Wallace, Ford, and Mellon on Strategies that Boost Arts Engagement Across Diverse Communities
The foundations weigh in on the challenges and strategies in reaching a diverse audiences and using art to build positive, relevant, and inspiring forces in the daily lives of diverse communities.
Wallace is taking a far more expansive and cross-demographic view on audience engagement. Many of its findings can be applied to the "diverse audience" field, and I imagine the foundation will be rolling out additional targeted studies over the next year. Mellon's grantmaking tends to focus on the young and mid-career individuals, many of whom hail from underrepresented communities, within these ecosystems. In describing its arts and creativity work, Ford aims to build more "equitable leadership and staff" at arts institutions—echoing its work across the New York City museum space—and to create "more opportunities for audiences to engage with social justice art and media."