Arts & Science Council Receives Backlash After Apologizing For Funding White, Western Eurocentric Organizations
The organizations being references include the city s symphony, ballet and children s theater. by BWW News Desk
An arts advocacy group in Charlotte, North Carolina, is facing backlash after it apologized for funding white, Western Eurocentric organizations , The Daily Mail reports.
The Arts & Science Council issued the apology in February after its report examined funding for these organizations, including the city s symphony, ballet and children s theater.
The report said black- and minority-focused groups have historically received far less funding from ASC than white organizations. ASC has been complicit in upholding funding practices that elevate certain cultures, creative traditions, identities and art forms above others, it read.
Charlotte s Arts & Science Council issued the extraordinary apology in a February report examining inequities in its funding practices
The report called out the fact that black and minority groups have historically received far less funding from ASC than white organizations
It highlighted eight white, Western Eurocentric organizations that have received the most money from ASC since its founding in 1958
Those eight included the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra, Opera Carolina and Children s Theatre of Charlotte and Charlotte Ballet ASC has been complicit in upholding funding practices that elevate certain cultures, creative traditions, identities and art forms above others, it read
Report drew outrage from critics who said it diminished work of those groups
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A Charlotte, North Carolina, arts group is doubling down after apologizing for originally funding 8 white, Western Eurocentric organizations with unrestricted dollars to support their operations, including the Charlotte Symphony and Children s Theatre of Charlotte.
Krista Terrell, acting president of Charlotte s Arts & Science Council, said the group s Cultural Equity Report showed that due to ASC’s inequitable grant making practices, nine institutions each received more in operating support than all ALAANA (African, Latinx, Asian, Arab, Native American) organizations combined. While I knew the facts in the report were startling, I never thought I would experience so intimately the uncomfortableness, the defensiveness, and the scaredness of white people reacting to the unvarnished truth, Terrell, who is Black, wrote in a blog post last week.
The Bechtler Museum of Modern Art is among the organizations that receives funding from ASC.
The city of Charlotte is considering shutting off its annual $3.2 million allocations to the Arts & Science Council.
Instead, the city would distribute the money in another way, possibly on its own.
Under the proposal, the city would increase its allocation to the arts from $3.2 million to $4 million. The money would be targeted to art institutions that operate in city-owned buildings like the Mint Museum, the Blumenthal Performing Arts and the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts+ Culture.
At-large council member Julie Eiselt, who chairs an ad hoc committee on the arts, said she wants to make sure those city buildings are being most effectively used.
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A Charlotte City Council committee Wednesday approved a plan to hire a new Arts and Cultural Commissioner and create an advisory board to determine how city money for the arts is spent. If the full council approves the plan, the city would no longer depend on the Arts & Science Council to determine how arts dollars are spent.
An ad hoc Charlotte City Council arts committee Wednesday unanimously approved a plan to give the city control as to how its arts money is spent rather than routing the money through the Arts & Science Council.
Under the plan, the city would increase its annual arts contribution from $3.2 million to $4 million. It would hire a new staff member an arts and culture commissioner and also create a new arts advisory board that would determine how the money is spent.