Building an Equitable Arts Infrastructure

FAIN: RZ-299962-24

University of Texas at Austin (Austin, TX 78712-0100)
Charlotte Canning (Project Director: November 2023 to present)

Planning and holding a two-day symposium on equity and access in the nation’s arts infrastructure for humanities scholars and cultural professionals and producing an anthology of papers. (12 months)

The Equitable Arts Infrastructure Research Group seeks Convening Grant funds to host a national symposium focused on the enduring challenge of equity in the nation’s arts and culture sector. Slated for March 2025, the “Building an Equitable Arts Infrastructure” public event will consist of four curated conversations that pair leading humanities scholars with cultural professionals. Transcripts will be the basis of an anthology addressing equity and access in the nation’s arts infrastructure. We are a consortium of nine humanities scholars from seven universities. The group, led by Charlotte Canning and Paul Bonin-Rodriguez (UT Austin) and Sarah Wilbur (Duke), will edit these proceedings as part of the “Critical Arts Infrastructures,” book series we are finalizing with UT Press. In addition to documenting the convening, the anthology will offer critical historical analysis, theoretical critique, and ethnographic research to understand how the US performing arts function.