In the Winter 2021 issue of InForm, we lauded the extraordinary leadership, labor and love of the Anti-Racist Working Group (ARWG), a sub-group of Dancers in Graduate School (DiGS), an Ohio State student organization. This autumn, the group’s efforts continue with a workshop series co-facilitated by alum and students and co-organized by Ph.D. Candidate Alesondra (Alex) Christmas, Alumna and Lecturer Kathryn Logan, and Alumna Dr. Lyndsey Vader.
We are excited to announce that the group has recently secured funding from the Office of Research and the The Global Arts + Humanities Discovery Theme to proceed with creating Anti-Racism and Social Justice Education through the Performing Arts, a certificate program in anti-racism leadership in the performing arts. This certificate program trains artists, educators, and community leaders to dismantle racial inequities in the field. The team securing the significant funding was Department of Dance’s Dr. Nadine George-Graves, Crystal Michelle Perkins, Dr. Nyama McCarthy-Brown, Alesondra (Alex) Christmas, Kathryn Logan, and Lyndsey Vader and College of Education Teaching & Learning faculty Dr. Mindi Rhoades.
“The urgent need to disrupt systemic racism in the performing arts industry requires a robust network of anti-racist leaders committed to dismantling ways White supremacy culture shapes arts education, presenting models, resource distribution, philanthropy, casting, and hiring practices,” says the ARWG co-investigators. “Few anti-racism training programs, however, specifically address how the arts ecosystem perpetuates racism or how arts leaders can intervene to transform individual and organizational attitudes, intergroup relations, programs and policies.”
The group also points to the compelling need for first-rate K-12 performing arts education in the United States and Columbus, given the growing disparity of students in Ohio without access to arts courses, especially in dance and theatre. They argue that these two needs are completely linked. “Creating opportunities for more students and artists in Columbus and beyond to engage in cultural and artistic experiences must be tied to social justice education and diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives,” says the ARWG. “The certificate is a first of its kind and will strengthen local arts education infrastructure by training arts leaders in anti-racist, arts-integrated social justice education with the explicit goal of dismantling cultural racism by eradicating barriers to equal access and full participation in the performing arts field.”
The certificate program curriculum will integrate area studies beyond the arts, including African American and African Studies, Social Work, Educational Studies, Human Ecology, Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies, and the Medical Humanities. This interdisciplinary approach will be advantageous, appealing, and applicable to students, artists, educators, non-profit arts leaders and community organizers. Piloting the program will be a new core course focusing on “training cultural workers in the theories, practices, and pedagogies of social justice education, explicitly concentrating on undoing racism through the body.”
This exciting new certificate program aims to give students the necessary skills to combat racism, to make the arts more accessible and to make arts culture more equitable. With plans for community partnerships with Columbus and Central Ohio schools, the initiative will also nurture an engaged student pipeline to The Ohio State University.
