July 30, 2021

As part of our ongoing racial equity journey, Guild staff is unpacking our own white supremacy behaviors in monthly meetings about anti-racism, led by Ashley Hare—our Deputy Director of Equity & Human Development. The staff is currently poring through whitesupremacyculture.info—a website full of resources to understand, resist, and dismantle white supremacy culture. The website is conceived and designed by Tema Okun (who wrote the original article on White Supremacy Culture in 1999), with support from many colleagues and friends.

Learn more about the Guild's racial equity journey here.

We would love to hear what you're reading and seeing as part of your racial equity learning and unlearning! Let us know on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.

July 21, 2021

The Guild is thrilled to welcome Natalia Vilela as our new Communications Coordinator! 

Natalia Vilela (she/they) is excited to join the National Guild team remotely from Long Beach, New York. Natalia is a knowledge-hungry Peruvian-American with a longtime interest in graphic design and community-empowering initiatives. She strives to amplify such initiatives via communicative visuals, and aims to promote work that captivates those who proudly strengthen others. One of their most recent experiences within the nonprofit realm involves working as the Communications Assistant for the migrant rights nonprofit Justice in Motion. Natalia holds a B.A. in Journalism from Hofstra University and a certificate from the Shillington School of Graphic Design.

June 10, 2021

We are thrilled to welcome Jasmine Huff as the newest member of the Guild staff, in the position of Learning and Engagement Manager! 

Jasmine (she/her) joins our team remotely from Winston-Salem, North Carolina. An intuitive visual artist, Jasmine Huff started her career early. As the product of an artistic family, she exhibited and sold her art, photography and jewelry in her family’s gallery, Huff Art Studio. At nineteen, she graduated from Salem College where she earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Film and Media Studies. She continued her studies at Northwestern University where she graduated with a Master of Fine Arts in Documentary Media in 2016. In recent years, she has been teaching film courses, exhibiting her photography and assisting with art projects within her local community. Jasmine aims to bring her history as an artist and educator to her position as the Learning & Engagement Manager for the Guild.

June 2, 2021

We’re well on our way with the national search process for a new Executive Director, and we want to say a big THANK YOU for your support in the process and in sharing the job posting. During this time of transition, Guild staff has been working daily to continue our movement towards becoming an anti-racist organization. As we build a practice of transparency and storytelling about this journey, we’d like to share some changes to our executive leadership structure that we have implemented.  

• We have removed the word “Chief” from executive leadership titles. In multiple conversations with Indigenous and First Nation peoples, we’ve heard varying thoughts on whether the use of “Chief” is harmful. We believe that if it’s harmful to one, then we shouldn’t use it at all. We have decided to eliminate the language of “Chief Officer” from the titles of our executive leadership team. Now, Heather Ikemire is the Deputy Director of Learning and Engagement, Adam Johnston is the Deputy Director of Operations, and CEO has been retitled to Executive Director (this is reflected in the job posting). 

• We have expanded the executive leadership team to include the position of Deputy Director of Equity and Human Development. Ashley Hare (previously the Director of Leadership Development) has been promoted to this role. Ashley is the first self-identified person of color to join the Guild’s executive leadership team.

Below, Ashley shares their personal perspective on these changes, and how the changes relate to larger patterns within the nonprofit world—as well as recommendations to other organizations considering making similar shifts:

Hi Guild Fam! This story started off in an unexpected way. I had told myself I would never work for a white institution again. After tasting freedom for a few years, as a Black queer co-founder of an arts organization and a consulting firm, I was approached to join the National Guild. Being a former member, having facilitated whiteness and equity trainings for the Guild, and having met staff and board members, I was intrigued. In short, I decided to join the Guild’s journey of becoming an anti-racist institution, and here’s why:

When you’ve been a freelance racial equity consultant (or just a Black person in America) you can see the patterns and can write the script with your eyes closed. Let’s begin: An arts organization gets called in for racist practices, so they save face by hiring consultants to facilitate a couple of trainings. No other action needed, they think. However, problems persist, so the arts organization decides to “take action” and spends an exorbitant amount of money on a racial equity assessment of their organization from outside consultants, even though Black and brown folxs have told them for years where the troubles lie. Then, being shocked by the results, the organizations pours out more money for a few more trainings. They are now tens of thousands of dollars in the hole, with no structural change to be shown. Usually, the story stops here. 

What I'm seeing now are white funders, nonprofits, corporations, and cities hiring a Racial Equity Officer, or Equity and Community Engagement Director, or Executive Assistant with a Racial Equity focus. However, these positions are placed into the organizational hierarchy in such a way that they have no power to enact systemic change. No decision making power. No public voice. No board relationships. (Plot twist: One day, hierarchies will be dismantled because they are inequitable.) The Guild is nowhere near dismantling hierarchies. So, understanding these dynamics, we at the Guild are experimenting with something new. It may not work, but we are staying flexible to change. Here’s a breakdown of what we’re doing to start: 

• I was originally hired as the Director of Leadership Development, as part of the programs team, with ONE. LITTLE. BULLET. in my job description stating “Liaison to racial equity work of the Guild”. Also a scripted move of a white institution. Hint: Don’t do this in your organization. If you are serious, do not place it as one bullet in the job description for a Black or brown staff member to see through. 

• So….that didn’t work. Anti-racism took over half my job, which we knew it would. 

• I originally reported to the Chief Program Officer (now retitled Deputy Director of Learning and Engagement), who in turn reports to the Executive Director. We moved my position up to the same level as the Deputy Director of Learning and Engagement and the Chief Operating Officer (now retitled Deputy Director of Operations). Now all three of us are in the executive team, working directly with the Executive Director. One step removed, as opposed to two. (Plot twist: There are still inequities in this model. Another conversation for another time. But a reflection point: How does a person of color on an executive team—the other members of which are white—have to move differently?)

• Here’s the intrigue: we reframed my new position as Human Resources, or what we are calling Human Development. In most workplaces, HR is the dreaded department that acts in the interest of the institution, not the employee. The majority, if not all, of organizational racial inequities lie in the practice and policies set by HR: staff recruitment, hiring, performance reviews, compensation, promotion, and retention. As Deputy Director of Equity and Human Development, I have the authority to reexamine the Guild’s written policies and create new practices that hopefully improve work culture and support the Guild membership. 

• I work directly with the board as a liaison to the Racial Equity Committee, and participate in other board subcommittee meetings, to push forward the Guild’s efforts to become an anti-racist organization in alignment with our racial equity guiding principles.

• Along with collaboratively expanding human development practices for staff and board, I am also helping support human development through leadership development programming like CAELI and CYD’s National Young Artists Summit—aligning personal growth practices internally and externally at the Guild. 

Is anyone out there doing similar work? I’d love to create a community of practice together. My email is ashleyhare@nationalguild.org. 

April 22, 2021

The Guild is looking for an advocate and passionate visionary for community arts education to become our new Executive Director. This individual will build up and lead a high performing and diverse team and will create a new, inspiring, and clear strategic plan, reflecting the Guild’s core values. The job posting is now live! Please share the it far and wide to help us find this special human.

Learn more and apply: nationalguild.org/job-board/jobs/executive-director-ng

The National Guild's board Search Committee has selected Arts Consulting Group (ACG) to lead our executive search. ACG was chosen through an open call from an impressive range of firms. During the Guild's transition, Heather Ikemire (Chief Program Officer), Adam Johnston (Chief Operations Officer), and Ashley Hare (Director of Leadership Development) are acting as Interim Management Team to oversee daily operations.

April 21, 2021

This past January, the Guild released a statement standing in solidarity with the Arts Education Council at Americans for the Arts (AFTA). Since that time, board members of the Racial Equity Committee and Guild staff met with the Arts Education Council to discuss how the Guild may put action to our solidarity statement. One immediate action was to meet with AFTA’s leadership to share our position of solidarity. This meeting was finally granted in early April. 
 
After meeting with AFTA’s board leadership, we do not believe AFTA has demonstrated progress in addressing the Arts Education Council’s concerns regarding long-standing racial inequities, lack of transparency, and a hostile work environment. We stand in solidarity with the Arts Education Council and commit to the follow actions: 

• End all financial relationships with AFTA, including renewal of membership and contract to administer our Benchmarking Data Survey
• End attendance at AFTA conferences and convenings
• Cease any public support of AFTA’s outreach in the arts education field
• Actively encourage our membership, as well as other allied national organizations, to take action too

We will hold this position until we all see change at AFTA. We encourage other organizations to take these steps as they apply to you, in solidarity with the Arts Education Council and with people of color in our field and in our communities. We recognize the Guild is also complicit in holding harmful culture of white supremacy and practices that have violated the humanity of Black and Brown communities and people. We are actively working to reconcile our past, learn from those directly impacted by racial injustice, and shift our ways of being. We cannot support those unwilling to do the same.

—National Guild Staff and Board

DATE: April 20, 2021

CONTACT

Jenina Podulka

National Guild for Community Arts Education

jeninapodulka@nationalguild.org 

nationalguild.org

New York, NY—The National Guild for Community Arts Education has been approved for a $50,000 Grants for Arts Projects award to support the Creative Youth Development National Partnership. This project will foster systemic change through robust programs for young artists that prioritize youth leadership and voice, and are rooted in racial equity, social justice, and collective action. The CYD National Partnership’s project is among 1,073 projects across America, totaling nearly $25 million, that were selected during this first round of fiscal year 2021 funding in the Grants for Arts Projects funding category. 

“We are excited to continue supporting the growth of CYD Peer Networks in Austin, Texas, and Detroit, Michigan,” said Ashley Hare, the Guild’s Director of Leadership Development. “The pandemic last year was unexpected, but gave us more time together to recenter around the values of CYD, and ensure authentic relationship-building between youth and adult practitioners.”

Creative youth development (CYD) peer networks are localized (usually city, state, county, neighborhood) convenings of multiple CYD organizations from artistic mediums who are connecting with one another to learn, collaborate, and collectively advance CYD. Research has shown that peer learning networks facilitate the sharing of knowledge, ideas, and promising practices, resulting in long-term positive outcomes for participants, organizations, and the field. In 2020, the Partnership launched three Regional Peer Networks as well as the National Youth Network, which is made up of young people (ages 13-24) from across the United States. Learn more about the Partnership’s work to date here. 

In 2021, the Partnership’s work will include:

• Sustaining the growth of two Regional Peer Networks and the National Youth Network.

• Developing a CYD Self-Assessment Tool, which will allow organizations and networks to assess how well they are adhering to the values of creative youth development and provide them with action steps to better embody these values.

• Disseminating findings via an online learning series and other digital platforms.

• Producing the 4th annual National Young Artists Summit. 

• Confronting adultism—behaviors and attitudes based on the assumptions that adults are better and more knowledgeable than young people, and entitled to act on behalf of young people without their agreement—especially in regards to how it can show up in creative youth development spaces.

• Authentically including members of the National Youth Network as part of the CYD National Partnership.

“The National Endowment for the Arts is proud to support this project from the Creative Youth Development National Partnership,” said Arts Endowment Acting Chairman Ann Eilers. “The CYD National Partnership is among the arts organizations across the country that have demonstrated creativity, excellence, and resilience during this very challenging year.” 

For more information on projects included in the Arts Endowment grant announcement, visit arts.gov/news.

The CYD National Partnership aims to ensure that creative youth development is a broadly-implemented, well-researched, and equitably-funded practice and available to all youth. In 2018, the Partnership created the CYD National Action Blueprint in concert with 650+ cross-sector stakeholders, calling for all young people to have equitable access to opportunities to: realize their creative potential; live richer, fuller lives; and develop the critical learning and life skills they need to become active contributors to their communities. The Partnership's work is guided by the core values of CYD: youth voice, racial equity and social justice, and collective action. Activities are focused on three strategic priorities for advancing CYD: Building pathways to funding; Documenting and communicating impact; and Field Building. www.creativeyouthdevelopment.org 

The National Guild for Community Arts Education ensures all people have opportunities to maximize their creative potential by developing leaders, strengthening organizations, and advocating for community arts education. Through these strategies, the Guild aims to address our country’s widening opportunity gap which leaves millions of individuals with little or no access to the creative resources they need to reach their full potential. www.nationalguild.org 

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February 25, 2021

Congratulations to Rangsey Keo, who was promoted to Membership and Operations Manager!

Both congratulations and farewell to Lissette Martinez, who was recently promoted to Network and Learning Manager, and whose last day at the Guild will be March 5th. Lissette has been with the Guild for over 2 years, and her contributions to programming, racial equity work, and accessibility efforts have been truly transformative and always grounded in a human-centered approach. We will miss her, and wish her well on the next step of her journey!

You can view the list of Guild staff at nationalguild.org/about/staff.