ARTICULATING EQUITY: DEVELOPING AN ORGANIZATIONAL DESIGN PROCESS FOR NONPROFIT ARTS ORGANIZATIONS THAT DISMANTLES PRIVILEGE AND BIAS
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Date
2017-07-05
Department
Goucher College Welch Center for Graduate & Professional Studies
Program
MA in Arts Administration
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Collection may be protected under Title 17 of the U.S. Copyright Law. To obtain information or permission to publish or reproduce, please contact the Goucher Special Collections & Archives at 410-337-6347 or email archives@goucher.edu.
Abstract
The fast-changing societal makeup of America urges the leaders of arts
organizations with homogenous audiences to cultivate enduring relationships with
diverse publics to ensure institutional resilience and relevance. Research confirms that
applications of architectural, digital, and graphic design either project an organization’s
equitable values to its community or reinforce perceptions of bias. Leaders in the field of
design and in the field of audience development share compatible and overlapping
frameworks that support holistic, cost-effective, and responsible approaches for arts
organizations to build public value across a spectrum of stakeholders.
Since the passage of the nondiscriminatory Civil Rights Act of 1964, designers
have been active participants in regulating societal inclusion and exclusion in public
spaces.
Fortunately, leaders in human-centric design have developed methods of
evaluation and stakeholder engagement that are readily available for arts administrators
to use in order to identify and dismantle real and perceived barriers to attendance and
participation. Whereas design regulates individual and social behavior, so too may a
designer’s process enable arts administrators to build enduring and meaningful
relationships with diverse publics, achieve sustainable outcomes, and better adapt to
societal changes in real time. Regardless of a leader’s intent, design is a powerful and
determinant factor in those areas.