Last updated Wednesday, November 4, 2020.
We have consistently sought new ways to support Brooklyn’s artists. The unprecedented, the innovative, and the risky drive our work, from grantmaking to project incubation to workforce development.
The pandemic has created unparalleled financial challenges and we are responsible for delivering services to our borough’s artists in the most responsive, cost-effective, and compassionate ways possible.
Effective January 1st, the work of our storied 30-year Folk Arts and our robust Arts in Education departments will transition and be integrated within our Programs department. Specifically, our support of your work will largely come through Brooklyn Innovation Institute, our program that facilitates capacity building and connections among artists. There, artists will be served under a single programs department, headed by our Programs & Strategy Director Desirée Gordon.
Our Programs department offers Brooklyn artists additional support, including the Brooklyn Innovation Institute, Community Arts Grants, Arts Education, and Fiscal Sponsorship. As resources allow, we will bring on staff to provide programs in arts education and folk arts. Rest assured that we will continue to fight for the recognition of cultural heritage artists in Brooklyn and beyond. This cultural heritage work remains a critical piece of our mission and services.
We have been interrogating, deepening, and refining our work around Diversity, Equity, Access, and Inclusion for years. This journey has led to changes: we have successfully implemented fairer hiring practices, been more explicit about the connections of our programs to racial equity and diversity and implemented a number of other policies that better align our organization’s values with its mission. We believe that repositioning these services within our programmatic heart is the next step in centering diversity in programs, activating equity in our practices, and operationalizing inclusion in our structure. We make this commitment to deepen our equity practice while we respond to the shifting landscapes of sustainability.
We never expected to be implementing this change during a time of so much grief coupled with financial hardship. Since March, Brooklyn Arts Council has been fighting for our longevity. Our staff has been slashed by more than half; salary cuts have ranged from between 20% and 50%; and all of our existing team members are participating in the New York State Shared Work Unemployment Insurance Plan. Harrowingly, this set of circumstances is not unique to Brooklyn Arts Council. It is pervasive throughout the arts and culture sector. Many of our colleagues do not know when they will return to work, if ever.
Here at Brooklyn Arts Council, we will continue to push forward. Yet ‘normal’—for nonprofits, for creative freedom, for justice—is not something for which we are nostalgic. This crisis, while incredibly challenging, presents Brooklyn Arts Council with yet another opportunity to adapt, further increase our transparency, and support the present and future.
We are deeply upset this programmatic shift is occurring in tandem with the departure of Chris Mulé, whose layoff is solely a consequence of budget constraints. Chris has singularly committed himself to the preservation and amplification of heritage arts throughout his career – at Staten Island Arts, City Lore, with New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) Living Traditions project, and with other partners across the city and country. It has been Brooklyn Arts Council’s honor to witness his intimate touch at work and learn from him as he freely shares his gifts with everyone, from interns to board members. Through his leadership, our Folk Arts program has had a tremendous impact on Brooklyn and must not be understated.
Similarly, we are devastated at the layoff of Arts in Education Director Phil Alexander, who has devoted his career, intellect, and emotional energy to teaching artists and students of all ages throughout New York City. Since 2014, Phil has helmed after-school, in-school, and creative aging at over 80 sites a year. A scrupulous writer and committed supervisor, Phil worked closely with Brooklyn Arts Council’s outgoing Arts in Education Manager Wéma Ragophala. An innovative and compassionate arts administrator, performing artist, and educator, Wéma has worked at the intersection of arts and community for almost 20 years.
We know that the only constant is change, and that change—while at times devastating—can make way for rebuilding and rethinking the organizational structures that stand to serve artists more robustly. Despite bleak times, we have our sights set on the next 50 years of Brooklyn Arts Council, and we know that Brooklyn’s future will be driven by its cultural practitioners, artists, creators, arts lovers and supporters, building back better, together.
Above all else, we look forward to continuing to serve you.