender inequities in the museum sector, mirroring broader issues in the United States. BIPOC respondents cited higher financial stress and fewer financial resources than white respondents. For instance, 19 percent of BIPOC respondents were more likely to say that they were living paycheck to paycheck, as compared to 12 percent of white respondents. Additionally, women were more likely than men to cite increased workload (50 percent compared to 41 percent respectively) and unfavorable effects on hours, salary, mental health and well-being—relatedly, slightly more of the women than the men respondents (56 percent versus 47 percent)  were more likely to pinpoint burnout as a potential barrier to remaining in the museum sector.</p><p>Similar findings surfaced in
<a href="https://actorsfund.org/about-us/news/actors-fund-survey-finds-deep-hardship-among-those-seeking-assistance" target="_blank">another survey </a>last spring by the Actor’s Fund, a national organization that serves professionals in film, theater, television, music, opera, radio and dance industries.  The survey, which polled nearly 7,200 people, uncovered that 79 percent of respondents reported that the pandemic had a negative impact on their mental health, including increased feelings of anxiety or depression. Adding to their stress and negatively impacting their overall well-being, 76 percent of respondents reported that they lost income, and a little under half claimed reduced food security during the pandemic. Unfortunately, as seen in the museum field, responses from BIPOC participants convey that they were disproportionately impacted by the pandemic—BIPOC-identifying respondents were more likely to experience reduced food security, forced housing change, increased debt and/or having to change utility usage as compared to white respondents.</p><p>
<strong>Prioritizing Health & Wellness</strong></p><p>Both the Actor’s Fund and AAM have created resources to respond to some of the needs that emerged in their surveys. The Actor’s fund has offered workshops including
<a href="https://entertainmentcommunity.org/" target="_blank">national support groups for dancers</a>,
<a href="https://actorsfund.org/workshops/mindfulness-meditation" target="_blank">“Mindfulness Meditation”</a> sessions,
<a href="https://actorsfund.org/workshops/good-grief-support-group" target="_blank">“Good Grief Support Group”</a> and
<a href="https://actorsfund.org/workshops/mind-body-spirit-group-black-women-entertainment-0" target="_blank">“Mind Body Spirit-A Group for Black Women in Entertainment.”</a>  AAM has published a
<a href="https://mailchi.mp/aam-us/impactsurvey" target="_blank">webpage</a> of resources that measures the impact of the pandemic on people in the museum field and includes a list of actions, derived from the survey responses, taken by employers that made respondents feel safe, valued and supported.</p><p>AAM has applied these learnings internally as well, for example, expanding the organization’s acceptable uses of sick leave to include bereavement while creating a new emergency category that allows employees to use sick leave to care for the mental and physical well-being of themselves and their loved ones. Speaking to the significance of their broadened sick leave allowances, Megan Lantz, AAM’s director of content and community engagement, shared:  “As a parent of young kids during COVID, I can tell you the expanded emergency sick leave has already been transformative for me. The leave provision afforded me the bandwidth and margin to take the pressure off myself to try to work and provide childcare 100% of the time, especially during periods where my kids were home for extended stretches of time.”</p><p>In addition to its refreshed leave policies, AAM has encouraged employees to take wellness breaks, ranging from virtual yoga and caregiver check-ins to instituting “meetings-free Mondays” organization-wide.</p>
<p>Other arts service organizations and unions have been responding to the needs of their members as well. The League of American Orchestras, which leads, supports and champions America’s orchestras and the vitality of the music they perform, presented a 90-minute webinar, <a href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__americanorchestras.org_mental-2Dhealth-2Dwellness-2Da-2Dconversation_&d=DwMFAg&c=euGZstcaTDllvimEN8b7jXrwqOf-v5A_CdpgnVfiiMM&r=HvfsToIiq7JDqOShloB0kc3XGhehQKfQJm0AUg7ze04&m=R4iImW6-WdhkZfeGn5FZw_RKYxrsxYWFsgSTqRVyYa4&s=ggtmL_ZRo5CGA_YTLPT4cDyJzDgzt698zJMFbltmKBc&e=">“Mental Health & Wellness: A Conversation,”</a> where the goal was to normalize conversations about mental health and provide strategies, backed by scientific research, to its members and beyond. In addition to the discussion, the League has posted resources on its website—including links to musician resources, the <a href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.youtube.com_playlist-3Flist-3DPLgmPuaZL8cu0e8Z-5F3Ycx3v3uNo5JnmG7M&d=DwMFAg&c=euGZstcaTDllvimEN8b7jXrwqOf-v5A_CdpgnVfiiMM&r=HvfsToIiq7JDqOShloB0kc3XGhehQKfQJm0AUg7ze04&m=R4iImW6-WdhkZfeGn5FZw_RKYxrsxYWFsgSTqRVyYa4&s=gad6BucRW1SwKmkoTWZ1kn-u4rA8kQiSe0XgZP-4JB4&e=">LooseLeaf NoteBook podcast series</a> that focuses on nurturing self-care, and a list of free and affordable counseling groups. Along with the ongoing coverage of health and wellness in classical music on the League’s daily news site, <em>The Hub</em>, its magazine, <em>Symphony</em>, published a major <a href="https://americanorchestras.org/restorative-notes/">article </a>reporting how musicians, orchestras and therapists are helping their colleagues with wellness issues during the pandemic.</p><p>OPERA America—a nonprofit organization serving the country’s opera community—also presented a <a href="https://mailchi.mp/operaamerica/taking-care-mental-health-for-opera-professionals-228980?e=97e092a4a4">special</a> <a href="https://mailchi.mp/operaamerica/taking-care-mental-health-for-opera-professionals-228980?e=97e092a4a4">series</a> of mental health webinars where licensed mental health specialists joined opera industry professionals to provide insights, tools and resources for prioritizing mental health. Each of the 45-minute sessions took on a specific topic related to the unique mental health challenges experienced by those working in opera. In the first of these sessions, “<a href="https://www.operaamerica.org/industry-resources/2021/202106/taking-care-mental-health-care-for-creators-and-artists/" target="_blank">Mental Health Care for Creators and Artists</a>,” costume designer Jessica Jahn joined Beth Clayton, a clinical mental health counselor and operatic mezzo-soprano, for a discussion on a question many artists and performers have been grappling with as a result of being un- or under-employed over the past 18 months: How do you maintain a sense of identity and purpose when you cannot practice your profession? For anyone contending with this, Clayton recommends trying to conceive of your identity through your skill set rather than title. For example, she says, “[instead of] ‘opera singer,’ you could say ‘master organizer,’ you could say ‘linguist,’ ‘communicator,’ ‘scheduler.’ You are your own business.” Clayton also notes that this period of being “on pause” might provide an opportunity to work on skills you may not have had time to hone before—or simply to take a break.</p><p>Other organizations, too, have been making mental health a focus. The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), for example, has launched
<a href="https://iatsecares.org/about/" target="_blank">IATSE C.A.R.E.S.</a> (Coronavirus Active Response and Engagement Service), a new initiative designed to provide support to their most at-risk, elderly and/or disabled members during the pandemic. The American Federation of Musicians (AFM) has also been publishing
<a href="https://www.afm.org/what-we-are-doing/covid-19-and-mental-health/" target="_blank">mental health resources</a>, highlighting strategies to help manage and reduce stress.</p><p>Though the pandemic has created innumerable challenges, it has also sparked many vital conversations with the potential to reshape the way that we live and work. Clearly, the focus on mental health will be at the forefront. With this in mind, and with the promise of a new year, we leave you with another sentiment from the always forward-thinking Elizabeth Merritt: “As we all face the uncertainties and anxieties that come with slowly re-engaging with the world, let’s be compassionate towards ourself, our family, and our colleagues, and support each other in doing the work we love.”</p><p>
<em>Full disclosure: American Alliance of Museums, The League of American Orchestras and OPERA America are among Wallace’s arts service organization partners.</em></p> | Wallace editorial team | 79 | | 2022-01-04T05:00:00Z | Member organizations offer up a slew of resources and ideas to support health and wellness for people working in the arts | | 6/20/2022 5:03:16 PM | The Wallace Foundation / News and Media / Wallace Blog / Helping Arts Workers Navigate Pandemic-Induced Burnout Member organizations offer up a slew of resources and ideas to | 2489 | https://www.wallacefoundation.org/News-and-Media/Blog/Pages/Forms/AllItems.aspx | html | False | aspx | |
| What Wallace’s Top 10 Stories Say about Trends in Education and the Arts | 42605 | GP0|#b68a91d0-1c13-4d82-b12d-2b08588c04d7;L0|#0b68a91d0-1c13-4d82-b12d-2b08588c04d7|News;GTSet|#a1e8653d-64cb-48e0-8015-b5826f8c5b61 | <p>December is a great time to look back and reflect on the year’s work, both to get a sense of what we’re learning—and what is resonating with you, dear reader. The more than 40 posts we published in 2021 on The Wallace Blog  explore a variety of hot topics for our audience, such as why principals <em>really</em> matter; why arts organizations of color are often overlooked and underfunded; and why young people need access to high-quality afterschool programs and arts education programs now more than ever. Just to name a few. </p><p>Moreover, the stories in our Top 10 List this year (measured by number of page views) give a good sense of the breadth of the research and projects currently under way at Wallace. They also highlight some of the people involved and their unique perspectives on the work. We hope you enjoy reading (or revisiting) some of the posts now. </p><p><strong>10. </strong><a href="/News-and-Media/Blog/pages/more-kids-than-ever-are-missing-out-on-afterschool-programs.aspx"><strong>Why Are So Many Kids Missing Out on Afterschool?</strong></a><strong> </strong>A <a href="/knowledge-center/pages/america-after-3pm-demand-grows-opportunity-shrinks.aspx">study </a>released earlier this year by the Afterschool Alliance identifies trends in afterschool program offerings well as overall parent perceptions of afterschool programs. In this post, we interview Jennifer Rinehart, senior VP, strategy & programs, at the Afterschool Alliance, to discuss the implications of the study, which was based on a large survey of families, and what they might mean for a post-pandemic world.<br></p><p><strong>9. </strong><a href="/News-and-Media/Blog/pages/what-can-we-learn-from-high-performing-arts-organizations-of-color.aspx"><strong>What Can We Learn from High-Performing Arts Organizations of Color?</strong></a><strong> </strong>The <a href="/knowledge-center/pages/reimagining-the-future-of-the-arts-a-webinar-series-from-the-wallace-foundation-session-5.aspx">fifth conversation</a> in our Reimagining the Future of the Arts series examines what leaders of arts organizations with deep roots in communities of color see as the keys to their success, as well as what they have learned while navigating crises. Read highlights of the conversation between leaders from SMU Data Arts, Sones de Mexico Ensemble, Chicago Sinfonietta and Theater Mu in this blog post.</p><p><strong>8. </strong><a href="/News-and-Media/Blog/pages/decade-long-effort-to-expand-arts-education-in-boston-pays-off.aspx"><strong>Decade-long Effort to Expand Arts Education in Boston Pays Off</strong></a><strong> </strong>A longitudinal <a href="https://www.edvestors.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/The-Arts-Advantage-Impacts-of-Arts-Education-on-Boston-Students_Brief-FINAL.pdf">study </a>released this year found that arts education can positively affect student engagement, attendance rates and parent engagement with schools. Read more about the findings and about Boston Public Schools' successful systems approach to arts learning, including insights from a researcher, a district leader and the president and CEO of EdVestors, a school improvement nonprofit in Boston. </p><p><strong>7. </strong><a href="/News-and-Media/Blog/pages/how-can-teachers-support-students-social-and-emotional-learning.aspx"><strong>How Can Teachers Support Students’ Social and Emotional Learning?</strong></a><strong> </strong>Concern about student well-being has been at the forefront of many conversations this year as schools have reopened, so it comes as little surprise that this post made our list. Here, RAND researchers Laura Hamilton and Christopher Doss speak with us about their <a href="/knowledge-center/pages/supports-social-and-emotional-learning-american-schools-classrooms.aspx">study,</a> which found that while teachers felt confident in their ability to improve students’ social and emotional skills, they said they needed more supports, tools and professional development in this area, especially these days. </p><p><strong>6. </strong><a href="/News-and-Media/Blog/pages/how-do-arts-organizations-of-color-sustain-their-relevance-and-resilience.aspx"><strong>$53 Million Initiative Offers Much-Needed Support for Arts Organizations of Color</strong></a> In this post, Wallace’s director of the arts, Bahia Ramos, introduces our new initiative focused on arts organizations of color, which historically “have been underfunded and often overlooked, despite their rich histories, high-quality work and deep roots in their communities.” The effort will involve work with a variety of organizations to explore this paradox and much more. </p><p><strong>5. </strong><a href="/News-and-Media/Blog/pages/five-lessons-in-problem-solving-for-school-leaders.aspx"><strong>Five Lessons in Problem Solving for School Leaders</strong></a><strong> </strong>This post by Rochelle Herring, one of Wallace’s senior program officers in school leadership, gives an inside look at how California’s Long Beach school district transformed its learning and improvement at every level of the system. It also offers lessons that practitioners in other districts can apply to their own context.  </p><p><strong>4. </strong><a href="/News-and-Media/Blog/pages/american-rescue-plan-five-things-state-and-district-leaders-need-to-know-now.aspx"><strong>American Rescue Plan: Five Things State and District Leaders Need to Know Now</strong></a><strong> </strong>EducationCounsel, a mission-based education organization and law firm, analyzed the text of the American Rescue Plan Act, which provides more than $126 billion for K-12 schools and additional funding for early childhood and higher education. In this post, EducationCounsel’s Sean Worley and Scott Palmer examine this historic level of federal  funding for public school education and offer guidance that states and districts might consider when seeking Rescue Plan dollars.  </p><p><strong>3. </strong><a href="/News-and-Media/Blog/pages/why-young-people-need-access-to-high-quality-arts-education.aspx"><strong>Why Young People Need Access to High-Quality Arts Education</strong></a> Studies confirm that  sustained engagement with the arts—and, especially, with making art—can help young people gain new perspectives, deepen empathy, picture what is possible, collaborate and even fuel civic engagement. In short, all children deserve access to high-quality arts education, writes Wallace’s director of arts, Bahia Ramos, who was initially approached to draft a shorter version of this piece for <em>Time </em>magazine’s <a href="https://time.com/collection/visions-of-equity/6046015/equity-agenda/">Visions of Equity </a>project. </p><p><strong>2. </strong><a href="/News-and-Media/Blog/pages/districts-that-succeed-what-are-they-doing-right.aspx"><strong>Districts That Succeed: What Are They Doing Right?</strong></a> In her new book, Karin Chenoweth, writer-in-residence at The Education Trust,uses new research on district performance as well as in-depth reporting to profile five districts that have successfully broken the correlation between race, poverty and achievement. We spoke with Chenoweth about what she learned from her research and what she hopes readers will take away from the book.</p><p><strong>1. </strong><a href="/News-and-Media/Blog/pages/yes-principals-are-that-important.aspx"><strong>Yes, Principals Are That Important</strong></a><strong> </strong>It seems that many of our readers found the headline to this blog post worthy of their attention, considering that the item is in the number one spot on our list this year. Here, education experts weigh in on findings from <a href="/knowledge-center/pages/how-principals-affect-students-and-schools-a-systematic-synthesis-of-two-decades-of-research.aspx">groundbreaking research</a> released earlier in the year on the impact an effective principal can have on both students and schools—and the implications for policy and practice. </p><br> | Jenna Doleh | 91 | | 2021-12-07T05:00:00Z | A look back at your favorite reads this year—from supporting students’ well-being during COVID-19 to learning from arts organizations of color | | 12/6/2021 8:52:46 PM | The Wallace Foundation / News and Media / Wallace Blog / What Wallace’s Top 10 Stories Say about Trends in Education and the Arts A look back at your favorite reads this year—from | 946 | https://www.wallacefoundation.org/News-and-Media/Blog/Pages/Forms/AllItems.aspx | html | False | aspx | |
| Moving Toward a More Equitable Future of Arts Funding | 23682 | GP0|#8056f3bc-89c1-4297-814a-3e71542163be;L0|#08056f3bc-89c1-4297-814a-3e71542163be|Building Audiences for the Arts;GTSet|#a1e8653d-64cb-48e0-8015-b5826f8c5b61 |
<p>Recently Bahia Ramos, Wallace’s director of arts, sat down for a wide-ranging discussion with Max Anderson, president of the Souls Grown Deep Foundation and host of
<em>Art Scoping</em>, a podcast where leaders in art, architecture, design, public policy and culture talk about how they are coping with change, “what keeps them up at night, and what gets them out of bed.” </p><p>
<img src="/knowledge-center/PublishingImages/Bahia%20Ramos.jpg" alt="Bahia Ramos.jpg" class="wf-Image-Left" style="margin:5px;width:217px;height:256px;" />In this 30-minute episode, Ramos shares her thoughts on the future of arts funding, how COVID-19 has influenced the way funders approach their work and the foundation’s aspirations for its latest initiative focused on arts organizations of color. She also talks about her personal approach to collecting art and advocating for artists and so much more.</p><p>Here’s a small sample, but the whole interview is a gem (in our biased opinion, of course).
</p><p class="wf-Element-Callout">“We’re always thinking about how our efforts build equitable improvements in the arts… what we learned most recently is that leaders of arts organizations of color have steadily been saying that their contributions are often overlooked and underfunded... I think what we really want to build is recognition and understanding of the distinctive contributions that arts organizations of color bring to our landscape and to the field at large. And we hope that our efforts will build the evidence-based knowledge landscape around arts organizations of color and their practices.”
</p><div class="ms-rteElement-WallaceBlockQuote">
<br>
</div><p>
<a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/art-scoping/id1501986788?mt=2&app=podcast">
<img src="/knowledge-center/SiteAssets/Pages/Podcast-The-Partnerships-for-Social-and-Emotional-Learning/US_UK_Apple_Podcasts_Listen_Badge_RGB.svg" alt="US_UK_Apple_Podcasts_Listen_Badge_RGB.svg" style="margin:5px;" /></a>  <a href="https://www.stitcher.com/show/art-scoping"><img src="/knowledge-center/SiteAssets/Pages/Podcast-The-Partnerships-for-Social-and-Emotional-Learning/Stitcher_Listen_Badge_Color_Dark_BG.png" alt="Stitcher_Listen_Badge_Color_Dark_BG.png" style="margin:5px;width:153px;height:46px;" /></a> <a href="https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/088fb031-cc8a-4ed1-afcf-b82540c8c78d/art-scoping" target="_blank"><img src="/knowledge-center/PublishingImages/US_ListenOn_AmazonMusic_button_Indigo_RGB_5X.png" alt="US_ListenOn_AmazonMusic_button_Indigo_RGB_5X.png" style="margin:5px;width:169px;height:41px;" /></a><a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/2HEzUjmHsNniPp9HLYgAFG?si=A-714nToSUiu-kKP4bsdRg&nd=1" target="_blank"><img src="/knowledge-center/PublishingImages/spotify-badge.png" alt="spotify-badge.png" style="margin:5px;width:165px;height:43px;" /></a></p><p></p><p>Download the
<a href="/knowledge-center/Documents/Wallace-Art-Scoping-Transcript-10.13.21.pdf">full episode transcript</a>.</p><p>
<em>Painting: Thornton Dial, </em>Ladies Stand by the Tiger,
<em>1991. The Morgan Library & Museum, gift of the Souls Grown Deep Foundation from the William S. Arnett Collection and purchase on the Manley Family Fund; 2018.98. © 2021 Estate of Thornton Dial / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.</em></p> | Wallace editorial team | 79 | | 2021-11-02T04:00:00Z | Wallace’s director of arts discusses new initiative with arts organizations of color, art collecting as advocacy and so much more in Art Scoping podcast | | 11/3/2021 6:21:53 PM | The Wallace Foundation / News and Media / Wallace Blog / Moving Toward a More Equitable Future of Arts Funding Wallace’s director of arts discusses new initiative with arts | 1402 | https://www.wallacefoundation.org/News-and-Media/Blog/Pages/Forms/AllItems.aspx | html | False | aspx | |
| Arts Open Call Yields 250 Submissions from Organizations of Color | 23683 | GP0|#8056f3bc-89c1-4297-814a-3e71542163be;L0|#08056f3bc-89c1-4297-814a-3e71542163be|Building Audiences for the Arts;GTSet|#a1e8653d-64cb-48e0-8015-b5826f8c5b61 | <p>The Wallace Foundation’s arts team recently completed <a href="/knowledge-center/pages/arts-initiative-open-call.aspx">an open call</a> for proposals to participate in a major new initiative focusing on arts organizations of color. The initiative seeks to fund several such organizations and study their efforts to help answer one central question: How do arts organizations of color use their community orientation to increase resilience, sustain relevance and overcome major strategic challenges?</p><p>It was our first open call in more than a decade. We generally commission surveys of eligible organizations, shortlist those that we think will fit in the initiative and ask them to submit proposals. We know of no reliable way to survey the plethora of arts organizations of color throughout the country, so we began this initiative by asking all who are interested to submit a letter of interest for further consideration. </p><p>The call resulted in 250 submissions from organizations after a call across the United States, District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Guåhan (Guam). They gave us much insight into a new area for us, and we had much to read about and digest. While we determine the best paths ahead, we thought we'd share three things we learned from the open call thus far. </p><ol start="1" type="1"><li>We learned a bit about the landscape of the field. Our usual process of inviting a small number of organizations to submit proposals often leads us to large, well-known organizations our staffers or peer foundations already know. With the open call, however, we received letters of interest from many organizations we'd never heard of before. Most were, as we had assumed, clustered around the coasts and in large cities such as Chicago. But we were delighted to hear from organizations in other, sometimes overlooked, parts of the country that are doing fascinating work from which we can learn. <br>
<br>
More than a third of letters of interest came from organizations focused on African American arts or communities. We hope our ultimate cohort will be reflective of arts organizations from all communities and traditions, and the apparent underrepresentation of other communities suggests that we must work harder to make sure future opportunities are more widely shared and our invitation feels inclusive of and responsive to the work others are doing.<br><br>Conversations with leaders in the field also helped us realize that our definition of "arts organizations" may be too narrow. Some indigenous and native culture organizations, for example, told us what they do may not be called “art” by some, but it is about preserving and promoting a cultural heritage. Conversely, there were a few visual arts organizations that defined themselves primarily as community based organizations. They exist not just for their art, but to use their art to benefit their communities. The ways in which organizations define and categorize themselves differ from assumptions we made about who they are to their communities. It is important that we keep such nuances in mind as we develop our new initiative.<br><br>We are now working to learn more about interested organizations and exploring ways to design an initiative that can benefit not just participating organizations, but also the field at large. Our aim is to select the best cohort of organizations, not necessarily the strongest organizations or the newest ideas. For example, some projects we read about are quite innovative, but they are very specific to their organizations' situations and not as relevant to the broader field. Such projects are certainly worthy of support, but may not be the right fit for our upcoming initiative.<br><br><img src="/News-and-Media/Blog/PublishingImages/Pages/Arts-Open-Call-Yields-250-Submissions-from-Organizations-of-Color/Breakdown-Organization-Type-Geography-Identity.jpg" alt="Breakdown-Organization-Type-Geography-Identity.jpg" style="margin:5px;" /><br><br></li></ol><ol start="2" type="1"><li>We read three main themes in the submissions we received:<br>
<br>
<ol type="a"><li>Communities are changing. Many organizations are grappling with shifts in the communities they were created to serve. Gentrification or immigration is changing the nature of many communities, while shifts in economies and societies are changing these communities' needs. How do organizations founded by and for a particular community use their community orientation to navigate such changes?<br>
<br>
</li><li>Organizations are changing. Several organizations expressed the need to change long-established structures and practices. Many have to consider new strategic directions, plan for expansion, change staffing structures and recruit new leaders as long-serving founders and directors begin to step down. How do organizations use their community orientation to smooth such fundamental transitions?<br>
<br>
</li><li>Artistic preferences are changing. Audiences learn about and consume arts and culture much differently than they did a few decades ago, when many arts organizations of color got their start. How do organizations founded to support and maintain particular art forms and communities of artistic practice use their community orientation to adapt to new cultural environments?</li></ol></li></ol><ol start="3" type="1"><li>Lastly, we learned that we must keep learning. During our open call, we heard from so many arts organizations of color, whether through our one-on-one consultations (we hosted over 100 of them!), our email inboxes, social media or the service organizations with whom we work. Some of the feedback was critical and frank—a helpful reminder that we must tread carefully and respectfully when venturing into new areas where  organizations such as ours have sometimes done harm. Sometimes we heard—more powerfully in the organizations' words than what we would have read in a research report—what these organizations are experiencing and trying to do for their communities. We listened to all of it, considered it and are redesigning and refining our initiative to respond to what we heard. </li></ol><p>And so, I’d like to express my gratitude to those who showed up and contributed to an honest and vulnerable exchange with us. I look forward to staying in conversation with you and sharing more about what we learn along the way. </p> | Bahia Ramos | 84 | | 2021-10-14T04:00:00Z | As we continue the grantee-selection process, Wallace's arts director reflects on what we've learned so far. | | 10/14/2021 2:08:38 PM | The Wallace Foundation / News and Media / Wallace Blog / Arts Open Call Yields 250 Submissions from Organizations of Color As we continue the grantee-selection process, Wallace's | 938 | https://www.wallacefoundation.org/News-and-Media/Blog/Pages/Forms/AllItems.aspx | html | False | aspx | |
| Taking the Pulse of Small Ensemble Music | 42569 | GP0|#a2eb43fb-abab-4f1c-ae41-72fd1022ddb0;L0|#0a2eb43fb-abab-4f1c-ae41-72fd1022ddb0|The Arts;GTSet|#a1e8653d-64cb-48e0-8015-b5826f8c5b61 | <p>The field of small ensemble music, despite its name, is mighty. It spans a range of genres—including classical, contemporary, jazz and more—performed by small groups of musicians (think: duet, trio, quartet, etc.) with one person per part, typically without a conductor. The musicians in these ensembles often function independently and generally work with fewer resources than those available to larger arts organizations. Still, these small groups have long persisted in the face of adversity, even during the Covid-19 pandemic. For example,
<a href="https://www.westerliesmusic.com/" target="_blank">The Westerlies</a>, a New York-based brass quartet, figured out how to use technology to perform together, in sync, while quarantined in their homes. Similarly, the
<a href="http://hydeparkjazzfestival.org/" target="_blank">Hyde Park Jazz Festival</a>, kept from its large outdoor stages and intimate indoor clubs on the South Side of Chicago, turned to livestreams and pop-up concerts in driveways, backyards and parks to bring music to Chicagoans where they live.</p><p>Chamber Music America (CMA), a national service organization that represents nearly 4,000 musicians, ensembles, presenting organizations, businesses and affiliates, conducted a series of Wallace-supported surveys to better understand the difficulties the field has faced and the ways in which they have worked to overcome them. The first survey, launched in
<a href="https://www.chamber-music.org/pdf/CMA_Survey_Summary.pdf" target="_blank">April 2020</a>, came as organizations were shutting down in response to Covid-19. Subsequent surveys in
<a href="https://www.chamber-music.org/pdf/CMA_Survey_Summary_June_2020.pdf" target="_blank">June 2020</a> and
<a href="https://www.chamber-music.org/pdf/SurveySummary-June2021.pdf" target="_blank">June 2021</a> show how small ensembles have adapted as the pandemic drags on. </p><p>We connected with Nichole L. Knight, CMA’s Director of Operations, over email to help understand what survey results reveal. A transcript of our conversation follows, with minor edits for readability. </p><p>
<strong>The Wallace Foundation: What has been the biggest challenge overall that the small ensemble music field has faced throughout the Covid-19 pandemic?  </strong><br><br><strong>Nichole Knight: </strong>CMA’s constituency is unique among the performing arts as there are many individual musicians, ensembles and smaller organizations which historically haven’t had the same access to resources as some larger institutions. During the pandemic, we saw that ensembles, in particular, weren’t eligible for the same recovery support that organizations and individuals were. </p><p>One survey respondent wrote, “For us, a small [nonprofit] who never formally laid ourselves off during this time, it meant that we were very limited in the number of artist-specific Covid relief programs we were eligible for.” </p><p>Our data confirm this. Our third survey suggested that over 60 percent of respondent organizations and individuals had received CARES Act funding, while less than 40 percent of respondent ensembles had obtained support.   <br><br> But to take a step back, I want to reiterate what I hope we all understand by now: not everyone was affected by this pandemic equally. Some musicians could rely on teaching positions to supplement their income; others could not. Some presenting organizations had the infrastructure and the capacity to pivot to virtual programming, while others had to overcome learning and logistical barriers or could not afford the equipment necessary to do so. And when emergency funding became available to individuals, some members experienced additional barriers due to the lack of the digital tools/technology that were necessary to complete online applications. And [relief] funds were often depleted by the time they could access them.  <br><br> We also know that those who have been traditionally marginalized—people of color and the economically disadvantaged—got sicker, experienced more loss of life within their families and communities, and will likely take longer to recover than their peers. And so all of the inequities we saw play out on a larger scale also happened within our field.  </p><p>
<strong>WF: What surprised you most about the survey results?   </strong></p><p>
<strong>NK: </strong>I think the surveys told us what we expected to learn, which was that our constituents were having an extremely difficult time. But the results also helped paint a fuller picture of what they were going through and show that they weren’t alone.  <br><br> That being said, our third survey, which closed mid-May but was published in June, showed that more than half of ensembles and organizations had already begun performing or presenting in-person performances. At that time, depending on the state, vaccines had just recently become available to most adults, and subsequent updates in prevention protocols were changing constantly. So I think that just proves how eager most people were to get out and perform, present and experience live music again, even without assurances of being 100 percent in the clear.
<em>[CMA did not ask about vaccination status in its 2021 survey.]</em> </p><p>And while not surprising, per se, something that becomes very clear when looking at the survey results and thinking about the conversations CMA’s staff had with our members and constituents is how interconnected our discipline is. Certainly artists, presenters (and their venues) and audiences were affected by the shutdown. But that impact rippled exponentially to so many others. The livelihoods of artist managers, who have been unable to book work for their clients, and composers, who usually receive royalties when their work is performed, have also been drastically affected. So it’s going to take time for the entire field to recover. </p><p>
<strong>WF: While respondents in June 2021 expressed that they're eager to return to live performances, the survey also found that many plan to continue using virtual programming in some capacity moving forward. What specific advantages does virtual or hybrid programming offer musicians and small ensembles? Does it present any particular challenges as well?   <br> </strong>
<br><strong>NK: </strong>I think the main benefit is the ability to engage new audiences regardless of their physical or geographic proximity. But there are barriers of cost and technological know-how in undertaking a new model. And even among the respondents who have adopted new technologies, the monetization of these virtual events has not made up for the revenue lost due to cancellations and postponements.  <br><br>Another challenge musicians face is simply missing the energy of a live audience and the particular intimacy that comes with a small ensemble music performance. We’ve heard from our members time and again that while virtual programming may be great, nothing beats being in the room together.   </p><p>
<strong>WF: What are the biggest shifts within the field that you’ve noticed over the course of these three surveys from March 2020 to June 2021? </strong> </p><p>
<strong>NK: </strong>The biggest tangible shift would be the increased use of technology. It was a common topic that members discussed in our virtual convenings, and we even hosted two webinars on it. In our most recent survey, respondents said they used approximately 25 different platforms, such as Zoom, social media platforms, Patreon and Twitch for their online activities (performances, rehearsals, webinars and workshops, private lessons, town halls, etc.). </p><p>In a larger sense, I would say there was a stark difference in attitudes toward the pandemic. Earlier on, respondents expressed more hopelessness. In the most recent survey, while still uncertain about the future, there seemed to be some more positivity and cautious optimism. (I’ll allow for the possibility that those who were feeling more positive were more willing to fill out the survey.) But the third survey was conducted before the current rise of the Delta variant and that is sure to have a strong impact on people and the field. So, it’s hard to be certain about attitudes right now.   </p><p>
<strong>WF: Based on what you’ve heard from your constituents through these surveys and otherwise, what do you think are going to be the biggest changes to the field as the pandemic subsides? </strong> </p><p>
<strong>NK: </strong>I have a few thoughts on this. New ticketing models, for one. As I mentioned earlier, according to our surveys, overall, profits made from monetizing virtual events have not replaced in-person revenue. And vendors that maintain social distancing measures will continue to have limited capacity in their spaces. So I think we might see new ticketing models created to help make up for the extreme loss in revenue.  </p><p>I think we will continue to see new tools and technologies or new ways of utilizing old ones to aid in recovery. For instance, I learned from our members about masks created to allow reed and wind players to rehearse and perform while masking up. So I think there is going to be a lot more innovation to accommodate a “new normal.” </p><p>Also, a lot of this innovation will come from the younger generation. Those who have been in school during this pandemic will have unique takeaways and bring new outlooks to their careers. A
<a href="https://www.chamber-music.org/" target="_blank">recent article</a> in the Summer 2021 issue of
<em>Chamber Music </em>highlights the silver linings educators and students have taken away from this past school year. They include everything from sharper listening and rehearsal skills, to adaptability, technological know-how and a renewed sense of commitment to and belief in the discipline. </p><p>And as the field continues to work toward dismantling racial inequity, everyone will have to develop strategies to address the fact that people of color have been and continue to be
<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/health-equity/race-ethnicity.html" target="_blank">disproportionately affected</a> by the pandemic. I’m not sure what that will look like exactly. But the old methods weren’t working even before the pandemic. So, organizations will have to adapt to thrive.  </p><p><em>Photo of Nichole L. Knight by Kotaro Kashiwai</em><br></p> | Wallace editorial team | 79 | | 2021-09-08T04:00:00Z | Chamber Music America field surveys reveal innovation and resilience despite the pandemic’s challenges | | 9/21/2022 2:06:30 PM | The Wallace Foundation / News and Media / Wallace Blog / Taking the Pulse of Small Ensemble Music Chamber Music America field surveys reveal innovation and resilience despite the | 1543 | https://www.wallacefoundation.org/News-and-Media/Blog/Pages/Forms/AllItems.aspx | html | False | aspx | |