Centering Black Women’s Leadership in Arts Education

This initiative is informed by letters released by We Are A.R.T./New York and We See You WAT, and Building Movement Project’s seminal research reports Race to Lead: Obstacles and Opportunities in Addressing the Nonprofit Racial Leadership Gap (2016) and Race to Lead Revisited (2019)–all of which address multiple inequities in the arts.

Why Black Women?

Who We Are

Yes, We’re Talking to You

Sincerely: The Black Affinity Group et al.

List of Demands Authored by:
Brittany Applewhite, Asari Beale, Sandrine Dupiton, Judith Insell, David King, Jorjina Amefia-Koffi, Toya Lillard, Heather McCartney, Gary Padmore, Mafor Mambo Tse, Josephine Winfrey, PHR, SHRM-CP, and Kendra S. Williams

The tool is aimed at key stakeholders (board, administrative and teaching staff members, participants) at organizations to help determine the extent to which they are centering, acknowledging, and supporting Black women, especially in leadership positions. Knowing that each organization is at different stages, this document is not meant to be prescriptive. We hope for a collaborative process within organizations to help define actionable steps, shift culture, and provide an equitable space for Black women, which, in turn, would model the kind of world we want to create with all our stakeholders. This is an iterative process, knowing that this work takes time but also needs to get started.