Beginning this year, New York City cultural organizations seeking funding from the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs will need to report on their staff and board demographics, and describe how they are addressing equity and inclusion in their work. Meanwhile, in the grant cycle that begins two years from now, applicants to the Los Angeles County Arts Commission are required to submit board-approved diversity, equity, and inclusion plans as part of their proposal. And these are just the two largest cities in the United States. Organizations in the UK and Canada already face similar requirements for funding from Arts Council England and the Canada Council for the Arts respectively.

As longstanding concerns about cultural equity find a voice in policy initiatives like these, administrators at organizations that celebrate European art forms, which are noticeably overrepresented among the biggest-budget nonprofit arts institutions in the United States, are snapping into action.

The issue goes far beyond orchestras. According to the most recent figures from the Survey of Public Participation in the Arts, audiences for classical music, ballet, opera, plays, and musicals are all at least 78% white.

If we adopt a cultural policy that stereotypes organizations practicing European art forms as hopelessly foreign to anyone who doesn’t share ethnic roots with their founders, we leave behind millions of people of color who want to engage with those art forms and make them a part of their lives. But if we are so committed to providing African Americans and Latinos with opportunities to participate in classical music that we write those expectations into law, does that imply a corresponding expectation that organizations practicing traditions like mariachi and Butoh will likewise reach beyond their immediate communities? As a society, how much do we want our cultural policy to emphasize affirming identity vs. broadening horizons?

Read the source article at Createquity.