public statement
committee chair
New Mexico Advisory Council on Arts Education
2020 - 2021
 

On behalf of the New Mexico Advisory Council on Arts Education, I led a small group of artists and arts educators in a committee to craft a position statement on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. The writing of this statement began in June 2020 and continued for 18 months. We met regularly during that time, collaboratively producing a statement that went through several rounds of revisions. 

 

The first draft presented to the council bore witness to our (by "our" I mean arts educators, arts leaders, the council itself) complicity and participation in the structures of power that bolster a harmful and inequitable world. This draft said, in effect, we acknowledge our role in power structures and histories that safeguard us and exclude, or worse, endanger, others. 

 

It was not well-received. 

 

In retrospect, this should not have come as a surprise. To acknowledge complicity is to invite collective and individual self-examination. Self examination can lead to changing how we lead, how we move through the world as artists and educators. For some council members, this was simply too far afield of our purpose as a council. For others, it would have meant questioning their fundamental lens of arts education. And still others embraced this call as a joyful opportunity to examine what they had taken for granted. They saw it as an invitation to curiosity. 

I learned so much throughout the entire process. I learned how thorny and difficult these conversations can be among colleagues and friends, especially those who don’t share my socio-political stances. I learned that questioning someone's core belief systems can provoke animosity, hurt, and fear. I also learned of the extraordinary generosity and commitment and passion and activism of arts education leaders across New Mexico. It was a reminder of how much work we have to do, and how much we can accomplish when we work together.

 

The revised statement was passed/adopted unanimously in December 2021.