Grantmakers in the Arts 2003 Conference THE EDGE Proceedings from the Conference October 19-22, 2003 W Hotel Seattle, Washington THE EDGE BETWEEN CULTURES MARGINS: COMMUNITIES OF COLOR DURING TIMES OF RETRENCHMENT Off site: Town Hall Several large national foundations have recently announced the end of their arts and cultural funding at a national level. Although it is too early to see whether this is part of a larger trend, it merits discussion since it would effect hundreds of arts organizations. What are the implications – short and long-term – of the decisions of large national funders on the fi eld? Whether borne out by quantitative evidence or not, the perception is that the foundation sector is a place where organizations of color are part of the conversation and can garner support. If national foundations abandon arts funding, will their decisions have a greater effect on organizations of color than on others and, by extension, a greater impact on cultural work of color internationally? This session was followed by a discussion with award-winning choreographer Donald Byrd about how this topic directly affects his work as an individual artist. Byrd toiled for many years to create, fi nance, and produce The Harlem Nutcracker. He will show excerpts from the piece and tell of his odyssey in getting funding for and making this work. Session Designer Olga Garay and Moderator: Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Panelists: Dudley Cocke Roadside Theater and Trustee, Bush Foundation Marta Moreno Vega Caribbean Cultural Center Stephanie Ellis-Smith Central District Forum for Arts & Ideas Roy M. Huhndorf Koahnic Broadcast Corporation Donald Byrd Spectrum Dance Theater October 20, 2003, 3:00 p.m. © 2003 Grantmakers in the Arts THE EDGE OF A NEW ECONOMY Margins: Communities of Color During Times of Entrenchment GARAY: My name is Olga Garay, and I’m the this city. Our organization is an arts and cultural program director for the arts of the Doris Duke organization that looks at the profound impact of Charitable Foundation, which is based in New the African American experience to our common York City. I’m also on the board of Grantmakers American experience. We are a multidisciplinary in the Arts, and I’m going to moderate this panel. organization in that we present music, visual arts, lectures, and topics of interest to a diverse Before I ask panelists to give a brief history audience in Seattle. about themselves, I want to thank Town Hall for hosting this session and give you a synopsis of This is my fi rst opportunity with national funders what will take place here today. and talking about issues related to grantmaking in the arts. My background is actually science, At 4:15 there is a scheduled break and Spider I’ve been trained as a biochemist, and this is my Kedelsky, who is the artistic director of Town seventh or eighth year in the arts scene. So I’m Hall, will come and speak about where we also very happy to be here. Thank you. are and then give US a tour of Town Hall, which is one of the most aesthetically pleasing HUHNDORF: My name is Roy Huhndorf; and I performance spaces in this fair city. So that’s also thank you, Olga, for inviting me here today. about a fi fteen minute break, and that will soon I’m from Alaska, I was born in Alaska. I’m of be followed by a presentation that Donald Byrd Yupik Eskimo and German descent. My mother will make during the second hour and fi fteen was the Yupik in the family, so I identify with my minute part of the session. Yupik side. We want this to be as interactive as possible, My life’s career has been one I think best but unless you’re really burning, you shouldn’t characterized as in the fi eld of human interrupt the speakers. Just jot down what your development. I have been involved for most of my questions are, and we will leave signifi cant time professional life in trying to create opportunities towards the end of this session for questions for the Native Alaskan community in Alaska, and answers. most notably involved in the administration of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. So, without further ado, I’m going to turn to Dr. Marta Moreno Vega, who has been a dear friend This was an act passed by Congress in 1971 to and colleague for twenty years. I’m going to ask settle the land claims of Alaska native people. It each of the panelists to introduce themselves, and involved a grant of land and money, and Congress I’ll pitch in if I think they’re not doing a laudatory took a novel approach and created corporations enough job. [Laughs] So, Marta. and made tribal members shareholders in these corporations. There were twelve of them across VEGA: Good afternoon. I’m the founder and the state, and I administered one of these for now chair of the Caribbean Cultural Center, about twenty-one years as president and CEO. We African Diaspora Institute of New York. It’s an used the settlement, which was one of land and international organization that focuses on the money, and one in which we were free to invest African diaspora connecting the journey of our and engage in the world of fi nance as we saw fi t, communities from West Africa, Central Africa as a tool for social advancement. into the Americas. Since there was a reluctance on the part of I’m also the incorporator of Amigos del Museo del Congress to recognize tribes in Alaska, we Barrio, which is the organization that runs El created nonprofi t organizations, organized under Museo del Barrio. I’m part of the development of the laws of the state. Some addressed job training the Network of Centers of Color touring network. and employment, others education, health, Also Dudley and I developed a global advocacy and housing. A couple of the others we created network that was functional during the nineties, recently addressed cultural promotion and looking at issues of communities of color and preservation. One of them is the Alaska Native marginal communities and the funding of Heritage Center, which is intended to bridge a government and private funding. better understanding among the races in Alaska about native cultures and history, a showcase of ELLIS-SMITH: Thank you, Olga, for inviting culture and language and history. me to be on this panel. My name is Stephanie Ellis- Smith, and I’m the founding executive The other is Koahnic Broadcast, which is intended director of the Central District Forum for Arts to create understanding among the races by and Ideas. This organization is based here in getting the native agenda on the airwaves – the Seattle, and I should say that the Central District language, the culture, the history – and creating a is the historic home of African Americans in better understanding among the races by having Grantmakers in the Arts 2003 Conference: The Edge 2 THE EDGE OF A NEW ECONOMY Margins: Communities of Color During Times of Entrenchment the native voices mix with the larger society’s When I leave here Thursday morning I’ll be voices on the airwaves across the country. going south into the Central Valley to work with Hmong, Mistico, other new immigrant groups I am semi-retired today. I have a small consulting who want to tell their stories in public. fi rm, and I am here as chairman emeritus of Jaclyn Sallee’s Board. Jaclyn, by the way, is our GARAY: Thank you. To refresh your memories, president at Koahnic, and is here today to help the topic of this discussion is based on the fact me out in case I forget anything, which is likely. that, in the last couple of years as the economic crisis has hit, there has been a number of COCKE: I’m Dudley Cocke, director of Roadside national foundations that have either completely Theater, which is a part of Appalshop. Appalshop wiped out their arts giving on a national level began as the Appalachian Film Workshop during or refocused their giving to support only the the War on Poverty, 1969. The Federal Government communities where they are based. Because both in 1969 counted poor communities as minorities, communities of color and rural communities tend so this OEO program was to give a head start to to not have the same types of foundations based young fi lmmakers, high schoolers. It began in this in those sites, and the foundation community one rural site, the Appalachian coal fi elds where I has been a very strong supporter of art making am, and then in eleven inner cities. They drew no in such places, we felt that the retrenchment distinction, then, between poor people, regardless of national foundations from the national art of race, in their offi cial guideline. making funding picture was having a much more adverse impact on communities of color A lot of Appalshop’s impetus came from the Civil and on rural communities. Rights Movement which was happening to our south, and it came to US through Highlander That is the thesis that we are departing from, and Center in Newmarket, Tennessee, where a lot of obviously people can decide to agree or disagree the civil rights strategy was shaped, and previous with that thesis, and it’s an open discussion. It to that, a lot of the labor strategy. So that was our isn’t something that I think gets talked about sister organization.