“In an effort to work toward undoing longstanding racial and cultural inequities in the arts, and in life, the city now has a formal Cultural Equity Plan that maps out how to go about doing that,” the New Haven Register reported today.
This plan is the first such cultural equity plan in the state, developed during a year-long facilitation, and aims to right some of the wrongs of the past, said Director of Cultural Affairs Adriane Jefferson. It aims to do that, among other ways, by broadening and extending definitions of arts and culture now centered around predominantly White, downtown-based institutions out to the city’s neighborhoods — and coming up with ways to guide arts funding that often comes through the city and established arts organizations more directly to Black and Brown artists, performing artists and musicians.
“Cultural Equity Plan is not intended to replace ‘the people who have already been doing this work’ in the community. Jefferson said during the official release event. “I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t believe in the power of arts and culture” to iron out inequities in society.