INSIGHTS FROM THE FIELD: Driving for Equitable Change in Public Art
Diversifying the Public Art Workforce Louisville, Kentucky
The public art workforce has long been dominated by white artists, curators and administrators. People of color have too long been left out and underrepresented in key decision-making roles, leadership positions, commissions and creative roles in the public art field. When BIPOC people and their talents are not at the table, this creates and maintains inequities in representation, decision-making, and in dollars. It also affects whose voices are heard, whose stories are told, and who is getting hired—and paid.
Candida Gonzalez leads a 2019 Making It Public training for artists in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Photo by NeDahNess Rose Greene.
Seeing little to no effort made in diversifying the public art workforce nationally, Forecast launched two significant efforts to make professional development a key equity focus- GroundWork and Making it Public. The first was a first-of-its-kind program, GroundWork, to train the next generation of public art consultants of color, an effort that has dramatically changed the face of Forecast’s own consulting team. Three of Forecast’s own BIPOC consultants, Mark Salinas, Candida Gonzalez and Aki Shibata are now developing and leading training nationally to ensure more opportunities for the myriad roles are filled by BIPOC artists, administrators, and leaders in public art. Director of Programming + New Initiatives, Jen Krava says that “Forecast is noticing that more cities, municipalities and arts organizations realize they need to do better in engaging and centering artists of color, but don't know how to start.” That desire is strong and continues to build. Leaders in three states reached out to Forecast for capacity-building training in 2022, and 2023 opened with three more in the works, growing on requests from recent years.
Dr. Jabani Bennett
[The workshop] inspired me to resign from teaching and pursue my dreams in arts consulting, and to connect with arts and culture in my hometown in a way that centers non-binary and BIPOC artists as leaders within public art.
—Dr. Jabani Bennett, artist, arts advocate and consultant
Making It Public, Forecast’s most sought-after training—which has been offered in both English and Spanish—provides tracks for both artists and administrators. Dr. Jabani Bennett is both. An artist, arts advocate, and consultant based in Louisville, Kentucky, Bennett completed Making It Public in 2021, while working as a public-school arts teacher and finishing her doctorate in leadership. The workshop, she says, “inspired me to resign from teaching and pursue my dreams in arts consulting, and to connect with arts and culture in my hometown in a way that centers non-binary and BIPOC artists as leaders within public art.”
Forecast is noticing that more cities, municipalities and arts organizations realize they need to do better in engaging and centering artists of color, but don't know how to start.
—Jen Krava, Director of Programming and New Initiatives, Forecast
Bennett lauds Making It Public’s “inclusive model open to diverse gender expression, racial equity, and issues of power around land and displacement.” The curriculum included “language, concepts, and transformative justice work related to equity in public art, which was so refreshing,” as the discussions “were quite different than those held around public art in Louisville, despite it being a great city with a history of social justice figures and movements.”
Candida Gonzalez leads a 2019 Making It Public training in Saint Paul. Photo by NeDahNess Rose Greene.
Moreover, Bennett continues, she “felt safe, seen, and advocated for,” during the workshop. At every step, the work “centered marginalized communities.” Virtual conferencing allowed “people at different points of privilege and power” to speak with arts administrators and funders. Since Making It Public, Bennett has joined several arts and artist boards, consulted in Africa on behalf of the non-profit Bridge Kids International, and assisted in the development of three public-art calls and a mural incubator. The new director of the Women’s Center at the University of Louisville, she’s also engaged in a research project, through the Center of Health Equity, examining housing, health disparities, and funding among BIPOC and low-income creative professionals in Louisville; the project includes Bennett’s artwork, as well.
“Forecast is the leader in what the field now looks like, with diversity and inclusivity, and centering and uplifting communities without displacing anyone,” Bennett says. “Forecast gave me the language and confidence to test out and apply my new skills. Making It Public, and the staff who facilitated the workshops, are so inspiring.”
Gonzalez is also leading Forecast’s new Intro to Public Art Consulting, a five-week virtual workshop based on GroundWork, for Minnesota-based BIPOC artists and individuals interested in a public art consulting career. When the workshop was announced in early 2023, demand was immediate locally—and Forecast received several inquiries from interested people in other areas of the country.
A 2019 Making It Public training in Saint Paul. Photo by NeDahNess Rose Greene.
[The curriculum included] language, concepts, and transformative justice work related to equity in public art, which was so refreshing. ... Making It Public, and the staff who facilitated the workshops, are so inspiring.
—Dr. Jabani Bennett, artist, arts advocate and consultant
Guest speakers for the 2023 Making It Public for New Jersey artists workshop series included local and national arts industry leaders (clockwise from top left) Leon Rainbow, Yara Liceaga, Marcela Michelle, Layqa Nuna Yawar, Shoshanna Weinberger, and Raysa Raquel (Colectivo Morivivi), covering practical topics like community engagement, project funding, and project management.
2019 Making It Public guest speakers included artist Juliette Perine-Myers, Felicia Perry, and Aki Shibata, who is also a Forecast consulting team member and leader of the Making It Public series for administrators. Photo by NeDahNess Rose Greene.
Forecast offered Making It Public in Spanish (Haciéndolo Público) in late 2021 for emerging Latinx artists based in Minnesota. Photo from La Doña Cervecería courtesy artist Luis Fitch.