Thursday, November 19, 2020
Why I Resigned From The California Arts Council In The Middle Of A Pandemic
Cultural Weekly: I am a Chicana activist, author, and award-winning artist from Orange County, California who resigned late October as an Arts Program Specialist at the California Arts Council (council). The year prior to obtaining my position at the council, I served as a grant panelist reviewing over 100 grant applications between three grant programs. I had hoped by obtaining the Arts Program Specialist position I would be able to assist in creating a pipeline from state-level funding to Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) artists, grassroots cultural producers and BIPOC-led small organizations often overlooked in regions like Orange County, which is approximately 60% people of color.
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In Production Resource Management we had a guest come in and talk about his experiences in functioning as a BIPOC functioning in a historically white and white-led prominent American theatre. He also ended up resigning from his positions after a few years due to the working environment and barriers put in place by the organization to try and make substantive change. It was certainly a testament to how the diversity approach of simply putting individuals who identify with marginalized groups into these positions is not enough if there is not any support or community for them to function in. It was really eye opening to hear about his experience and the intrinsic barriers in the existing system which lead to people resigning from positions that they had always hoped to have. A lot of resistance comes from existing members of the company being resistance to change and acting out of what I see as a defensive position, something that will never lead to institutional improvement.
Unfortunately, this is completely unsurprising to read. There is a similar issue of Racial Equity not being supported in our own Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council. Out of all the companies that have issued diversity statements, so few have actually done things to their company or even talked about changes - even after #WeSeeYouWAT spent so much labor giving white theatre makers a framework for change. I am impressed at how to open Sarah Rafael García is in the article and I hope her former co-workers read this article. This article also serves as a call to action with direct action, which takes even more labor. It is so impressive and heartening though to read about someone seeing injustices and bring it up, I wonder how many of Rafael García's colleagues would actually have brought these problems up. It is so disheartening to read about another quote on quote equitable organization being non-transparent and I would say hopefully there are more people like Sarah Rafael García trying to change things but what I really hope for is that people in power get less defensive. It is great to read about another person speaking up and out but it is horrible and wrong that another person has to do the labor and lifting that is everyone's responsibility especially those who are in power. People and organizations that claim to be innovative are time and time again showing how their fear of failure and defensiveness are getting in the way of actual change.
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