Institute

CalArts has launched the IDEA (Inclusivity, Diversity, Equity and Access) Cooperative that will redouble the Institute’s efforts to confront, address and eradicate the structural, systemic, and societal injustice that are threaded through our communities. This cooperative is led by and housed in the Office of the President. 

Spurred on by the summer of 2020’s social justice movements, CalArts leadership and community members looked inward to assess CalArts’ role and responsibilities as a leader in the arts and arts education. The introspection found that for too many talented artists from underrepresented backgrounds, joining the CalArts community—as both students and faculty members—remains too far out of reach.  

The Institute hasn’t made enough progress in creating a more representational and diverse community of artists in the world, but IDEA will help identify, foster, and spotlight the steps needed to keep building an inclusive, anti-racist community together. The IDEA Cooperative will make these measures and processes more transparent and will encourage financial support through grants, philanthropy, and open budgeting via the Institute’s established processes. 

Launching IDEA

The IDEA Cooperative began with the full support of the Institute’s entire leadership: The CalArts Trustees authorized up to $300,000 to be used from the Crisis Mitigation Reserve for initial start-up costs, and looked for a clear delineation of the ongoing financial commitment for this work in any future annual budget proposed to them.

To ensure ongoing sustainability, the Institute first performed a rigorous self-evaluation to identify any practices, structures, or individual behaviors that enable racism, sexism, or cultural, civil or social inequity. This first comprehensive “IDEA Assessment” has commenced and will complete in the 2020-21 academic year, paving the way for an action plan to be formed that works to root out these practices. Subsequent assessments will also be conducted along the way to gauge progress. 

The action plan that results from this first IDEA Assessment will lay out the development and oversight of a specific process to address issues of discrimination under Title VI of the federal Civil Rights Act. Likewise, the plan will also support efforts to build relationships with communities where CalArts has had no (or only limited) ties, including underrepresented racial and ethnic groups. 

2020-21 IDEA Initiatives

Led by Title VI & Diversity Officer Dr. Eva Graham, who has assumed the title of Director of IDEA Programs, has put forward the key initiatives for the academic year.

• IDEA Assessment of CalArts: This evaluation, led by Dr. Benjamin D. Reese Jr., identifed seen and unseen structures, systems, practices, and traditions of bias, racism, and inequity within our community. It included how we assess and advance our curriculum and pedagogy, the nomenclature we use, and our systems of governance and organization - including all Institute policies and practices. It made note of cultural racism in the artistic practices represented and taught at CalArts, and the way we structure that work. Dr. Reese is one of the foremost experts in institutional issues of diversity, equity, inclusion, and racist structures and cultures in higher education. For 23 years he was the leader of diversity for Duke University. He has over 50 years’ experience in the fields of implicit bias, systemic and structural racism, and diversity, equity, and inclusion strategy, and has worked with over 50 colleges and universities in North America, most recently for Yale University and the University of Wisconsin System, to conduct broad assessments of their DEI work.

• Leadership and Trustee Training: Dr. Reese worked with CalArts leadership and Trustees to ensure they understand diversity, equity, inclusion, bias, and structural racism, and their responsibilies as leaders to dismantle any and all white supremacist structures that may exist here.

• Title VI Discrimination Complaint Process: Dr. Reese also assessed our current processes and recommend a more transparent, central system to resolve discrimination complaints related to Title VI issues of race, color, or national origin.

• Ongoing Faculty and Staff Training: Starting in 2020, a systematic training approach will center on unconscious and implicit bias; structural racism; and inclusion, diversity, equity, and access. Dr. Bryant Marks and Dr. Tricia Rose assisted with this training, with Dr. Marks conducting educational and training sessions on implicit bias directly with students and employees. He is a former senior advisor to the White House under President Barack Obama and founder of the National Training Institute on Race and Equity. Dr. Marks also will partner with Provost Tracie Costantino, faculty, and staff to create media that engage with understanding implicit bias – similar in nature to projects with the UN’s HeForShe initiative and the World Resources Institute.
  
  Dr. Rose will work on implicit bias and racist structures with faculty, create a repository of resources, and help foment shifts in hiring practices that promote meaningful representation and cultural change. She is Chancellor’s Professor of Africana Studies and Director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America, both at Brown University.

• A Strengthened Focus on Indigenous Communities: In Spring 2020, CalArts sought to retain an expert who has experience in academia, is from an Indigenous heritage, and has experience directly working on programming and relationship-building with Native nations. This person will embolden our work with and for Native American Indian communities and artists; help introduce new expertise in Indigenous studies; strengthen relationships with native communities; and build financial support to help Indigenous artists become a more active, present part of CalArts. This emphasis will include expanded educational opportunities for Native American students and their communities.

• Future Arts Leader Development: Through a partnership with the Posse Foundation and its founder, MacArthur Fellow Deborah Bial, we created the nation’s first Arts Posse. This leadership program for undergraduates prepares a representationally diverse set of leaders and decision-makers in the arts sector, and supports this CalArts Posse through significant financial aid and leadership programming for their entire undergraduate experience that follows the Posse model. Thanks to a grant made possible by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and Posse board Chair Brad Singer, we were able to recruit the first CalArts Posse for fall 2022.

IDEA Task Force

To ensure accountability and commitment to the important work ahead, President Ravi Rajan assembled an IDEA Task Force that includes both internal stakeholders from faculty, staff, students, and trustees, and external ones with expertise at the intersection of race and other critical issues for our community, such as immigration, or indigenous studies. 

This task force meets quarterly on an ongoing basis to review the Institute’s IDEA work of the previous quarter and ensure that the Institute is making progress towards its goals. The task force will do this through recommendations that will be published publicly to all. 

IDEA Presidential Fellowship

The Fellowship

As part of our IDEA Cooperative work, we are happy to introduce the practice of hosting a Presidential IDEA Fellow. Initially funded through one-time philanthropic sources, it is the hope that hosting an IDEA Fellow can become a practice we repeat in years to come and expand. A Presidential IDEA Fellow is a visiting member of our community who will work during a given academic semester or year on broadening the knowledge and practice of inclusion, diversity, equity, and access principles at the Institute with the aim of leaving meaningful content that can grow over the long-term. The fellow will work through the IDEA office in collaboration with the President’s and Provost’s Offices, school Deans and Program Directors, and other faculty, staff and student leaders to provide activity, support, and expertise in areas specific to IDEA.

Participation

The IDEA Presidential Fellowship is an intensive program that seeks to both develop external relationships and increase internal institutional knowledge and skills in areas related to IDEA for the Institute. The Fellow will be an individual with the background, experience, network and standing of a respected expert in their field. They will represent the CalArts leadership’s commitment to shaping an effective and sustainable future as it pertains to inclusion, diversity, equity, and access principles.

All Fellows will:

• Observe and participate in key meetings and events, and take on special projects and assignments by working in tandem with experienced campus academic and administrative leaders.
• Participate with CalArts community members in the cultivation of, and support of, external relationships that support IDEA principles (including funders).
• Participate in team-based projects, trials, research, and case studies; visit other campuses and institutions, and attend regional and national meetings.
• Help CalArts develop and maintain its network of diverse leaders across the U.S. and abroad in their respective IDEA-related fields.

The Institute will:

• Provide office space and access to CalArts communities;
• Financially support programmatic offerings on-campus;
• Support work with all schools and programs at CalArts, including potential academic offerings;
• Provide an agreed upon stipend, variable for each fellow’s work and time commitment and available resources

Options for Participation

Each Fellowship term is uniquely structured at the discretion of the President and in consultation with the Provost and senior-most IDEA Officer to allow Fellows to spend an extended period of time on campus working with faculty, staff, the President, Provost, and academic and administrative leaders. This extended proximate experience enables Fellows to observe firsthand how CalArts and its leaders enable IDEA principles and manage any resulting changes. A Fellow’s work is supported by the President, Provost, Deans, and Vice Presidents.

Placement can take a number of forms:

1. Academic year placement - This placement option enables Fellows to immerse themselves in the events and culture of CalArts for the full arc of the academic year.
2. Semester placement - This option enables Fellows to immerse themselves completely for one semester in CalArts. Fellows also undertake Fellowship-related learning through specially designed opportunities.
3. Calendar-year placement - This option provides for residency during a summer that is adjacent to an academic year. Summer work can help in the execution of special collaborative projects that might be possible depending on funding. This can be useful for off-campus interactions of longer duration with communities (e.g. Community Arts Partnership, work with native nations, international work, etc.).