Addressing Cultural Equity in Arts Leadership

By: Marian Taylor Brown*

For over a decade I have been obsessed with one central question: How can we build inclusive and equitable communities both in, and through, the arts?

My inquiry is rooted in my own experience of growing up with significant learning disabilities. During these formative years, art was an essential tool to both access and express, education and learning. Thankfully, I was in a public-school system which supported said differentiated learning, with brilliant teachers who taught me grammar through color theory, along with other innovative methodologies. However, as many of us know - and have experienced firsthand in the role of student, educator and/or parent - said encounters are not the norm for many learners. 

Convinced of the power that art has in building inclusion and equity, centering community-contextualized solutions, my career has focused at the nexus of art, leadership development, racial equity, public health, and inclusive educational practices.

GETTING STARTED

ACI's core research team, including L-R, Hanako Brais, Allegra Fletcher & Marian Brown

This has led me to many adventures as an artist, arts administrator, classroom teacher, college lecturer, arts-based and transdisciplinary scholar, consultant and social entrepreneur. Deeply discontent with the current leadership development models propagated in the arts and culture sector, and within arts in education spaces, in 2014 I founded Arts Connect International (ACI). 

ACI is a Boston-based non-profit focused on building equity in, and through, the arts. Our founding goal was to investigate and develop culturally competent and community-contextualized leadership development models, in turn supporting artists using their work for social change. Although this remains core to our DNA, over the years we recognized the call to focus on sector-wide reform in building more equitable practices, so that artists and arts leaders across the sector will have the tools they need to succeed.

INTO THE RESEARCH

This also came with a loud call to support the arts and culture sector in facing it’s deeply embedded systemic racism, ableism, and misogyny. In the course of recognizing this need, ACI’s team came to recognize the dearth of research available surrounding cultural equity. As a result, we launched a multi-year and multi-phase study to examine cultural equity, employing transdisciplinary mixed methods for inquiry.

Panelists discuss Moves Toward Equity findings at the report launch and release

Through these studies we wanted to know how arts leaders conceptualize and operationalize cultural equity, as well as understanding if they are moved to address cultural equity within their own work and communities. We were also very interested in hearing from arts leaders who identify as people of color (POC) surrounding their experiences of (in)equity in the sector, with a focus on what authentic and inclusive leadership development looks like to them. Findings from the multi-phase study include attitudes and beliefs surrounding cultural equity, examination of historical and present-day oppressive structures, pipeline talent issues and opportunities, levers for change in building equity, and a call clear for culture shift within the sector. 

These studies are particularly timely for arts educators, arts administrators, and youth arts leaders. Given that the studies focus on barriers to access, and levers for the change, it provides a field-level perspective on pathways into the industry. Two community findings reports were released by ACI. Phase I, Examining Cultural Equity in the Arts, was published in January 2018. Phase II, Moves Toward Equity: Perspectives from Arts Leaders of Color, was published in September 2019. Both reports are downloadable on ACI’s website. 

 

JOIN THE CONVERSATION

ACI's Executive Director, Allegra Fletcher, performing at the inaugural Arts Equity Summit

To continue building on the findings of these studies, and ACI’s community-based work, April 24th – 26th 2020 we will host the 2nd annual Arts Equity Summit, this year taking place virtually in response to our globally evolving realities with COVID-19. Said platform aims to increase equity and access during this time of uncertainty and change, allowing us to center community first and foremost. The conversation threads set for #AES2020 follow the findings from Moves Toward Equity: Perspectives from Arts Leaders of Color.We hope you’ll join us for formative conversations, community, and culture shift. 

*Marian Taylor Brown

Marian Taylor Brown (she/her/hers) identifies as an artist, educator, scholar, innovator and equitable practices advocate. Driven by questions of how to build and support inclusive and equitable communities, her work encompasses leadership development, human rights, intersectionality and creative justice nationally and globally. Marian earned her PhD in Global Inclusion & Social Development at the University of Massachusetts, where she lectures in the Honors College and is the Founder of Arts Connect International, where she currently serves as a Board Member. You can reach Marian via marian@artsconnectinternational.org