» Continued from pg 5 RESOURCE EQUITY
ACCESSING THE ARTS
caliber artists. Often these artists are culture bearers of communities that are preserving their cultural traditions despite political perse- cution, genocide, global migration, and other challenges. Traditional artists are also creating contemporary, cutting-edge work addressing social issues of today. Training grant writers from culturally specific dance communities to support their own communities will go a long way to strengthen the culturally specific dance organizations and a large number of cultural artists in the San Francisco Bay Area. There are cultural intermediary organiza- tions that already serve these communities, such as World Arts West, Bisemi, CubaCaribe, and Oakland Asian Cultural Center. The phi- lanthropy sector needs to partner with these cultural intermediary organizations to design grant writer training programs to serve cul- turally specific dance communities. Expertise from artist service providers, such as Dancers’ Group and Intersection for the Arts, would also be deeply informative. This support ensures cultural equity in our ever increasing multicultural American landscape. DR. ANNE HUANG is a long time culturally specific capacity building consultant and resource equity advocate and is currently the Development Director of World Arts West, a regional presenting service organization that produces the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival. Anne is the former Executive Direc- tor of the Oakland Asian Cultural Center (OACC), where she transformed OACC from a struggling arts organization into a leading cultural institution serving 50,000 people per year. Anne has been the co-chair for City of Oakland’s Mayoral Arts Task Force, panelist and guest faculty for National Dance Project’s Re- gional Dance Development Initiative, and mentor for Dance/USA’s Institute for Leadership Training. Anne has served on many funding and cultural panels, such as Grantmakers in the Arts, California Arts Council, San Francisco Arts Commission, Northern California Grantmakers, City of Oakland’s Cultural Funding Program, and Alliance for California Traditional Arts. Anne’s current projects include New York Foundation for the Arts Immigrant Artist Mentoring Program and Bisemi Foundation’s Cultural Arts Incubator Program. She recently joined the Dance/USA Board of Trustees.
b. Post archival grant webinars on the funders’ website For the cultural artists and cultural arts organizations who are not expe- rienced with the grantseeking process, they require a long time to prepare each grant application. It’s helpful for these potential applicants to review past grants webinars before the guidelines are announced, to get acquainted with the grant requirements. I find the Q&A section of webinars especially helpful, as this often answers my potential questions regarding the application requirements. c. Post grant application questions on the funder website Often a potential applicant needs to cre- ate an account on the funder’s website in order access the application questions. Having grant application questions read- ily available (e.g. word doc) helps the potential applicant decide whether they want to apply to the grant or not. d. Provide one-on-one technical assistance during application period – See above e. Support professional development pro- grams to train grant writers and other arts administrators to support cultur- ally specific dance communities Grants such as CCI Quick Grant and California Arts Council Professional Development Grant currently support professional development effort of artists and arts organization staff. Many funders would like to diversify their grantee pool. If funders invest in grant writer training programs for culturally specific dance communities, this will result in more equitable funding practices and create sustainable development support in cul- turally specific dance communities. Conclusion Many culturally specific dance communi- ties have financially under-resourced dance organizations that are trying to support high
Thursday, April 4, 6-8pm, Lighthouse for the Blind, SF. FREE
A Panel Discussion on Sensory Diversity and Performance The performing and other arts have long been thought of as out of reach for many in the disability community. How do we expand the scope of what access to the arts and full participation really means and how do we make it a reality? Lighthouse for the Blind, Gravity Access Services, and Dancers' Group will be hosting a panel discussion and information session on access accommodation practices for live performance. Panelists include: Author and Access Consultant Georgina Kleege; Gravity Artistic Director Jess Curtis; Blind dancer and access consultant Tiffany Taylor; Choreographer and Artistic Director of the Bay Area Deaf Dance Festival, Antoine Hunter; Assistant Director of the Deaf Dance Festival (and dancer) Zahna Simon; and LightHouse Adult Program Coordinator, Serena Olsen.
RSVP to Serena at solsen@lighthouse-sf.org or 415-694-7316.
platforms such as Netflix. Apparently, there are sighted people who enjoy listening to media “eyes-free” while doing something else such as driving. Others simply enjoy an added level of comprehension provided by AD. When AD is part of the performance, as opposed to delivered via headset as a seg- regated accommodation, it could offer dif- ferent levels of aesthetic appreciation and meaning-making for everyone. What can you do? Gravity Access Services is available to offer live Audio Description for your upcoming performance event. We’ve received a gener- ous grant from the Haas Foundation to help spread awareness of AD as a practice in the Bay Area and to subsidize the cost of 20 eve- nings of Audio description in 2019. As part of our service, Tiffany will also assess the accessibility of your PR and marketing mate-
at the Angel IslAnd ImmIgrAtIon stAtIon sAturdAys & sundAys 5/4–5, 5/11–12, 5/18–19 11Am or 1Pm dreams of fl ight and PremIere of the sequel Within these Walls the Award Winning by lenora lee dance rials. If you‘d like to make your next perfor- mances more accessible we’d be very happy to talk to you. JESS CURTIS makes, watches, teaches and writes about body-based performance in San Francisco, Berlin and internationally. He is the artistic director of Jess Curtis/Gravity and holds a Ph.D. in Perfor- mance Studies with a focus in experimental, body- based performance from UC Davis. TIFFANY TAYLOR is an actor and activist based in the Bay Area. She teaches Braille and independent living skills at the Hatlen Center for the Blind in San Pablo and is an access consultant testing new digital products to assess their accessibility. She is a Pro- gram Associate at Gravity Access Services. GEORGINA KLEEGE teaches in the English Depart- ment at UC Berkeley. Her most recent book is, More Than Meets the Eye: What Blindness Brings to Art.
Learn more: jesscurtisgravity.org/programs/#access-services
THERE’S MORE SPACE THAN YOU THINK BOOK IT. CREATE.
FIND IT.
BayAreaSpaces.org
lenoraleedance.com
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in dance APR 2019
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