Hi all, I’m a grant writer and copy editor at a contemporary art gallery.
Recently out governor allocated some funds to the arts and I’m working on a grant to get us some of that money. This grant is looking for a diverse workplace and we are 100% not that. The gallery director suggested I write about myself. I laughed because I thought she was kidding, but she wasn’t - I don’t think she knows how not great it looks when the lowest paid employee is the only poc on staff. Suffice to say I don’t think we’ll be awarded the grant.
The gallery director, manager, and all board members are white. Not much we can do, and it’s reflective of the community (we’re in northern Colorado). The emphasis that’s being placed on my race right now is making me very uncomfortable. I don’t know how to approach a conversation with the director about how the way they’re treating me - and a few exhibiting artists - is tokenistic as fuck.
The most recent example: the director changed the wording in one of my grants before it got submitted, making it sound like us exhibiting artists of color was a bold, courageous decision. It was pretty embarrassing to have my name on that thing because I don’t think exhibiting artists of color is a “bold political statement”. They are people and it is a fucking art exhibition. Another thing that rubbed me the wrong way was how the curators imposed themes of “alienation” and “cultural assimilation” on a visiting Hispanic artist’s very minimalistic paintings (I’m talking Clifford Still minimal).
How do I even begin a conversation like this? Any advice is appreciated.
TL;DR: I feel like exhibiting artists of color and myself are tokenized and I want it to stop.
Submitted December 27, 2020 at 05:46PM by kuniklokuris https://ift.tt/2L2bVyl
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