South Florida arts groups
are finding new ways to address equity and inclusion
Sparked in part by the murder of George Floyd in May 2020 and the nationwide Black Lives Matter protests that followed, a long-overdue reckoning over the opportunity gap and biases against BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) artists sizzled to the forefront of the conversation during the pandemic. Although Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging (EDIAB) initiatives were already in place within arts and culture groups throughout the country, the pandemic allowed time for organizational introspection — and pushback on inclusion.
Tracey Robertson Carter is an arts and social justice activist who co-chairs AIRIE (Artists in Residence in Everglades) and also serves as a board member of the New World Symphony. Currently earning her master’s degree from Harvard Divinity School, Carter is married to sculptor Christopher Carter, whose largest work to date — a striking home and gallery space in north Wynwood — is the subject of “The Carter Project,” an exhibition at the NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale.
“AIRIE was in a unique position to elevate the fight for racial and social justice through the arts. In 2020, we focused on the mission of creating more space for belonging. We regrouped and reflected on the past and where we wanted to go,” Robertson Carter says. “More than 185 artists have been part of AIRIE over the past 20 years, but only a small percentage were people of color, and even fewer were people of the African diaspora.”
As was the case with the New World Symphony, which networked nationally to encourage more musicians of color to audition, AIRIE has reached out through its advisory board to encourage more applicants of color. In addition, the artist stipend for the month-long residency at Everglades National Park in Homestead was increased from $1,000 to $4,000, helping to fuel a 200 percent rise in applications.
The initiative paid off. Along with nine newly named artist fellows, AIRIE has also awarded an inaugural indigenous artist fellowship to M. Carmen Lane and an invitational artist fellowship to prizewinning architect and University of Miami professor Germane Barnes. The majority of the 2022 fellows are artists of color.
For Christina Alexander, who is also a well-known South Florida actor, singer and musical director, work in the EDIAB field via her Alexander Consulting Group has led to recognition and opportunity.
During the pandemic, she and colleague Katie Christie led a six-month Anti-Racism Theatre Strategies Cohort for artistic directors and board chairs through the South Florida Theatre League, and they’re now working with a new group of leaders. Recently, Alexander moved to New York to take a job as the first director of social responsibility for the musical “Wicked,” where she’ll focus on creating inclusive and respectful environments, implementing hiring and anti-harassment policies, and working with unions and production partners.
“An inclusive, thoughtful, welcoming theater is a place that I, and others in the industry, have dreamed of. For many, it has not been that place,” Alexander said in a statement. “I am honored to bring my EDIAB skills, as well as knowledge and love of the industry, to ‘Wicked’ — and to focus on the business of turning ideas into actions.”
At Miami’s Arsht Center, diverse programming has always been the norm. But President and CEO Johann Zietsman is now underlining the center’s commitment with a plan called IDEA: Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Access.
“It will be part of what we do going forward.
There will be accountability for it. It will be part of [employees’] performance evaluations,” Zietsman says.
Choreographer-dancer Pioneer Winter, whose LGBTQ+ company the Pioneer Winter Collective features dancers of different races, ethnicities, body types and varied physical abilities, had a two-year appointment as the Arsht’s artist-in-residence when the pandemic hit.
He had already started on his commissioned work “Birds of Paradise,” when the pandemic hit. The piece, described as exploring the ability of “queer and marginalized people to shape themselves into something that is desirable, vulnerable, fierce and reborn,” had its delayed world premiere Sept. 16-19. And because of the pandemic, “Birds of Paradise” emerged in a different form from the one Winter first imagined.
“For people who are queered and marginalized, it’s familiar to feel isolated. That became felt by so many more people,” Winter says. “We went from being a group that sat in a circle to one distanced from each other. I had to ask, ‘How do I make this pandemic-proof?’ ”
His solution was to collaborate with his diverse cast of dancers to create eight solo portraits, then film them. At a performance, the audience watches the films, then the dancers perform together live. Winter intends to keep growing “Birds of Paradise,” adding more solos and varying the order of the films as he celebrates infinite varieties of dance and dancers.
“Having that joy that you belong, that you are seen — dance is not just having long legs, being obedient and flexible,” Winter says. “It’s also being yourself.”