Large Organizations and Large Ensembles

Large organizations are able to exert considerable influence on racial and cultural equity when it comes to hiring practices and Board appointments (unlike smaller organizations, who typically have much less frequent changes in personnel).

With the greatest volume of works played and the most consistent and significant access to philanthropic capital, large organizations ought to consider themselves leaders in systemic change regarding cultural equity. Decisions have influence at scale.

However, since individuals are ultimately the ones with decision-making authority within a group, we recommend you also consult the section on Individual Artists / Composers / Performers.

Values

Reflections

Your organization’s values reflect your vision for the future and should support your mission. How will diversity, equity, and inclusion be included in your organization’s values? How do you live your values every day?

Do your bylaws or corporate charter name racial and cultural equity as a priority?

Instead of asking yourself: are there specific individuals I need to be including? Sometimes try asking yourself: Are there people I am excluding through my actions or choices? (paraphrasing Lecolion Washington)

Possible Actions

• Name cultural equity as part of your mission or vision statements.
• Assemble a diverse team of professionals (staff, artists, faculty, etc). Set goals about cultural equity in hiring practices and monitor your progress toward reaching them. A homogeneous, all-White team is unlikely, for example, to have the necessary perspective to achieve progress on racial equity. An all-cis, straight team is unlikely to bring nuanced perspectives on gender equity. An entire team of able-bodied and able-minded people is unlikely to notice shortfalls in accessibility.
• Work to ensure your job postings are equitably distributed and made known to a wide range of people.
• Assemble a diverse Board of directors. By placing leaders from various marginalized groups in positions of authority and governance, organizations invite accountability in decision-making. But, take care not to confuse Board volunteers in governance roles with Board volunteers being asked to oversee day-to-day management. Those functions should be done by paid staff or consultants.
• Consider eliminating conventional Board practices like a “give-or-get” minimum donation that preselect for high net wealth and therefore may limit your capacity to diversify governance.

Solidarity

Reflections

Large organizations have the most stakeholders and therefore may not be able to make authentic statements on behalf of the whole organization as swiftly as smaller ones. Given their large footprints, however, their statements of support often have the most impact and can easily sway public opinion -- paving the way for others to follow. How do you use your prestige and outsize financial resources to support solidarity around cultural equity?

Possible Actions

• Stand by your marginalized colleagues. Support them and speak up for them when they face exclusion or retribution. Offer to relay messages or act as a spokesperson if desired. If you have stable employment or tenure, this can be especially useful.
• Do not participate with or benefit from organizations who have been publicly named as engaging in discriminatory practices (particularly if they have failed to address them adequately).
• Reject advice not to get involved in issues merely because they are too 'sensitive' or 'political'. Such hesitation greatly hinders solidarity.
• Work to eradicate any disparities in pay; nation-wide, wage gaps for women and people of color are well-documented. It is unlikely your organization has not unwittingly assumed some of the same biases.
• Hire BIPOC photographers, sound engineers, designers, consultants, accountants, editors, and other service providers. Purchase goods (catering, office supplies, office furniture, equipment, gear) from BIPOC-owned businesses. Ensure you pay BIPOC vendors at or above going rates.
• Support (and fund) the time and space for affinity groups within your organization, board, staff, band, crew, and mentorship programs. Hire facilitators when needed.
• Consider participating in simple practices that support awareness, like a land acknowledgment at the beginning of performances, acknowledging the Indigenous people that have inhabited and stewarded the sites you work and perform on.
• However, do not limit your participation to the symbolic: if you participate in something like a land acknowledgment, also consider what actions and initiatives a local indigenous agency is supporting in your area, such as: https://www.nuifc.org/

Transparency

Reflection

How can organizations track data and use it to support cultural equity in their work? You cannot manage what you cannot measure, so organizations must get in the habit of understanding how they are affected by bias and blind spots. All things being equal, arbitrary aspects of one’s identity wouldn’t have to matter; but due to years of oppressive policies that continue through today, identity matters very much when it comes to understanding inequality and oppression.

“Colorblindness” is not better. Data—like a recent study by the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs—show how talented staff & artists are pushed out of our field, and countless anecdotes speak to our colleagues facing hostility and oppression on the basis of their identity. To insist on colorblindness is to reject the very real experiences of our colleagues and refuse to acknowledge and engage with considerable data that shows the oppressive nature of our field.

What types of demographic categories can be meaningfully assessed with maximum sensitivity to self-identification? How can you effectively understand nuances of identity while also consolidating data to observe structural issues your organization may be supporting or upholding?

Possible Actions

• Track demographic and financial data; use baseline metrics to set future goals.
• But, always allow individuals the ability to self-identify in an open-ended way rather than a predetermined series of “check boxes”.
• Consider an equity assessment of your staff, Board, and leadership. An audit of your employees and Board is likely to reveal any blind spots. The Hyams Foundation/Philanthropy MA and the Boston Foundation both have templates for this. (N.B. Both leave room for improvement with respect to sexuality and gender identity). Remember that not all LGBTQ+ individuals are out at work; do not ask them to out themselves.
• Measure and publish demographic data on job applicants, prize-winners, panel discussions, etc. Publish information on both awardees and applicants to grants, residencies, or opportunities. Assess where bias might be creeping into your process.
• Share your learnings and best practices, successes and failures. Consider a page on your website with research and information available to funders and the general public.
• Share learnings around best practices in labor law and workforce administration. Many small organizations cannot afford to have professional HR staff, but many cannot afford not to, either.
• Maintain clear internal policies about how you determine substitute lists and/or prospects for new commissions. Closed-door decision-making and last-minute choices spurred by grant deadlines tend to reproduce a status quo. Facing pressure to make decisions, we tend to reach first within our predominantly homogenous social networks. Transparent procedures tend to offer the time and space necessary to consider who you may be excluding from your thinking.
• If you can afford full-time staff with expertise on labor standards, benefits administration, or workplace equity, ask how you can share that expertise to support or incubate smaller peer organizations.
• Consider policies that help all to feel welcome. Don’t just ask one individual how they want to advocate for themselves in their workplace; also consider how the whole workplace can more effectively advocate for individuals. For example, consider asking staff to list pronouns in their email signatures or Zoom names to normalize the practice so Trans staff members are not the only ones obliged to do so. However, do not force staff to share pronouns.

Resources

Reflection

Since large organizations have the greatest number of employees, Board members, and stakeholders, their investments tend to be the most economical and have the greatest impact at scale. How can you invest in enhancing racial equity for the whole field?

For example, large organizations are most likely to have unrestricted net assets to afford items like racial equity training or culturally-equity-based professional development sessions. Could you open these trainings to small peers organizations who may not be able to afford them? Could your professionalized administrative staff help incubate or mentor smaller organizations?

Possible Actions

• Hire, promote, and direct capital toward artists such as: artists of color; women, trans, and non-binary artists; disabled artists; undocumented artists; and all other artists who have faced exclusion because of their identities, and/or whose identities are historically underrepresented from our field.
• Invest in collaborations with BIPOC-led ensembles. Considering splitting bills with BIPOC-led ensembles and sharing the ticket revenue. Consider using your social capital or operating capital to support audacious or innovative projects. With more capital and cashflow at hand, you are better positioned to assume the financial risk that can accompany innovative ideas.
• Consider organization-wide wage transparency for a collective awareness of how resources are allocated.
• Collaborate with other national, regional, and local organizations who are also working toward greater racial equity and convene peer institutions nationally/regionally to provide resources and share best practices. Read on at Grantmakers in the Arts.
• Pay living wages to your staff and employees. If your organization needs to be subsidized by poverty-level wages to sustain operations, it is almost certainly doing more harm than good.
• Pay individuals who consult on your cultural equity work. As a large organization, you almost certainly have enough assets to pay a fair rate.
• Invest in effective messaging and communications strategies. Ensure your communications/PR staff has access to necessary professional development opportunities. What organizations share in email marketing or social media is wide-reaching and has consequential implications.
• Purchase scores, recordings, and books created by BIPOC artists. Purchase them from the artist directly or from the publisher or label.
• Consider switching your institution’s accounts to a BIPOC-owned bank.
• If you have a space, share it with BIPOC community members when you are not using it. If you have specialized equipment, share it with BIPOC community members when you are not using it. Create partnerships with organizations in your community to understand what resources you have that others need. Take care that your space is accessible and inclusive.
• Maintain a Board-level Equity / Racial Equity committee to oversee and direct work in this area.
• Spend money on books or resources to raise your level of sophistication in talking about cultural equity; for example, purchase a copy of books like Ijeoma Oluo’s So you want to talk about race or Dr. Ibram Kendi’s How to be an Antiracist. Read them as a group.

Learning

Reflection

As a large organization, how can you use your footprint to help enhance the level of knowledge of the entire field? How can you “lead the charge”, while also acknowledging that most large organizations have actively benefitted from systemic economic racism?

How can a large organization manage a shift in culture? What would your organization look like in 5 years if your cultural equity plan is successful?

Consider the history of many arts venues: their location, infrastructure, and urban planning were often built with the intention of making them harder (or impossible) for marginalized people to access. In many cases, marginalized people were displaced for their construction. Today, does your organization continue to accelerate a lack of access or displacement via gentrification?

Possible Actions

• Require participation in cultural equity or racial equity training for your staff and board as part of their continuous development (structure this as part of paid, on-the-clock time).
• Work together to develop shared language. Like any aspect of workplace culture, establishing a shared understanding of complex topics takes time, practice, and skilled leadership.
• Research best practices that ensure proper consideration of candidates of color in hiring and artistic planning.
• Invest time in learning about fair hiring practices more broadly, as well as programs in your state like paid family leave; unemployment, workers comp, and disability, and independent contractor vs employment status. These are regulated state by state, so best to consult your local state agency, arts services organization, better business bureau, or similar. Failure in proper labor practices tends to perpetuate inequality and disproportionately impact already-marginalized people.
• Learn about tactical choices in hiring policy, like the subtle difference between goal setting and “quota” systems. While explicit racial “quotas” are illegal in hiring, organizations may set goals and adopt strategies to remedy past racial biases in hiring and selection processes.
• Consider adopting essential qualifications in job descriptions that support racial equity, such as: “experience working in disinvested neighborhoods and communities of color” or “ability to work effectively within a diverse, inclusive, and culturally-responsive environment"
• Assess your role in the gentrification of your community. If you have a space, learn about the history of the site and about any efforts to slow or reverse gentrification in the area. Donate or volunteer to help those efforts.

Continuing Practice

Reflections

What might your organization look like in 5 years if your cultural equity plan is successful?

How will you acknowledge you have blind spots? Even workplaces with considerable expertise and experience will have areas for improvement. Keep in mind the multifaceted and intersectional nature of challenges to equity. A workplace that is experienced and sophisticated when it comes to racial equity might fall short when it comes to, say, disability accommodation and accessibility, or vice versa.

Possible Actions

• Annually revisit your policies, communications, and strategies. Best practices change quickly as our field learns and grows.
• Share learnings on repertoire. With the largest footprint and following, large organizations can most easily amplify the work of artists who historically faced disinvestment, like people of color or disabled people. By enhancing the platform and visibility of marginalized artists, large organizations play an important role diverting more resources to historically underrepresented artists over the long term.
• Establish a racial equity advisory committee or working group of colleagues that will inform programming direction and guide institutional change. Ensure that they are empowered to affect change where necessary.
• Assess your role in the gentrification of your community. If you have a space, learn about the history of the site and about any efforts to slow or reverse gentrification in the area. Donate or volunteer to help those efforts.

Resources

• ArtsPool is an innovative new program providing support for labor law, benefits administration, regulatory compliance, hiring, separation, and more.
• Fractured Atlas has an HR Bootcamp designed to equip leaders with a toolkit of best practices in cultivating equitable workplaces through fair staffing & labor standards.