Arts & International Affairs Volume 5, Number 1, Summer 2020 | Page 14

EQUITABLE GRANTMAKING IN PRACTICE
Tlingit and Sicangu Lakota Native American tribes confronted a roomful of arts funders
with a request: “if you are reaching zero native artists with your programs, and zero artists
are applying, and consequently zero artists receive those grants, report it as such
to your organizations, boards of directors and funders. This way we at least show up as
a category.” The specter of genocide and erasure of entire communities and historical
practices creeps into our work as cultural advocates and arts administrators. The poet
laureate Fred Moten casts Black existentialism on an Odysseus-like figure choosing a
metaphoric state of homelessness over the “exigencies and brutalities that go with claiming
the United States as presently construed and constructed as home .... Should we set
out again, for some different place, for another world for another country, as [ James]
Baldwin would say, that we still have to make” (Columbia University Center for Teaching
and Learning 2015).
As an advocate for an awe-inspiring community of jazz artists, I am allowed the privilege
to participate in an ecology where artistic practice itself represents a microcosm of resistance.
As administrators we can be a truly inclusive force with the realization that art
reveals its true virtue as it thrives in its relational context. Yielding a quantifiable success
rate in EDIA frameworks is best rooted in the philosophical thrust of our program design
rather than the transactional value of adopting equity-based practices. We represent
systems of absencing. The courage to disrupt our notions of what is credible in creative
practice or who upholds artistic excellence, along with the vigilance toward ourselves
and frequent re-evaluation of our programs has the possibility to inspire methodologies
that nurture the individual artist and entirely transform creative habitats.
Works Cited
American Composers Forum. 2019. “2019 Racial Equity and Inclusion Forum.” September
7. livestream.com/accounts/12638076/Artists4Equity/videos/195975002.
Bhabha, Homi.K. The Location of Culture New York, NY, Routledge, 1994.
Chamber Music America. 2017. “Statement of Commitment.” January. https://www.
chamber-music.org/statement-commitment.
Columbia University Center for Teaching and Learning. 2015. “Romare Bearden: A
Black Odyssey | Fred Moten, University of California, Riverside, December 2, 2014.”
YouTube Video, 11:24. October 26. youtu.be/kiDudR513sw.
Cooper, Michael. 2018. “Seeking Orchestras in Tune With Their Diverse Communities.”
New York Times. April 18. www.nytimes.com/2018/04/18/arts/music/symphonyorchestra-diversity.html.
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