Working to invest financial, programmatic, and informational resources equitably.
The Universal Participation Initiative receives the 2019 LEAD® Community Asset Award at the Kennedy Center’s Leadership Exchange in Arts and Disability (LEAD) Conference. (Image: Mass Cultural Council’s Charles Baldwin and Anita Walker with Betty Siegel, Director, Office of VSA and Accessibility at The John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts at the 2019 LEAD award ceremony.)
Universal Participation Initiative provides professional development grants to attend the Leadership Exchange in Arts and Disability (LEAD) conference put on by the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. (Image: Lew Michaels, Neil Gordon, and Betty Siegel receiving the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts 2018 Leadership Exchange in Arts and Disability (LEAD®) Community Asset Award.)
EBT Card to Culture celebration marks 250,000 admissions for low-income and working families to Massachusetts cultural organizations. (Image: Left to right: Mass Cultural Council’s chair, Nina Fialkow; Commissioner of the Department of Transitional Assistance, Jeff McCue; Mass Cultural Council’s Executive Director, Anita Walker; Massachusetts First Lady Lauren Baker; Boston Children’s Museum President and Chief Executive Officer, Carole Charnow.)
Mass Cultural Council identified five areas of focus and related goals for its FY18-19 Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Plan, based on our own organizational structures and relationships with our constituents. This Plan was subsequently extended in FY21. (Image: Bianca Leigh and MJ Rodriguez in Trans Scripts, Part I – The Women. Photo courtesy of American Repertory Theater. Image by GretjenHelene.com.)
In October 2017, we engaged with the Disruptive Equity Education Project (DEEP) on a year-long series of workshops to educate the staff and governing Council on the personal challenges of engaging in equity work, encourage the development of a mission and vision for equity, and build our capacity to develop actionable plans to sustain professional development learning.
From November 2017-May 2018, we contracted with Third Eye Cultural Collaborative to provide an organizational assessment framework to help us assess our current ability to meet the goals of our new strategic plan, specifically the goal of advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion. (Image: Logo for the Disruptive Equity Education Project)
Inaugural Universal Participation Awards celebration at WGBH. Mass Cultural Council presents $10,000 to Open Door Theater to honor their accessibility work. Kerry Thompson from the Disability Rights Fund delivers the keynote. (Image: Alexander Abdulah singing with a guitar at the 2018 UP Award ceremony. Photo: Mercure Photography.)
In Year 2 of the Universal Participation Initiative, Charles G. Baldwin is hired to lead this work. Agency hosts Accessible Performance Pipeline roundtable discussions with artists with disabilities on needs, gaps, and challenges in Boston, Lawrence, Worcester, North Adams, and Great Barrington. (Image: Elbert Joseph in rehearsal for The Taste of Sunrise, part two of Suzan Zeder’s Ware Trilogy produced by Emerson Stage, Wheelock Family Theatre, and Central Square Theater in 2015. Photo: Christopher Robinson.)
