From the New York Times: “Maricruz Rivera Clemente’s community was among those hit hard by Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017.”

“She and her neighbors in Piñones, a neighborhood in Loíza on the northeastern coast of Puerto Rico, about 15 miles east of San Juan, were without power for months.”

“And after seeing ecological damage she likened to an atomic bomb, Ms. Rivera Clemente, a social worker and sociologist, made a plan for her community organization to try to keep her neighbors safe in the future.”

“The organization, Corporación Piñones Se Integra, wanted to do more to preserve the area’s natural resources and Afro-Latino heritage. And its mission includes taking care of the Piñones State Forest. The mangroves that populate the forest, Ms. Rivera Clemente said through an interpreter, help protect the land from wind damage and reduce erosion caused by storm surges.”

“Hoping to restore the mangroves, the group reached out to the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources of Puerto Rico, and in 2020 the Hispanic Federation, a beneficiary of The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund, provided a grant to move the work ahead. The $100,000 grant allowed local residents to be hired for a mangrove reforesting initiative and cleanup efforts to improve water flow.”

Read the full article here.

“The movement for reparations in the United States—a Black-led movement that began even before slavery’s end—is making unprecedented strides forward, and governments across the country are beginning to act. In October 2020, California became the first state to initiate an official task force to study and develop a reparations plan for Black Americans harmed by slavery and its legacies,” said Aria Florant and Venneikia Williams for Nonprofit Quarterly. “In March 2021, the city council in Evanston, Illinois, approved the Local Reparations Restorative Housing Program to address racial discrimination in housing. In April 2021, HR 40 was voted out of committee for the first time in its 32-year history. If passed, the bill would establish a commission to study the negative effects of slavery.”

“These initiatives represent just a few of the many forms that advocacy for reparations can take. Other activities include grassroots power-building, research, narrative change, and stakeholder mobilization. There is an enormous amount of work to be done, and it needs real investment to be successful.”

“A new philanthropic model, in the form of asset transfers coupled with a comprehensive racial repair framework, would deepen investment in Black communities while reflecting the reparations movement’s goals. In addition, it would move the philanthropic sector into a liminal space (ie, a transitional opening for social change) that could decrease the need for philanthropy in the first place.”

“This is only one step toward a world where philanthropy is unnecessary because our economic and democratic systems create just outcomes for all. In this world, wealth isn’t hoarded; it’s invested in ways that meet all people’s needs. A reparative model of philanthropy creates the liminal space needed to move closer to this new world.”

Read the full article here.

From the Toronto Arts Council: “As the newest wave of protests by Black bodies sets the world ablaze in 2020 once again, loudly demanding the right to live, work, play and in the case of this report, make art, organizations both public and private seem to be taking yet another step towards equity for Black bodies. Toronto Arts Council (TAC) is no exception and is showing leadership as it steps up to acknowledge its own shortcomings in support of Black Artists by designing a new grant program stream specifically for Black artists/arts organizations, which according to 90% of participants in the consultations that inform this report, is very much needed.”

“Current granting statistics within TAC show that 10% of individual artist grant applicants identified as Black in 2019 vs 8.9% in the 2016 census; 16% of organization/collective project grants and 3% of operating grant applicants identifying as Black. The success rates for individual and
organization/collective grants is reported as the same overall success rate for other applicants, and Black individual artist grants represented 9% of grant dollars awarded to individuals, Black organization/collective project grants represented 14% of granting dollars and Black organizations/collective operating grants represented only 2% of granting dollars.”

“Of the 162 respondents who participated in this consultation, 60.49% of respondents have never received funding from TAC. The community consultations that informed this report provided a valuable opportunity to reveal the specific barriers and unexplored issues that contribute to these lower numbers of support, as well as the possibilities for change.”

“While the overwhelming consensus by participants that the $300,000 represented a token gesture, it sparked the exploration of potential new ideas and revealing deeper insight into current obstructions. Great skepticism was balanced by a cautious optimism that perhaps this initiative could be an important first step by TAC to address long standing systemic issues that have shackled the artistic potential of the Black arts community.”

Read the full report here.

Forecast Public Art has released Issue 5 of FORWARD, “a digital publication and conversation series from Forecast, a nonprofit that activates, inspires, and advocates for public art that advances justice, health, and human dignity.” “FORWARD highlights how artists are partnering with cities, institutions, and communities to courageously tackle the vital issues of our time. This fifth issue, made in collaboration with NeighborWorks America, focuses on housing. Guest-edited by Paul Singh, vice president of NeighborWorks’s Community Initiatives, it highlights projects and partnerships that use art and creativity to raise visibility and spur action around critical housing issues.” Explore the publication here.

From the National Endowment for the Arts: “This profile features U.S. and state-level estimates of arts participation rates from the 2020 Arts Basic Survey. The Arts Basic Survey (ABS) is a short-form edition of the Survey of Public Participation in the Arts (SPPA), which typically has been conducted on a five-year basis. The ABS and the SPPA are designed by the National Endowment for the Arts and fielded by the U.S. Census Bureau as a supplement to the Current Population Survey.”

The 2020 ABS covered the pre-pandemic period of February 2019 to February 2020. Respondents to the 2020 survey were asked one of two sets of questions pertaining to either: (1) attending live arts events and literary reading; or (2) personally performing or creating art.

Read the full report here.

Art in This Present Moment is an initiative of the Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation that provides support to artists who are Black, Indigenous, and People of Color who are changing and challenging dominant narratives through their craft.

Current artists include, Indigo: A Music, Dance and Video Project; Chief Buffalo Memorial Mural; Xavier Tavera; and The Manidoo Ogitigaan Artist Collective.

Learn more about the artists and their projects here.

From Mellon Foundation: Asali DeVan Ecclesiastes was no stranger to the significance of Ashé Cultural Arts Center when she joined the non-profit as chief equity officer in January 2020.

“This was the first place that paid me to write a poem in my early 20s,” says Ecclesiastes of the New Orleans non-profit organization that celebrates its 25th anniversary next year. “This is an organization that I have been around since its inception. I grew up alongside it.”

Indeed, Ecclesiastes grew up in the city’s Seventh Ward before heading to Nashville to study English literature and education at Vanderbilt University. Later, she returned to the city and embarked on a career in the arts and community service. She programmed the legendary Congo Square Artist Marketplace at New Orleans’ Jazz and Heritage Festival. She co-wrote Swimming Upstream, a play about life after Hurricane Katrina that was produced by V (formerly known as Eve Ensler). She oversaw neighborhood development in the Claiborne Corridor and she made her mark as an acclaimed poet and repeat contributor to TED Talks. And amidst her professional pursuits, Ecclesiastes raised five children.

A bona fide polymath, Ecclesiastes is driven by her commitment to and love for the history, culture, and people of her hometown—a city she justifiably calls “singular in terms of how much art and culture exists.” Her commitment is of a piece with Ashé’s core philosophy: to support and celebrate people who make art and the BIPOC communities that inspire it while simultaneously addressing longstanding racial and socio-economic inequities that have plagued them.

Sunni Patterson, a poet, performance artist, and community activist hired by I Deserve It! in 2021, is among them.

“Caring for the culture also means caring for the people that make it up,” says Patterson. “Caring for people that are blowing the horns, that are sewing feathers and plumes and beads, and knowing that he walked however many miles and he has asthma, second lining all these birthdays and still can’t pay the light bills.”

Patterson is emphatic that her job is not to be prescriptive. She does not tell people what to do to improve their health.

“We honor everyone’s sovereign ability to make a decision for themselves,” she says. “When we go into a community with food, we don’t demand you got to change your diet. We say, ‘Here is another pot of red beans with no meat in them, and you can take some.’ It’s about going into communities and asking, ‘What is the need? Is there something that I can help with? What can I do to help weave this thread of relationships to help us expand community, so you’re not alone?”

Read the full article here.

From ARTnews: “For the first time in two decades, the American Alliance of Museums, an organization that oversees policies around museums in the U.S., will update standards that apply to museum workforces related to diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion (DEAI)”

“The museum group has detailed plans to establish a new initiative meant to implement the standards. The organization will appoint an advisory panel made up of six to eight experts in the museum space to draw up the new DEAI standards over the course of the next three years. The initiative, the organization said in a statement, is backed by a $740,000 government grant distributed by the Institute of Museum and Library Services.”

“The announcement follows AAM’s recent issuing of a report on DEAI issues in the museum sphere in August. The report was published as part of a research and hiring initiative the group dubbed ‘Facing Change: Advancing Museum Board Diversity and Inclusion,’ that included the appointment of anthropologist Johnnetta Betsch Cole as the organization’s senior diversity fellow in August. Cole was tapped to carry out AAM’s five-year DEI initiative.”

“The last time the organization issued an update to standards that apply to its member institutions was in 2005, requiring more transparency on financial disclosures.”

“How those standards will be applied to the organization’s accreditation process have yet to be detailed. The organization says the move is part of an ‘effort to create more equitable outcomes in all aspects of museum structures and programming.'”

“The report, compiled by a DEI task force that included experts from the Smithsonian and Ford Foundation was drawn up to serve as the “framework” for DEAI as standards in the museum field. The report follows AAM’s receipt of a $4 million cross-foundational grant allocated to support DEAI in 2019.”

“Pressure to move DEAI initiatives forward at cultural institutions came in 2020 amid a nation-sweeping protest movement around racial inequities spurred by the murder of George Floyd. In 2017, the AAM released a survey revealing the extent of racial inequities represented in museum governance – that nearly half of all museum boards in the U.S. were 100 percent white.”

“Since then, museum positions promoting inclusivity have been installed with growing frequency. The Seattle Art Museum, the Milwaukee Art Museum, SFMOMA and the Metropolitan Museum of Art have all instated full-time DEI-focused roles.”

Learn more here.

From Pop Culture Collaborative: “It was 2018, in the last few hours of ENTERTAIN CHANGE, a two-day learning and relationship-building gathering for pop culture narrative change field members. Hosted by the Pop Culture Collaborative, ENTERTAIN CHANGE took place at the gorgeous ARRAY campus in Los Angeles, the creative home of award-winning film director and producer Ava DuVernay.”

“The plan had been for participants to go on break while 10 long tables were combined to form one communal farm table for our final meal together. But as the best-laid plans sometimes go (as in, they don’t), our previous session ran long. But at that moment, when our plans looked like they were about to fall apart, something beautiful happened.”

“Moving quickly into coordinated action, attendees joined with the Collaborative team to lift and combine tables. As some passed and placed dozens of chairs around the lengthening perimeter, others began laying down tablecloths and settings. And then everyone, together, sat and broke bread. Amid the clattering of plates and passing of food, the rumble of laughter hit the rafters, ricocheting against the sound waves of dozens of cross-table conversations.”

“And now, after six years, two things are clear:

1. Social justice funders are getting into position to support narrative change work at scale. More philanthropic peers are exploring and expanding their narrative infrastructure resourcing strategies, but also face questions on how to start and where to focus.

2. We have no time to wait. White nationalist movements have spent decades investing in narrative infrastructure. Now they are using that narrative power to fundamentally transform this country into a society where most of us don’t belong, or even exist.

“That is why, informed by years of learnings and insights from field members, the Pop Culture Collaborative is proud to release, ‘Narrative Infrastructure for Narrative Immersion,’ a new strategic grantmaking framework to support social justice funders on their journey towards resourcing, at scale, the critical area of narrative infrastructure.”

“The Pop Culture Collaborative focuses on culture change, specifically on popular culture, because it’s one of the most influential arenas shaping how people make meaning and forge identities: the big ideas and immersive stories that flow through television, movies, digital and social media, music, books, sports, journalism, political campaigns, and other artistic and cultural experiences that millions of people experience every day. This cultural context influences how people behave, their conclusions of who belongs (or doesn’t) in a society, their participation and decision-making in the democratic process, and the vision they hold about the future.”

Read the full article here.