COURTESY OF PRESERVATION MARYLAND
The Institutes
Investing in Change
Above: Mickalene Thomas: A Moment’s
Pleasure marks the first major presentation of
the BMA’s 2020 vision initiative to showcase
a more diverse representation of artists,
including TT the Artist (shown left). It will be on
view until May 2, 2021.
district. Pennsylvania Avenue won its petition to
become the first Maryland-designated arts
and entertainment district dedicated to Black
arts and culture. With the state’s designation
come tax incentives meant to spur economic
development, including benefits for artists to
live, work and perform in the district, plus tax
credits for construction or renovation of arts and
entertainment facilities. Some proposed ideas
for new concepts include a museum devoted
to jazz legend Cab Calloway, or a museum
for Black women’s history.
Billie Holiday statue by
sculptor James Earl Reid.
At the Maryland Institute College of Art, known as MICA, a
shift has been underway to diversify its student population,
which does not currently reflect the demographics of its
home city of Baltimore. Last year marked the conclusion of a
three-year taskforce that examined diversity, equity, inclusion
and globalization and resulted in the implementation of new
policies, training and hiring guidelines meant to increase
diversity on its faculty, reduce implicit bias, and more. In
addition, MICA photography student Deyane Moses created
an archival project, Blackives, to better represent non-white
students and alumni through portraits and oral histories.
The impact of Moses’s project sparked the school’s president
to release an apologetic memo acknowledging the school’s
segregationist history and vowing to fulfill its goals for inclusion
and diversity. Then, the school reinstalled Blackives in the
atrium of the school’s main building and extended its run.
Over at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins, a music and
dance conservatory, the school announced that improving its
diversity would be one of its five strategic pillars in a new plan
that launched in 2017. Since then, the school has begun to see
the changes take effect. New initiatives including scholarship
programs resulted in a 36 percent increase in applications from
minority students for 2019 enrollment. Minority representation
within the student body has increased 70 percent since 2015.
And last academic year, the school had its most diverse faculty
yet, thanks to the implementation of a new hiring plan meant
to increase diversity. ■
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