When Americans for the Arts went to work creating a new statement of the group’s goals on diversity and equity, the group determined it needed a document that was authoritative, flexible, and succinct.
Its model? The U.S. Constitution.
The group wanted a document on equity that would resonate with each of its 4,500 member arts groups regardless of their missions. The document needed to work as well for an organization struggling to provide equal access to art for young inner-city black students as for one serving elderly art lovers in rural areas, says Clayton Lord, the group’s vice president for local arts advancement.
“The way the U.S. Constitution works is, it puts in the absolute minimum to guide the country, and it relies on the actions of people in different communities and over different moments in time to enact those principles in a way that seems fitting for that time and place,” he says. “We want a full creative life for everyone without stepping in and saying, ‘You need to do X, Y, and Z’ to get there.”
Getting diverse organization to agree to a concise statement was no easy task. To illustrate how Americans for the Arts arrived at their final draft, the group also published a 10-step guide on the process.
Like the Constitution, which begins with a preamble that lays out how to form a “more perfect union,” the nonprofit’s statement begins with a clear declaration of purpose: “To support a full, creative life for all, Americans for the Arts commits to championing policies and practices of cultural equity that empower a just, inclusive, equitable nation.”
Then the statement lays out a definition of cultural equity, saying that it “embodies the values, policies, and practices that ensure that all people — including but not limited to those who have been historically underrepresented based on race/ethnicity, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, socioeconomic status, geography, citizenship status, or religion — are represented in the development of arts policy; the support of artists; the nurturing of accessible, thriving venues for expression; and the fair distribution of programmatic, financial, and informational resources.
No Specific Targets
The group’s commitment to cultural equity spans decades, Mr. Lord says. But until the statement was updated this year, the group had not laid out specific goals for how to reduce disparities within the organization and among arts groups nationwide. The statement does not prescribe specific numerical targets organizations should achieve. Rather, member groups should aspire to meet broad goals within their own organizations related to their policies and hiring practices Mr. Lord says.
After defining cultural equity, the statement continues with a set of “acknowledgments and affirmations” that equity is critical to the long-term viability of the arts and that a flourishing arts community is essential to challenging injustices.
The statement outlines three things the organization pledges to do internally: pursue cultural consciousness through retreats and staff education, acknowledge and dismantle any inequities in policies and programs, and commit time and money to expanding the diversity within the group’s leadership.
The statement also outlined goals for working with the broader nonprofit arts community to encourage cultural education throughout the field, to develop a more diverse pipeline for future arts leaders, and to support research on advocacy for policy changes that promote equity.
Agreeing to a statement that acknowledges the variety of issues related to equity that wasn’t just aspirational but included actions that groups would take was tricky. The group’s 10-step process describes how it approached the issue (hint: it consulted more sources than just the U.S. Constitution) and boiled it down to a one-page document.
“Getting to one page was a hard task,” Mr. Lord says. “There were a lot of beautiful sentences that got cut.”
