Interview by Lex Schroeder
March 2020
In June 2019, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (MCLA) hosted its first Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion conference on the theme “Catalyzing 21st Century Discourse and Engagement on Race.” Spearheaded by Dr. Emily Williams, the conference included the launch of MCLA’s new Institute for the Arts and Humanities curated by Gwendolyn VanSant (CEO & Founding Director of BRIDGE) in collaboration with Professor Lisa Donovan (Director of the Institute) and Coordinator (and MCLA alumna) Erica Barreto.
After the success of this gathering, I wanted to learn more about how MCLA was continuing their work with the Berkshire-based equity and justice organization, BRIDGE. In early 2020, I spoke with Donovan, VanSant, and Barreto to talk about how they have organized around arts for social justice, seeking to align with and amplify each other’s efforts for greater impact.
Lex Schroeder: What do you each believe is the role of arts in equity and justice work?
Lisa Donovan: The arts create a space for dialogue… W. E. B. Du Bois wrote, “Begin with art, because art tries to take us outside ourselves. It is a matter of trying to create an atmosphere and context so conversation can flow back and forth and we can be influenced by each other.” In addition to creating a space for dialogue, the arts create an aesthetic space that gives us a little bit of distance and a little bit of connection at the same time, allowing people to have conversations and explorations in ways that are not possible in other formats.
Artists are on the cutting edge of naming what’s current in our culture, and I think can also serve as “canaries in the coal mine”... suggesting things that we need to pay attention to as well as providing solutions. It takes time for the rest of the world to catch up. In essence, the arts create a space for change and lead the way for thinking “what if.”
Erica Barreto: The arts also create space for community. They take us away from the idea of the individual toward a shared sense of community, responsibility, and understanding, which helps shape our society. One thing I’ve been thinking about is that the role of the arts depends on the intention of how the art is created and who’s engaging with it. Because we’ve also seen that the arts can be used negatively. So the role of the arts in equity and justice work, if we boil it down, I think is to build community, shape society, and build understanding through an experiential space.
LS: Gwendolyn, I know you’ve focused much of your most recent work on the arts economy in the Berkshires. Can you tell me more about some of these opportunities and challenges? I didn’t know the Berkshires had the largest arts economy outside of DC.
Gwendolyn Vansant: I learned about that when I was on the Berkshire Chamber Board before it became 1Berkshire. One of the things that they talked about in terms of rebuilding our economy (and community) was that the Berkshires had the second largest arts economy to DC per capita. What that means is that here in the Berkshires we have people coming mainly from the outside to enjoy the arts, and what we’re trying to do with our work is get Berkshire county residents to improve their lives and [have that arts economy] benefit our local community. And, it’s true that we have awesome, nationally and globally renowned institutions and arts leaders who are thinking about how to utilize the arts for social justice and social impact right here in the Berkshires. That is really exciting.
As a trainer who spends much of my time “bridging” gaps in education for leaders, administrators, front line staff, and students, I think about how these gaps might be the history never taught/learned. They are often the result of a cross-cultural experience that people have never had or often, bias they have never examined. My work can often be destabilizing and challenging, and the arts offer a healing heart experience. They also create an embodied experience for both artists and audience members. The arts are an opportunity for expression, testifying, and witnessing/empathy. I love it when I find avenues through the arts for the truth that comes as a result of new learning and connection.
LS: Lisa, what do you believe is the responsibility of higher ed institutions when it comes to making space for the arts?
LD: I feel like higher education leaders a responsibility to create spaces for conversations that move us toward change. Higher ed is a place where risk should be part and parcel of what we’re doing. We should engage students in ways that really prepare them for the world, especially in terms of being agents for change. Higher ed can be a convener, provoker, and place where new ideas are invited and tested.
Academia is designed to be a place for deep thinking and challenging the status quo, asking what might be different. It’s a place for dialogue... Thinking specifically about MCLA in Berkshire County, I feel like higher ed has a responsibility to be responsive to the communities that they exist in. Higher ed institutions can also serve as a backbone organization to create change. Colleges and universities can serve as a hub to support the region and the people who live there.
EB: The arts also build access. So much of what higher ed explores is theory and scholarship. It’s dense, heavy language; it’s not accessible to the majority of people. So we’re including more people in education by saying “here is a scholarship” or “here is a program initiative to increase enrollment”... But what else are we doing to make sure that students are successful? The arts are one way we can [make sure students are more successful] since through the arts, as Lisa said, we learn differently. We can do things differently than how they have always been done.
LS: How did you all come to work together? Tell me more about the new MCLA Institute for the Arts and Humanities.
Lisa: I heard Gwendolyn VanSant speak years ago, probably when she first started her work in the Berkshires, and I had heard sound bites over time about the impact BRIDGE was having. I knew that I wanted to collaborate. Then MCLA was awarded a $50,000 planning grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to explore the creation of a humanities network or council to invite arts and culture and humanities organizations to think and work together for regional impact. The foundation was interested in having this benefit MCLA. We were invited to apply for a full grant and received $360,000 over three years to catalyze area offerings in arts and humanities through this network to affect change through the lens of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Around this time I ran into Gwendolyn at a meeting with the Superintendents’ Roundtable. We talked and afterwards I was like, “Oh my God...” I just knew that there was synergy!
BRIDGE has since become an important partner in this work. Together we launched the MCLA Institute for the Arts and Humanities on June 12, 2019, and it was clear that the day should be centered around our joint work. Gwendolyn, Erica, and I collaboratively designed the day and Gwendolyn stepped in to facilitate. It was a wild success. With the support of the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation through their Creative Commonwealth Initiative, we engaged the MCLA community and larger regional community of arts and culture organizations in a discussion of our collective efforts around UnDoing Racism.
EB: As for me, at MCLA I started researching and cataloging all of the work that was being done in and around the arts and humanities in the Berkshires in 2017. I created a one sheet for about 87 organizations in Berkshire County. As a student, I hadn’t known about many of these resources, and I thought a lot of other students would benefit from knowing about them, too. One issue we had was that we were asked to create a map, which is a static thing. So, in thinking about the folks this would benefit, we realized we needed to go in another direction; we needed something that would be people-oriented, active, and more aligned with the region. So that’s how I originally learned about BRIDGE… by creating a one sheet on BRIDGE. Then we shared all of this info with faculty and students at MCLA alongside funding opportunities for students to create new learning experiences.
While this work we are doing together is housed at MCLA, I know it has implications for other institutions and regions, especially other liberal arts schools which only make up 2% of the country’s enrollment rate.
LS: Can you tell me about the data collection aspect of the work?
EB: Yes, the humanities profiles. With these, we include the organization, the logo, its location, what it’s about, a little blurb about the organization’s humanities expertise, and then we list programs, events, and resources. It’s about making organizations visible. Right now, I call this the Berkshires Humanities Network. This is housed online, but we’re also doing print copies, we’re looking at doing curated season previews, we’re working on curated resource guides that will be tangible books, digital videos. and audiobooks.
LD: I think a shift for me [in working with Erica on this project] is just the power of listening to student voices and paying attention to the issues that are bubbling up. We have a lot of conversations that are data-driven… How do we allow for a grassroots effort at MCLA, allowing the work to grow, and also build networks through this more grassroots “listening in?”
LS: How are you carrying forward your collective work supporting the arts and humanities in the Berkshires?
LD: Alignment!
EB: “Aligning and activating around change...” That’s what we said, right?
LD: Yes, we realize the power in amplifying each other’s efforts. So rather than create something brand new, the reason our work is taking off at MCLA (and some of the other regional work is going well) is that it’s building on ten years of foundational work that BRIDGE has been doing. That work has created a kind of tipping point in the county. So it’s just aligning our efforts to fuel that tipping point and staying engaged in mutually reinforcing activities.
LS: What has been personally meaningful to each of you about this particular collaboration?
GVS: For me, I think it was really nice to have that initial serendipitous meeting where we were both pitching superintendents and then to connect around common interests… to have shared interests and visions. So by the time we got to June, it was really about bringing one thing that I was doing in one space into another space where it could have a major impact. People are still talking about the day Lisa and I facilitated together last year. So it’s meaningful when the work that’s already been done ripples out and when the alignment is happening, whether we work together every day or not. I mean we really are getting in sync in our county, and that’s hard work to do! It’s especially hard work to do with respect to all of the different cultures up and down our county. It’s meaningful to see things happen that people laughed at initially. 10 years ago, when I said I wanted “one Berkshire county,” people laughed. So we continue to have issues around race and identity, but we’re also a county that can really take care of our community.
LD: I would add a note on vulnerability. I’m not leading this work; it’s leading me. I know that this is exciting, cutting-edge work, but I’m keenly aware of what I don’t know and my own vulnerability in this work. It feels really nice to be doing hard work with collegiality and support, knowing that it’s not always going to go smoothly and that high stakes are part of it. I was just at a conference and telling someone about this work, and they said, “It’s crazy that you are able to be having those kinds of challenging conversations!” How do you get people to the table?” For me, it’s clear that leaders are eager to be there at the table; they understand the timeliness and urgency of this work. Again, because of the work that’s happened prior to this initiative, there are many synergies happening all at once. We’re only just moving into them.
EB: This work is personally meaningful to me because it’s providing me with visions for a future that I had not previously imagined. Especially meaningful are the relationships that we’re developing. I’m also very close to the student experience. I mentor students grades 6-12, I supervise college interns, I was a student myself. To see how this work helps us listen to students, respond to students, and create opportunities for students is especially meaningful… especially when I think about where this work goes from here and what it means for future generations.
LS: What are the next steps for your collaborative work together?
LD: One of the networks we’ve been working on is the Berkshires Cultural Assets Network (BCAN), which is all of the community engagement and arts education work we’re doing with cultural organizations. BCAN members meet regularly and will be doing some training in cultural competence. We'll have a forum where these groups can interface with higher ed to think about how we can maximize the resources in the area and impact higher ed across the region. Then we’re planning our second institute for the arts and humanities at MCLA. The focus will be on alignment and activating change through storytelling. We’ll be designing this with Gwendolyn and other arts for social justice leaders.
GV: I’m excited about this new Arts and Humanity Institute which will center equity, access, inclusion, and diversity for and with its surrounding community. Also, this work is deeply relational. As we continue to do this work, I want to invite folks to keep having enthusiastic conversations filled with optimism for a collective movement and vision towards safety for all of us. We should all be able to thrive here in our Berkshire home.
Update as of March 30, 2020 from Professor Lisa Donovan:
We had planned to have the 2nd MCLA Institute for the Arts and Humanities, but due to implications from the COVID-19 pandemic, we will be revisioning our face to face institute to an interactive series of webinars. For more information as planning unfolds visit the MCLA-IAH website.