Racial Equity Progress Report (June – Aug ’22)

Cheyenne Cohn-Postell, Program Officer

A quarterly report on our anti-racism work

Child sitting at a table gluing images of prominent people of color to a crown-shaped piece of paper that's also adorned with sparkly 'gems'
Child participates in Brand Out with C1, an event hosted by Company One Theatre

In 2021, Mass Cultural Council launched a three-year Racial Equity Plan outlining some of the internal and external steps we will take to support and encourage an anti-racist cultural sector in the Commonwealth. As part of the plan, the Agency has committed to sharing our progress on this work each quarter:

June-August 2022 Racial Equity and Access Work Highlights

What’s Next – Disability Equity Planning

  • Training – developing an ongoing Disability/Access curriculum for staff and a high-level Disability/Access training resource list for the Council 
  • Engaging with stakeholders from the communities we are seeking to serve and recruiting an internal task force to develop a Disability Equity Action Plan that aligns with the Racial Equity Action Plan. 

Internal

  • In alignment of the goals of the Racial Equity Plan, and other requirements the Director of People and Culture conducted a good faith, reasonable self-evaluation of Mass Cultural Council’s pay practices and completed the Pay Equity Act Assessment ahead of schedule. 

Diversity Highlights From FY22 Programs

Panel demographics

  • Fifty-eight percent (58%) of FY22 Cultural Facilities Fund panelists self-identified as a person of color.
  • Sixty-one percent (61%) of reviewers in the FY22 Artist Fellowship for Drawing & Printmaking, Fiction/Creative Nonfiction, and Painting cycle self-identified as BIPOC.

New applicants – according to data collected from the Agency’s FY22 Data Presentation

  • Seventy-two percent (72%) of applicants to the AAPI Pandemic Recovery Program in FY22 were new.
  • Thirty-eight percent (38%) of applicants to the Festivals Program in FY22 were new.
  • Thirty-one percent (31%) of applicants to both cycles of the FY22 Artist Fellowships were new.

Outreach Efforts

Public Affairs regularly sends “Nice to Connect with You – Please Stay in Touch” emails to new constituents who:

  • Connected with BIPOC Outreach Coordinators:
    • 131 emails
    • 55.7% open rate
  • Submitted public comment on ARPA spending:
    • 382 emails
    • 59.1% open rate
  • Completed the most recent COVID Impact Survey
    • 108 emails
    • 54.3% open rate

Track on-going progress using our racial equity journey map.