BRIDGING: Creative Collective Connection

By: André Solomon

“I’ll get to it later,” a common phrase we are all too familiar with, but one I was consistently defaulting upon since November 2021 with release of Slover Linett’s report, A Place to be Heard, a Space to Feel Held, in collaboration with La Placa Cohen and Yancey Consulting. Shortly after, the buildup continued when they released a second report in January 2022, Rethinking Relevance, Rebuilding Engagement. 

Capacity was falling short but I was recently awarded the energy to dedicate more meaningful time to understanding community, here specifically the Black community, as I departed the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council to solely work with Creative Generation. 

Finishing these reports in the last weeks of June emphasized the critical nature of mutual understanding. Whether it is individual or organizational, understanding aids connection, which was in perfect allignment of this quarter’s focus on the term “Bridging,” responding to the questions: What connections can we make between ourselves & others; our work & others' work; and our sectors & other sectors? 

I urge everyone to digest these reports, but the following is a snapshot that resonated for me. 

2020 and 20/20

Two pandemics, COVID-19 and Racial Injustice, prompted organizations and individuals to reassess their relationships, especially in regards to racism, capitalism and elitism. “Shortly after George Floyd’s murder, large corporations pledged billions of dollars in the name of curing social ills, [which] were accompanied by vague pronouncements, because the specifics of anti-racism work lead to the uncomfortable truth that racism is the foundational infrastructure of American capitalism. It’s hard for these corporations to be too specific about combating racism because the underbelly of their investments is the reality that the extractive economy is predicated on social hierarchy.” (Read the bolded again)

Thinking about intention and accountability, dismantling profits on inequality should take precedence when there are organizations that feed on optics without meaningful return (i.e. pandering). However, in truly understanding the Black community and other marginalized individuals, how do we avoid research becoming the issue that perpetuates White supremist or capitalistic frameworks, such as capturing responses rather than listening to stories for social transformation. Working at the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council, we partnered with Pittsburgh-based arts organizations and WolfBrown on their Audience Outlook Monitor to see the trends on audience engagement. Throughout that study, BIPOC voices were missing and prompted critique on the participating organizations’ history, trustworthiness and BIPOC cultivation, which requires active, ongoing, and current assessment — like relationship-building and change.

Enter Here, Here, and Here

A Place to be Heard, a Space to Feel Held focused on Creativity, Self-Care, Trustworthiness, and Welcome & Belonging. By centering Black experiences [researchers] aimed to…

  1. Learn from Black communities, highlight their lived experiences, and illuminate the way forward with their perspectives AND

  2. Empower readers to realize the full potential of arts and culture as a source of collective healing

Creativity 

“It’s not just about appreciating creativity, but about bringing creativity from the world into yourself.” - Anonymous 

To many respondents, they acknowledge Blackness as creativity on its own merit, sparking coherence and clarity in understanding their own lives often rooted in a 360 mindset. To them, pursuing creativity defined individual and collective futures where the arts could platform societal dialogues to foster much-needed change. So, how do culture-and-community organizations “ …validate and celebrate community members’ creative actions or connect them with others who enjoy similar kinds of creativity?” The report answers with two possible options:

  1. Expanding the Definitions of Creativity OR 

  2. Connecting with “Everyday Creativity” - Not just artists but all kinds of creators, professional and everyday, are engaged in the work of envisioning new possibilities and imagining alternate versions of the world

Self-Care

“There’s a museum that I like, and it [held] a grieving session. It was stressful, but collective grieving was really great... Two artists facilitated it, and it was on Zoom. It was thoughtfully done. There was voice and meditation, there was collective singing and chant. And they would put the name of someone you were thinking of, who’d passed away, or you were holding space for... You have to grieve to get over something, and you have to acknowledge it.” - Anonymous

As our society grasps what self-care looks like both collectively and individually, the preexisting notion that mental health is taboo persists itself within the Black community, specifically older generations. This has led towards alternative creative therapies in substitution. In addition, it is important to recognize the manipulation in medical research has formed a level of distrust with the health sector, even the lack of representation in the field does harm. However, COVID-19 provided an opportunity for reset that influenced introspection and connection with self and those within their circles. Therefore, what would it look like for more culture-and-community organizations to make self-care a core programmatic or experiential frame?

Trustworthiness

“Some of these organizations, they’ve posted these Black Lives Matter [statements], but I don’t think that’s true in some situations. Because you look at their staff, their board... If your mission is serving the general population, then that needs to be represented on the staff. You need that cultural expertise on your staff in order to be effective at cultural presentation. A lot of organizations don’t acknowledge that, or they only do in front of funders.” - Anonymous

Ironically, predominantly White institutions (PWIs) and White individuals have often placed the burden on Black people and various people of color to trust them even though they, or their collective history, have been the ones to inflict dishonesty. “In this project, [the researchers] prioritized trustworthiness over trust because that places the responsibility of being or becoming trustworthy on the cultural or community organization rather than placing the responsibility of trusting that organization on the community member.” Because trustworthiness is an ongoing process, like any meaningful relationship, it requires a commitment to visibly demonstrate trust beyond one-off initiatives and understand that attendance is not the sole metric towards success. Therefore, what does it look like for culture-and-community practitioners to practice trustworthiness as an ongoing process, not as a task with an endpoint?

Welcome and Belonging

“I think when you do find belonging, you find people that can hear you. No matter where you go, they’re listening to you. There’s comfort in that...they’re listening and they’re trying to understand you. There's a connection in that. We all want to connect, and we all want to be understood... You can just focus, hear, and leave any worries. It’s like, these are my people.” - Anonymous

It would not be surprising that a majority of us are most comfortable within the confines of our own household, most likely because we are our most authentic selves and can curate the experience. When we step outside our comfort zones, we seek replicable spaces to feel comfort. Therefore, when a space does not contain that element of belonging - to express our authentic selves - we feel that we do not belong, especially for BIPOC who have rightly guarded themselves against a lack of trustworthiness from their White counterparts. Like trustworthiness, it requires a constant display of transparency. As our society operates within a product over people mindset, the absence of humanity obliviously ruins meaningful interaction, hence why BIPOC support often seems shallow. “Culture-and-community practitioners and organizations have a responsibility to affirm and celebrate that richness and breadth and avoid [communicating] a view of Black stories and themes limited to slavery, trauma, and police brutality. Practitioners and funders should make time to question and defuse any impulses that tokenize Black people and affirm only one type of Blackness that is “palatable” to White people.” It requires addressing the gap in Black voice at all levels, whether it is based on content or employment within the organization. 

Tattooed on the Timeline 

As previously mentioned, we are in an unavoidable state of reckoning due to the string of tragedies our world has recently been forced to experience. Whether conscious or not before COVID-19 or George Floyd ignited action, averting one’s perspective is no longer acceptable with increased access to technology and efforts uplifting the interconnectedness between communities to collectively speak up about injustice. Our situation has put Black individuals and other marginalized communities under the magnifying glass through a combination of positive and negative intentions. Though the focus should be centered on providing these individuals meaningful lives, there are financial and optical motivations in the mix that degrade prospective opportunities to authentically connect. With many trying to be better, it requires a level of consciousness and humility to grow. Why do we want to connect with these communities and are we willing to be uncomfortable to achieve it? As research tends to be dominated in White perspective, bridging the gap between various human experiences supports everyone, because innovation requires collective understanding from a human-center approach. 

As we collectively evaluate our missteps, we must enact a progress over perfection mindset in order to re-frame from debilitation and keep momentum. To support reflection and engage action, here are some questions to ponder: 

  • How would you know whether newcomers actually experience a sense of welcome? How recently have you talked with your participants, audiences, visitors, etc. about how it feels to enter and move through your space? What about non-attenders?

  • Do you have clear and easy mechanisms for people to share feedback about their experiences? Is that feedback taken seriously and acted on empathetically and creatively?

  • How can your organization, with its unique mission, people, skills, and resources, be an effective organizer, convener, information source, or advocate for a given issue — in collaboration with other interested parties in the ecosystem?

  • How might your organization, art-form, or professional field have benefited from systemic racism over time? How have you and your colleagues acknowledged the history and practices of systemic racism in your organization in the past?

  • Have people — audience members, visitors, participants, subscribers, etc. or staff, volunteers, board members —experienced racism at your organization? How do (or would) you know? Do you have processes in place to investigate any experiences of racism that may occur, and put policies into place to prevent those from recurring?

  • Does your organization have a clear definition and under-standing of its community? Have you built relationships in and with that community, including with other organizations and individuals doing important work? Do you have a sense of both the needs and existing assets of the community?

  • Does your organization treat collaborating organizations or individuals as equal partners? Are you (or your project funders) compensating those community partners for their time and insights—and doing so fairly and consistently?

The charge is evident, but how do we meaningfully reshape the Culture and Community field? Below you can find suggestions: 

  • Rethink Creativity 

  • Move Beyond Formality vs. Informality

  • Challenge “Relevance”

  • Strive for Consonance

  • Spark Collective Change

I am rooting for a future where everyone is present at the table where each member strives for collective growth, not for visuals but pure intentions on justice.   

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For more relevant content, check out Where Do We Go From Here: A Reflection on Learnings from We Can’t Go Back: A Video Interview Series Focused on Anti-Racism in Arts & Cultural Education.