Many arts and culture institutions have begun to invest in creating “pipelines” for people of underrepresented identities to access employment and exposure in the fields of craft and design. In the past six months, as the COVID-19 crisis has combined with a newly galvanized urgency to address racial equity, gaps and tensions have been exposed in these “pipeline” structures, showing places where pathways in the field simply fail to exist.
Leaders of historically white-led institutions are currently turning for advice to people of color, seeking “diversity of representation.” These same people of color have surmounted institutionalized racism to make their way as artists, administrators, and teachers in art ecosystems. Elevating their voices for a moment is not the same as dismantling racist structures to create racially equitable spaces, empower new generations into ownership of public institutions, or build lasting platforms to sustain equitable education, community engagement and expression.
As we rebuild post-pandemic, what new systems need to be put in place to support the contemporary craft field as a truly equitable space? What effective models can we amplify and envision to build access and success for those who have been historically excluded from institutions of craft and design?
This panel brings together four practitioners actively grounded in racial justice who work daily to enact institutional structural change and empower black and brown young people to flourish over long careers as artists, makers, designers, teachers, and arts administrators.
Join the Conversation!
Speakers
Anthony Romero -- artist, writer, and organizer committed to documenting and supporting artists and communities of color, as well as Professor in the Practice at SMFA Tufts University and co-author of Boston Arts for Black Lives Letter
Jabari Peddie – Director of Leadership Development at Build Excel Sustain (BES) and Co-founder of The Teachers’ Lounge
Polly Carpenter – Director of Public Programs, Boston Society for Architecture and Fellow of The American Institute of Architects.
Alison Croney Moses, artist, craftsperson, and Director of School & Community Partnership Programs at the Eliot School of Fine & Applied Arts, will moderate a lively conversation that will include quick-fire respondents:

Steph Foster, Interdisciplinary Artist & Assistant Professor in the Dept. of Photography at The University of the Arts in Philadelphia, PA
Isaac Madeira-Cepeda, teen artist at Eliot School of Fine & Applied Arts’ Teen Bridge Program, and a senior at Boston Collegiate Charter School.

The "Whose Standards? Racial Equity in Craft and Design" series is an Eliot School Salon. It is hosted by the Eliot School of Fine & Applied Arts, generously supported by Haystack Mountain School of Crafts and presented in collaboration with Boston Design Week.