How Assets for Artists Ventures to Work Within
An Anti-Oppression Framework

 

Credit: Erin Long Photography

 

 Assets for Artists believes in an inclusive
creative economy.


As our work becomes more explicitly focused on dismantling systems of racism and discrimination and on creating equity in the arts, we’d like to share some of the ways that we (a majority white team) work alongside artists from traditionally marginalized backgrounds to develop the tools for artists to succeed in, and even to redesign, the existing creative economy. We know that our work (by staff and partners alike) cannot undo centuries of white supremacy, but we seek to do our part, and we are always looking for additional partnerships and ways to develop greater equity in the arts. If you have a suggestion, direction, or resource you’d like us to explore, we’d love to hear from you.

We recognize this is an ongoing work-in-progress. In sharing some of that work with you, we aim to create an open line of communication between our staff and those with whom we collaborate and serve.

RECENT STATS

Approximately half of our workshop trainers identify as BIPOC and about the same percentage identify as LGBTQ+. We know it’s important that artists are served by mentors who can speak to their specific challenges and histories. Meet Our Trainers.

In 2023, 69% of our Capacity-Building Program grantees identified as BIPOC. In 2022, our cohorts were 85% BIPOC. The two years before that 70% and 50%.In 2022, 48% were women, 18% were gender non-binary, gender-queer, trans, or another gender, and 34% were men. Nearly all grantees qualify as low-to-moderate income. Meet our grantees.

At the Studios at MASS MoCA, 46% of our artists-in-residence in 2019 identified as an artist of color. 67% identified as women, 27% as men and 6% as gender nonbinary. (Because of the pandemic, we don’t have representative stats for 2020 or 2021.) We are working with a variety of partners to establish fellowships that specifically increase the number of Black and Indigenous artists-in-residence. As our fundraising continues to grow, we will further expand the number of fellowships we offer. Our goal, when resources allow, is to make all residencies free to first-time attendees who lack institutional backing.
Recent Fellowships || Meet Our Residency Alumni.

Programming

We’ve made it a commitment to thread antiracism into all the work we do and we recognize that this commitment is a learning process for our team (and that we won’t always get it right). Here is some recent programming that we hope provides context for how we approach that commitment. Recognizing the increased barriers that many artists of color have faced in the cultural sector, many of our programs prioritize serving artists of color when limited space is available.

  • Strategic Planning - Artist Advisors: To support A4A’s 2022 strategic planning process, we have gathered a team of eight artist advisors from across our region who are working with staff to determine programmatic priorities for Assets for Artists’ next three years. Specific questions the advisors are tackling include (1) How do we best strengthen support for our region’s underserved and marginalized artists; and (2) How do we both provide tools for succeeding as artists within a broken economic system and provide avenues of support for artists working to build a more equitable system. Our advisors will work with staff in multiple capacities as we continue our journey of responding to the complex needs of artists in our region. This team of advisors is compensated for their time and made up of 3/4 artists of color and more than 50% LGBTQ+.

  • Capacity-Building Program: In 2021, our Boston and Statewide Capacity-Building grant cohorts were limited exclusively to artists of color. Our ValleyCreates and Worcester cohorts prioritized BIPOC artists. Our North Adams cohort also prioritized artists of color; however North Adams is 86% white, and our grantees reflected those demographics. We intend to continue prioritizing artists of color across our grant-making initiatives.

  • Online Workshops: A4A offers a variety of online workshops for artists in our region of MA, CT, & RI. When enrollment is limited in a particular workshop, we prioritize artists of color for the limited spots. Other enrollment priorities include specific geographic regions of a funding partner (e.g. rural Rhode Island or Essex County, MA).

  • Antiracism Workshops / Affinity Cohorts: Several times a year we host different types of intensives, workshops, or online retreats designed to hold space for those working through equity-focused challenges in the arts. We also support BIPOC affinity groups who come out of these workshops and wish to continue meeting after the initial offering is over.

  • Studios at MASS MoCA Equity-Based Scoring Rubric: Beginning in 2022, we modified our residency application review process to ask our reviewers to actively consider issues of equity in their scoring. We anticipate continuing to fine tune this rubric and the instructions we give to our application reviewers as we further explore ways to make artist opportunities more equitable.

  • Studios at MASS MoCA Black/Indigenous Fellowship: Since 2020, we have committed to offering one or more fully funded residency fellowships per season specifically for a Black or Indigenous artist or writer.

  • Converging Liberations Residency: In 2020-2021, co-tenders of the Boston-based CreateWell Fund designed the first fully funded, month-long residency at the Studios at MASS MoCA that explicitly centered QT/BIPOC artists, prioritizing those who had never previously had access to an artist residency space. The Converging Liberations Residency was an opportunity for A4A to provide capacity for a BIPOC-led partner organization to design programming within MASS MoCA’s space. The co-design process was an important learning opportunity for the A4A team, and we hope we can assist the CreateWell Fund in continuing to offer the Converging Liberations Residency in future years.

Broader Practices

To support our programming, and acknowledging that MASS MoCA’s staff at large is disproportionately white, the Assets for Artists team has been working with/within these broader practices:

  • Paying for Expertise: Including consultant line-items in our budgets and ensuring we pay those artists of color whose expertise we seek as we expand this work.

  • Accessibility: We have many improvements to increase access to our programming. A4A online workshops now offer CART live-captioning and language translation, and our in-person workshops offer ASL interpretive services. We are working toward providing more programming (and written materials) in Spanish.

  • Institutional Initiatives: All A4A staff are active participants in the broader work being done at MASS MoCA to dismantle traditions of white supremacy within museum culture, starting within our own department. This involves co-leading community initiatives, attending advisory meetings, and continually self-educating ourselves outside of the work day.  As part of the North Adams Artist Impact Coalition (AIC), several staff participate in AIC’s monthly Antiracism Accomplice Support Group meetings. Multiple team members sit on the MASS MoCA Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, and Inclusion committee, which meets semi-weekly to advance a broader institutional agenda of equity for our artists, visitors, and internal culture.

We are indebted to many partners for their help in co-designing or supporting this work. We’d like to give special recognition to the members of our Artist Advisory Team, the co-tenders of the CreateWell Fund, the community advisors of the ValleyCreates initiative, the Northeast Indigenous Arts Alliance, MCLA Arts & Culture, New England Foundation for the Arts, the Barr Foundation, and all of our trainers of color and white accomplice trainers.

If you would like to learn more about artist support services provided by BIPOC-led organizations, we have some amazing Massachusetts colleagues we’d love to recommend: