Working to invest financial, programmatic, and informational resources equitably.
The National Assembly of State Arts Agencies (NASAA) released In Pursuit of Equity: Four Case Studies of State Arts Agencies, a report that describes how state arts agencies in four states—California, Maryland, Massachusetts, and South Carolina—have integrated equity principles across multiple aspects of their work. (Image: Cover art for In Pursuit of Equity)
Mass Cultural Council invested $130K in nonprofit media outlets to spotlight cultural nonprofits dedicated to diversity, equity, and inclusion. (Image: Maria Mitchell in Terry Jenoure’s MY BRONX, commissioned and presented by Eggtooth Productions.)
Designed to help mitigate risk and inspire creative approaches to barrier removal, the Universal Participation Initiative’s Innovation Fund has awarded $3,000 grants to 27 UP Designated Organizations that fully embrace accessibility systems and ideals. (Image: Young person tie-dying as part of a Gnome Surf program.)
Bobbitt, currently the Artistic Director of the New Repertory Theatre in Watertown, MA, will officially join the Agency on February 1, 2021. (Image: Craig Bailey/Perspective Photo.)
A summary of what we heard at our Fall listening sessions.
Recent events fomented a growing movement for racial equity and justice. Mass Cultural Council took this moment in time to embark on a restart and refocus of our work as it relates to racial equity. (Image: Youth performing at an Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción (IBA) event.)
In August 2020, staff and the governing Council began a series of cultural competency trainings with Multicultural BRIDGE. (Image: Multicultural BRIDGE logo.)
The Universal Participation (UP) Initiative presents the 2020 UP Award to Abilities Dance Boston. The UP Award is a $10,000 prize presented biennially to an organization that realizes the four core principles behind the UP Initiative in an exemplary manner.
Instead of a traditional, in-person awards ceremony, this year the celebration became a five-part, livestreamed event generously hosted by HowlRound. The sessions honored UP Designated Organizations; included musical performances by Precious Perez, The Tempest in ASL, and Me2/Orchestra; and modeled Universal Design practices within virtual spaces. Sara Minkara was the keynote speaker. (Image: Abilities Dance Boston performance featuring Artistic Director Ellice Patterson. Photo: Bill Parsons.)
Our interagency partnership, Card to Culture, expands to include Massachusetts Health Connector, launching the ConnectorCare Card to Culture program. Through this program, all 204,000 ConnectorCare card members in the state can enjoy access to a new benefit: free or dramatically reduced admission prices to more than 130 cultural sites statewide. The partnership is the first of its kind in the country for a state-based health insurance exchange. (Image: The admissions desk at the Clark Art Institute, one of the Card to Culture participating organizations.)
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.)