{"id":4411,"date":"2017-12-13T08:39:14","date_gmt":"2017-12-13T13:39:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=4411"},"modified":"2017-12-26T08:53:48","modified_gmt":"2017-12-26T13:53:48","slug":"arts-administrators-of-color","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2017\/12\/13\/arts-administrators-of-color\/","title":{"rendered":"Arts Leaders Of Color Panel: \u2018If This Sector Can\u2019t Be Diverse And Inclusive, Who Else Can Be?\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIf this sector can\u2019t be diverse and inclusive, who else can be?\u201d Candelaria\u00a0Silva-Collins asked at last night\u2019s \u201cPaving the Way: A Conversation with Leaders of Color in the Arts\u201d<\/a> at the Pao Arts Center in Boston. \u201cArtists figure things out. Artists make a way where there\u2019s no way. \u2026 If we can\u2019t do this, and reflect our country and the whole world, who else can do this?\u201d<\/p>\n

The talk was presented by Boston\u2019s Network for Arts Administrators of Color<\/a>, which was launched last year by ArtsBoston, a consortium of local arts organizations, \u201cto enhance the visibility of professionals of color in Greater Boston\u2019s arts and culture sector, as well as widen the leadership pipeline and highlight opportunities for professional and personal growth in the field.\u201d<\/p>\n

Network founder Victoria George, also ArtsBoston\u2019s Audience Lab director, said interest in the group\u2014more than 200 people are now involved\u2014challenges “assumptions that there aren\u2019t enough qualified arts leaders of color in Boston.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"At<\/a>
At ArtsBoston’s Network for Arts Administrators of Color talk, (from left) Todd McNeel, Ben Hires, Candelaria Silva-Collins and Christopher Edwards spoke. Dec. 12, 2017. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Moderator Todd McNeel, who is media coordinator for the Boston Lyric Opera, asked the speakers what progress they\u2019d seen in diversity and inclusion in Boston.<\/p>\n

Ben Hires, executive producer and chief strategy officer for the Boston Children\u2019s Chorus, said that since he first came to Boston two decades ago, \u201cThe conversation around issues of diversity and inclusion has grown. \u2026 People are trying to understand what they can do to be more inclusive, to understand their blind spots, their privilege.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJust being in this room is incredible progress,\u201d said Candelaria Silva-Collins, chair of Designators for the George B. Henderson Foundation and program manager for the Fellowes Athenaeum Trust Fund. \u201cYou have more diversity than ever. And yet you can still live a very black-only life here, a very white-only life here, a Chinese-only life, a Vietnamese-only.\u201d<\/p>\n

She worried about people of color being priced out of neighborhoods. She pushed for more real estate ownership. \u201cIf you own your space, you have so much more leverage than if you don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

What organizations are doing good work to improve diversity and inclusion?<\/p>\n

\u201cArtsBoston has taken a lead by doing whatever it took to attract Vicky George and to support her vision,\u201d Silva-Collins said. \u201cThis can\u2019t be a project, it has to be an organization.\u201d So if George moves on, the work continues, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy frustration is seeing people doing things new that we did 30 years ago but for some reason it didn\u2019t hold,\u201d Silva-Collins said.<\/p>\n

She called for racial parity in organizations. \u201cA lot of organizations can be very white and still are very fragile in terms of the number of people of color. I can\u2019t think of one organization that\u2019s got it right, but there are a lot trying.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe infrastructure for arts organizations of color has been a little difficult to maintain in Boston,\u201d Silva-Collins added.<\/p>\n

Hires said, \u201cArtsEmerson has made great strides in programming to attract different audiences \u2026 to meet people where they\u2019re at in their interests.\u201d He then called for arts organizations to pursue more diverse audiences as well as leadership. \u201cWhen you have that representation in cultural organizations or on your team, new and good things can happen that might not happen until you put the right people in place.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Boston seems to drive this conversation more [nationally] than I think you give yourselves credit for,\u201d said Christopher Edwards, artistic director for the Actors\u2019 Shakespeare Project, who moved to Boston from Las Vegas just a few months ago. \u201cYou\u2019re probably on the forefront of this in the country as a group trying to make a difference. \u2026 I would give yourselves a little more credit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hires said when the Boston Children\u2019s Chorus was founded in 2003, \u201cin the DNA of the organization was being diverse and welcoming all people and using the arts as a tool. \u2026 Very intentional, very top of mind.\u201d But, he noted, \u201cIn many cases, arts organizations, they\u2019re coming at it down the road in how to be diverse and how to be inclusive.\u201d Particularly around Boston with anchor organizations that are more than a century old.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe arts are incredibly healing,\u201d Silva-Collins said. \u201cI think we have to push beauty and the arts and culture in the same way people push drugs and racism and stupidity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think you have to be the only black person or Vietnamese person or Chinese person or Puerto Rican person in the room and be okay with that\u2014if I\u2019m invited into that room, I belong there\u2014and not to be paralyzed by self-doubt,\u201d Silva-Collins said. \u201cBut I don\u2019t want to be alone, so I\u2019m always trying to get other people invited as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"At<\/a>
At ArtsBoston’s Network for Arts Administrators of Color talk, (from left) Todd McNeel, Ben Hires, Candelaria Silva-Collins and Christopher Edwards spoke. Dec. 12, 2017. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

McNeel asked how can people of color climb the leadership ladder. Hires recommended joining the Network for Arts Administrators of Color and finding mentors.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you know about an opportunity, share it. If you\u2019re going to apply for an opportunity, give yourself a day or two head start, then share it,\u201d Silva-Collins said. Even if you don\u2019t get the job, a friend you shared the opportunity with may get it, which could help you as well. She encouraged people to promote themselves. \u201cIf you don\u2019t do \u2018here I am, here I am\u2019 sometimes people won\u2019t notice you. You\u2019ve got to be visible.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was growing up,\u201d Edwards said, \u201cmy father said you have to work twice as hard. I took that into the world with me and that twice became three to four times. We have to give ourselves a break.\u201d<\/p>\n

Next steps for the city of Boston?<\/p>\n

\u201cDiversifying the board [of directors] is a big step,\u201d Edwards said. \u201cBecause a lot of times the access is not afforded because the person coming in at an executive level is not able to connect with the folks who would be hiring them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd support people of color,\u201d Edwards said. \u201cBecause sometimes we get through the door and forget the door we came through. Support the people who are coming up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hires called for more flexible hiring criteria. He recounted an anecdote about the Big Sister Association in Boston wanting to increase hiring of people of color but finding that their hiring criteria requiring candidates to have a master\u2019s degree in social work excluded many talented candidates of color.<\/p>\n

Silva-Collins recommended that employers commit to \u201cwe\u2019re not going to fill the job until we\u2019ve interviewed a diverse range of candidates.\u201d She said many job-specific skills can be trained, but \u201cYou can\u2019t train a personality. You can\u2019t train eagerness.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople need to look at outreach not as a one-night stand, but a relationship,\u201d Edwards said. \u201cThere\u2019s a relationship leading up to the moment. And what happens when you leave? That\u2019s the hard, hard time consuming work. And that has to be done.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cIf this sector can\u2019t be diverse and inclusive, who else can be?\u201d Candelaria\u00a0Silva-Collins asked at last night\u2019s \u201cPaving the Way: A Conversation with Leaders of Color in the Arts\u201d at the Pao Arts Center in Boston. \u201cArtists figure things out. Artists make a way where there\u2019s no way. \u2026 If we can\u2019t do this, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4431,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100,114],"tags":[148,37,149,150],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4411"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4411"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4411\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4441,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4411\/revisions\/4441"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}