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From the Alliance for California Traditional Arts: “Every cultural community in the United States is rooted in a sense of belonging, shared by members, and anchored by collective wisdom and aesthetics. These roots of cultural heritage are maintained, strengthened, and expanded through the practice of folk and traditional arts. The realities of slavery, displacement, structural racism, systemic poverty, and cultural appropriation have tested the strength of these cultural roots. The stresses are even more apparent, viewed against our present-day national reckoning with these harms amidst a global pandemic. In this context, traditional arts practices are potent political acts of social belonging, power, and justice. From this field have emerged works and artists of beauty, technical prowess, and meaning.”

“This report, Tending the Taproot: Opportunities to Support Folk & Traditional Arts in the United States, presents the findings of the Alliance of California Traditional Arts’ (ACTA) Taproot Initiative. This national planning effort, aimed to re-center traditional and folk artists and their art forms as catalysts for transformation and restoration in our larger society, is aligned with other important movements in the arts and culture sector to spur critical thinking and action during this hallmark moment of radical change. The report describes the resource landscape of folk and traditional arts. It offers operational recommendations as a call to action to support taproot artist-leaders and organizations with focused investment in funding and development to do more and do better, resources for infrastructure, elevated national recognition, and new standards for robust data and research infrastructure. Our recommendations are evidenced by qualitative and quantitative research findings, grounded in ACTA’s quarter century of experience as a funder and advocate in this field.”

Read the full report here.

“At the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation, we know that strong leadership is necessary to create a more equitable and vibrant New York City.”

“We also know that many of the practices, systems, and structures, which sustain inequality in our communities, also show up in our organizations and our sector, limiting our view of who a leader is and what impactful leadership looks like. As such, while many organizations are eager to transition from white leaders to leaders of color, they often do not have the experience, expertise, commitment, or supports in place to fully embrace new leadership and make these transitions successful or joyful. Too often, it is the new leaders of color who pay the price for under-prepared organizations.”

“As we continue to understand and move resources to directly support leaders of color during these transitions, we wanted to take a closer look at ourselves and our grantee community. Making (or Taking) Space seeks to inform our question: What, specifically, is the responsibility of organizations with white leaders transitioning out of these roles to support incoming leaders of color?”

“As nonprofit organizations start to examine issues of race and racial equity, more groups are seeking to replace exiting white leaders with leaders of color. To better support these transitions, the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation (RSCF) asked the Building Movement Project (BMP) to explore the organizational dynamics when Black, Indigenous, or other people of color (BIPOC) are hired into executive leadership roles following the departure of white leaders.”

“To conduct this inquiry, RSCF identified nine organizations in its grantmaking portfolio that had transitioned—or were in the process of transitioning—from white to BIPOC leadership. Six of the new leaders were women of color, and three were BIPOC men. RSCF invited the exiting or former white executive directors, the board member(s) who oversaw the hiring process, and the incoming leaders of color to each participate in an hour-long interview on their experience and perspective of the transition process. BMP analyzed the interviews—a total of 30 across the nine organizations—to identify some of the common experiences.”

Read the full report 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.

“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 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.

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.