{"id":4229,"date":"2015-08-05T01:02:11","date_gmt":"2015-08-05T05:02:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/?p=4229"},"modified":"2015-08-05T01:02:11","modified_gmt":"2015-08-05T05:02:11","slug":"afta-thoughts-2015-staff-diversity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2015\/08\/afta-thoughts-2015-staff-diversity\/","title":{"rendered":"AftA Thoughts 2015: Staff Diversity"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-full wp-image-4230 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/DiverseStaff-e1435326777756.jpg\" alt=\"DiverseStaff\" width=\"383\" height=\"200\" \/>This is the fourth in a series of posts reflecting on last June&#8217;s Americans for the Arts convention in Chicago. Diversity and equity were large themes that I\u2019ve addressed twice already. Last time (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2015\/07\/afta-thoughts-2015-self-perpetuating-boards\/\" target=\"_blank\">Self-Perpetuating Boards<\/a>) I commented on issues of governance. This time, staff diversity is the topic.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">A highlight of the convention for me was Tom Finkelpearl\u2019s (Commissioner of NYC&#8217;s Department of Cultural Affairs) comment that despite low salaries there is not an issue (at least compared to that experienced in the arts) hiring diverse staff members in social service organizations, as public school teachers, or for community organizing. He said that when people come to see the arts as an industry that gives back to the community, a much greater diversity of people will be willing to work in the field. Of course, that means that what arts organizations <em>do<\/em> would need to change considerably.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">[I should point out that Mr. Finkelpearl was a contributor to my first book, <em>Building Communities, Not Audiences<\/em>, and has a long record of putting his money and sweat equity where his mouth is when it comes to diversity and equity. Years ago, hearing of his hiring of a community organizer at the Queens Museum of Art was a pivotal moment for me in the development of <em>Building Communities.<\/em>]<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Mr. Finkelpearl&#8217;s observation was a huge <em>Aha!<\/em> moment for me. We lament the inability to attract diverse candidates in the arts, as my colleagues and I often did in trying to fill faculty positions in academia. Largely, we blame poor pay. While there is no doubt that low salaries are a factor, the reputation of the sector as a whole had never entered my mind as an impediment.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><em>What if<\/em> arts organizations were seen as robust contributors to better lives for African-Americans, Hispanics, recent immigrants, the poor, the disenfranchised? I do not mean to imply that it&#8217;s easy for social services, public schools, and community organizing groups to hire diverse staffs, but at least from the outside it appears they do not have the struggle we do.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Enhance diversity by <em>being<\/em> valuable.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Engage!<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Doug<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Photo:<span class=\"ccIcn ccIcnSmall\"><a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/2.0\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" title=\"Attribution\" src=\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/pw\/images\/cc_icon_attribution_small.gif\" alt=\"Attribution\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/span> <a title=\"Attribution License\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/2.0\/\" target=\"_blank\">Some rights reserved<\/a> by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/europedistrict\/\" target=\"_blank\">USACE Europe District<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What if arts organizations were seen as robust contributors to better lives for African-Americans, Hispanics, recent immigrants, the poor, the disenfranchised? Enhance diversity by being valuable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4230,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Staff Diversity\u2013Become more attractive to diverse candidates by being valuable to communities. #aftacon http:\/\/wp.me\/p1G6h9-16d","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10],"tags":[12,13,42,47,60],"class_list":{"0":"post-4229","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-the-practice-of-engagement","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-community-engagement","10":"tag-diversity","11":"tag-equity","12":"tag-staffing","13":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/DiverseStaff-e1435326777756.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1G6h9-16d","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3075,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2013\/09\/diversity-definitions\/","url_meta":{"origin":4229,"position":0},"title":"Diversity Definitions","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"September 10, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The Arts and Science Council in Charlotte has been involved in some serious work to promote diversity, access, and inclusion. I attended a session at last June's Americans for the Arts conference in Pittsburgh in which Robert Bush, now Interim Director of the Council, described their efforts. In the twenty\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Principles&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Principles","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/principles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"http:\/\/www.artsandscience.org\/templates\/ascdesign20\/images\/asc-logo.jpg","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsandscience.org\/templates\/ascdesign20\/images\/asc-logo.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4225,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2015\/07\/afta-thoughts-2015-self-perpetuating-boards\/","url_meta":{"origin":4229,"position":1},"title":"AftA Thoughts 2015: Self-Perpetuating Boards","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"July 29, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Lack of board diversity reflects \"who they (don't) know.\"","rel":"","context":"In &quot;The Practice of Engagement&quot;","block_context":{"text":"The Practice of Engagement","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/the-practice-of-engagement\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"DWEM_Board","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/DWEM_Board-e1435324376845.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5244,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2018\/03\/frames\/","url_meta":{"origin":4229,"position":2},"title":"Frames","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"March 28, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Frames: Clarifying the focus, roots of this work for me.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Overview&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Overview","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/overview\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Frames-300x199.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5729,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2019\/10\/doomed-to-fail\/","url_meta":{"origin":4229,"position":3},"title":"Doomed to Fail","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"October 30, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Diversity, equity, and inclusion are vital to the future of the arts. The commitment to community that community engagement requires is an essential foundation upon which to build efforts in DEI.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Principles&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Principles","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/principles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Fail.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4213,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2015\/07\/afta-thoughts-2015-equity-watershed\/","url_meta":{"origin":4229,"position":4},"title":"AftA Thoughts 2015: Equity Watershed?","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"July 15, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Americans for the Arts 2015 conference in Chicago appeared serious about addressing diversity and equity.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Principles&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Principles","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/principles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Equity","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Equity-e1435255742641.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5784,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2019\/12\/dei-statements\/","url_meta":{"origin":4229,"position":5},"title":"DEI Statements","author":"Doug Borwick","date":"December 11, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"The importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion statements with a couple of recent examples.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Principles&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Principles","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/category\/principles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Equity-e1435255742641.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4229"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4229\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4271,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4229\/revisions\/4271"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}