GIA Reader (2000-present)

For the second annual convening of Dance in the Desert, thirteen Arizona-based dancers and choreographers gathered to dive deeply into Latine choreographic practices and aesthetics, and examine what support would be needed to enrich dance in the American Southwest.

It started in Fall 2016, when Staten Island Arts — the local arts council for the fifth borough of New York City — was approached by Kerry McCarthy and Michele Kumi Baer of The New York Community Trust, Betsy Dubovsky and Laura Jean Watters of The Staten Island Foundation, and Karen Rosa of the Altman Foundation. This group of concerned funders had observed that Staten Island’s arts programming audiences weren’t racially diverse, and came to us seeking to partner on a program that would thoughtfully address the issue.

Wóglag mašípi cha omíglakin kte. Han mítakuyepi, wasicuiya Lori Pourier emáciyapi nahan Lakhol mícháže kin, Maká Cítominí Omání Win emáciyape kstó. Wazí Ahánhan emátanhan, na lehánl Hésápa él wahti ye.

As New York City was bracing for weeks on end in the midst of the novel coronavirus pandemic, wreaking devastation throughout the city and a wake of still unaccounted trauma, we turned to our communities for support, for understanding, for validation and guidance to navigate our way through quarantine into a future that looks and feels very different. And, creativity was core to this.

Why Do We Need Another Survey?

“Every system is perfectly designed to get the result it gets.”
— W. Edwards Deming (possibly apocryphal)

Cultural equity is critical to the arts and culture sector’s long-term viability, as well as to the ability of the arts to contribute to healthy, vibrant, equitable communities for all. At the core of the challenges related to cultural equity are the historically inequitable distribution of resources and the value systems, biases, and systemic barriers associated with that distribution.

Introduction

John Ton, Robby’s Arc. Photo courtesy of author.