Socioeconomic Barriers & Arts Inequality

In today’s post I will be discussing my thoughts on my independent study and what I’ve learned thus far. Throughout this semester, one of the biggest takeaways I had in terms of the content I was studying is that in order to solve inequalities in our community, it is essential to create collaborative and inclusive partnerships with the members of the affected community. Through my interviews, I learned that the most effective solutions to arts inequality in our community maintain a balance between bringing community members into existing spaces and bringing resources directly to them. Furthermore, I have shifted my focus in the second semester to focus more on volunteering and creating partnerships with existing arts organizations rather than developing my own. I realized that investing in the programs that are already running is more effective for combating the issue of arts inequality than developing my own program, which would be a very lengthy process. These programs are always in need of more volunteers and funding, so partnering with them would be a direct and effective way to help solve this problem.

I’ve really enjoyed my independent study this semester because I’ve been given the freedom to explore a topic that isn’t included in any core class curriculum. Ms. McDonald has been an incredible advisor and resource because of her knowledge of local dance programs, artists, and arts education. At times it has been difficult to motivate myself to work on my independent study during my dedicated time, but I think over the course of the semester I developed a flexible plan that worked for me. My favorite part of my independent study has been interviewing teaching artists at local arts organizations. They were super insightful and willing to share their extensive knowledge with me, which inspired me to shift my focus in the second semester. Overall, I’m really pleased with the work I’ve done and am excited to continue my study next semester.

For the next two weeks I will be preparing for my final project for the semester, a presentation to my dance class about what I’ve learned over the course of the semester. I will be delivering my presentation on the 19th after our winter dance concert. Throughout this study, I’ve learned so much about the issues prevent accessible arts education in our community. I’ve really enjoyed conducting this independent study and have decided to extend it into second semester. Initially, I thought that in the second semester I would want to create my own program to bring free, student-led dance classes to the Durham community. However, through interviewing local dance educators, I realized that getting involved as a volunteer or creating a partnership with an existing program combatting arts inequality would likely be more beneficial for the community. Thus, I am shifting my focus in the second semester to be focused on creating a partnership with an existing program such as the Durham Arts Council or the Carrboro Arts Center in order to engage myself and the DA community in this cause as effectively as possible.

1. Background
   1. Invested and involved in making arts accessible to everyone– especially for ppl with disabilities 
2. Why do you think exposure to the arts, specifically dance, is important for children and adolescents?
   1. Dance is a fantastic outlet
   2. Can support ppl in learning how to self regulate– deal with stress
   3. Developing critical thinking and self discipline– committing to things and following through
   4. Body awareness
   5. Creativity is undervalued (especially in public school systems)
      1. Can support ppl in learning foundational skills
3. How did you become involved in the dance community and what opportunities did you have to pursue a dance career?
   1. Started dancing at age 2
      1. Fantastic creative teacher– super focused on improv and creating their own work
   2. Danced around the kitchen, making music, etc
   3. Kept dancing until 16, rediscovered it in college with African Dance classes
   4. Started dancing with companies in Boston, got back into choreographing pieces
   5. Started her own company, kept making work
   6. Wanted to show diversity, community creation within her pieces 
4. If you had to rate the Triangle community on its arts accessibility to young children, how would you rate it and why?
   1. Lot of her work hasn’t happened here
   2. There are rich experiences available
   3. Durham Public Schools had a teaching artist in every school
   4. Opportunity for private technique classes (cost)
5. Can you speak to some of the barriers children face to accessing opportunities to learn dance?
   1. In general, private studios are looking for specific body types and other factors instead of thinking about the whole person 
   2. Not as welcoming of people with disabilities, economic barriers
   3. Especially for competition studios 
6. Do you think these barriers have a disproportionate effect on certain communities in our area? If so, why?
   1. People with disabilities, and people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds
   2. Misty Copeland has broken down barriers for dancers of color– tights and shoes of different colors were difficult to access– need to go further though
7. Do you believe that the government, school boards, or other local organizations have a responsibility to bridge these disparities? If so, are they doing enough?
   1. Yes, school boards especially should be welcoming teaching artists into all grade levels and classes
   2. After school programs would be really good– technical forms as well
   3. Durham Public Schools are doing well to start bridging these disparities
   4. Make sure teaching artists are actually representative of the populations of the people in the schools
8. Public school curriculum
   1. Done a couple trainings with them
   2. They are really interested in arts integration and creative learning, arts and literacy 
      1. How the arts can bring written materials to life
   3. Their commitment to have a teaching artist in every school is great
9. Could you tell me about the mission of the organization you work for, the Durham Arts Council, and what you do there?
   1. Teaching artist on the CAPS roster– taught in camp sessions, bringing arts in different countries to the students (ie: Peruvian dance)
      1. On their CAPS roster– offers training for teachers to integrate dance into curriculum
      2. Arts integration residencies
      3. Runs Teaching Artists Connect– focus on training educators 
         1. Graham– offer trainings everywhere, work with Arts Access, work with Durham Public Schools
         2. How we offer training opportunities 
   2. Where and how are classes taught?
      1. Mostly during camp sessions– week or 2
      2. Introducing students to choreography
      3. Lead teaching roles for their camps 
      4. Taught in the studio spaces, did online teaching during pandemic 
   3. In terms of scholarships, how does the Arts Council cater towards students and families who are unable to pay for classes? How many scholarships are available and how are they awarded?
      1. Mission of making arts accessible for everyone
      2. Public school teaching artist program– free to students b/c teachers are being paid through grants or school districts
   4. Do you feel that the Arts Council has adequate support? What more could be done if you had more resources? 
      1. State funding can always be increased– more money is always good
      2. Artists feel very supported– reach out a lot
10. Why do you think organizations like the Arts Council are important? How have they impacted the community?
    1. Having arts in schools is so vital– teachers go into classes through organizations like the Arts Council
    2. Gives arts exposure to ppl who otherwise wouldn’t have gotten it
    3. Dance can throw ppl off– vulnerable– boys and older students
       1. Breaks down barriers and misconceptions
11. Are there any plans for expansion or new program developments at the Arts Council?
    1. Across NC ppl are really invested in teaching artistry– bringing teaching artistry into more schools so students feel reflected
    2. Training in professional development for teachers– using art as a tool 
12. Do you know of or are you involved in any other organizations with similar goals?
    1. Works for Lincoln Center in NY as a teaching artist
    2. Remotely teaches 3 high school classes
    3. Access Ambassador Program– hoping to pilot in NC, Raleigh, partnership with public schools
    4. Internship based programs with students with disabilities– foundational job skills in the arts
    5. Increasing accessible hiring 
    6. How to address the services gap– after graduation they don’t have as many speech therapists etc
    7. Exposure to the joy that the arts can bring 
    8. How we bring training for ppl who have no experience working with students with disabilities 
    9. Local work– working on expanding internationally, ex: Norway 
    10. Works with Big Umbrella Festival– geared toward ppl with intellectual and developmental disabilities
    11. Alvin Ailey as a teaching artist
    12. Lincoln Center Moments–ppl with dementia 
13. Passion with this specifically 
    1. After college started working in a school with ppl who have autism and other disabilities – really challenging, not focused on the whole person, focused on changing behavior rather than supporting the person and bringing them joy
    2. Worked as a disability counselor– pre-k to 5 year olds who were going to get expelled, tried to work with teachers to keep them in school
    3. Started working more with incorporating arts with schools and disabilities 
14. How can individuals contribute to this cause?
    1. Working with local schools to see what resources they need
    2. Joining PTA and advocating for arts in every school
    3. Researching the impact of arts– could cause higher investment in arts
    4. Being an advocate for community arts centers– need volunteers

This week I interviewed Heather Bryce who was incredibly experienced, insightful, and kind. I was fascinated by her extensive work with children with both mental and physical disabilities and how she has dedicated much of her career to helping incorporate art, specifically dance, into their education. She emphasized how dance can help them to learn to self-regulate and deal with stress. This is especially important for children with autism that she has worked with. She also works a lot with teachers to introduce them to ways they can use arts in the classroom to help their special needs students learn better. Our conversation expanded my understanding of what “accessibility” means. Much of my research thus far has been focused on the socioeconomic barriers children face in trying to explore the arts, but she broadened my view to include children with disabilities who also are often excluded from artistic spaces.

A major overlap I noticed between this interview and my interview with Ms. Tatreau is how they both emphasized the importance of partnering with the community through these programs. They also both explained that they are always in need of more volunteers and funding for these programs to reach as many people as possible. These interviews have reshaped my thinking in regards to the future of my study and I am excited to continue researching and processing what I have learned.

I will post the full interview notes with Heather Bryce in the next post.

This week I reached out to Lauren Tannenbaum, the school director of the Durham Arts Council for an interview. She replied and connected me with a dancer and teacher named Heather Bryce who is willing to do an interview with me after the break. I spent this week researching the extensive resumé and experience as a dancer, choreographer, and educator within the arts. I wanted to ask her similar questions as I asked Ms. Tatreau, but I also wanted to tailor my questions to her work. For example, I wanted to make sure to focus on the work she has done with incorporating arts into the curriculum for children with disabilities. I also wanted to know more about the many organizations she is part of, what she has learned from them, and how she has used that knowledge to expand arts education in her career.

1. Why do you think exposure to the arts, specifically dance, is important for children and adolescents?
   1. Arts is beneficial in so many ways
   2. We run an afterschool program, arts camps, artists in residency program in Title 1 schools– introducing arts to them
   3. Using arts as a way to approach other subject matters in school– different learners need different teaching methods
      1. Arts allow students to access info in ways that make sense to them
      2. Info can click because it is presented in a different way ie: through dance
   4. Coming out of lockdown– can help with social emotional component of things
2. How did you become involved in the dance community and what opportunities did you have to pursue a dance career?
   1. Started dancing at age 3 
   2. Dance was always a creative outlet that I felt like I needed in my life
   3. On a different path in college– pursuing other career interests— got out of college and realized I needed to dance– went to grad school for dance education
   4. Taught at universities for past 20 years– recently left to start working for Arts Center– could have more of a concrete impact on the community
3. If you had to rate the Triangle community on its arts accessibility to young children, how would you rate it and why?
   1. 6/10
   2. Not awful– pockets of this area that are more accessible than others
   3. There are a lot of good state run arts programs– takes art to public schools
   4. Lot of good program in the Raleigh Durham area 
   5. Arts aren’t fully integrated into the schools as much as artists would like – value in arts
   6. Dance classes in studio and camps is very expensive
   7. 3% of spots are available for scholarship– doesn’t serve the wider community as much as they want to
4. Can you speak to some of the barriers children face to accessing opportunities to learn dance?
   1. Expenses of classes
   2. Cultural barriers– ie: ballet is an upper class white predominant activity
      1. Some of these spaces feel exclusive– excluding certain groups, those groups feel unwelcome
      2. Community engagement at the arts center tries to figure out who isn’t participating and why– tries to make ppl feel welcome
5. Do you think these barriers have a disproportionate effect on certain communities in our area? If so, why?
   1. There’s a historical precedent of thinking about the arts as something elite that isn’t for everyone
   2. “Dance is for every child”
   3. Black and brown communities don’t see that they have a place
   4. It is important to go INTO those communities and bringing programming to them
6. Successful approaches
   1. Community engagement– works on creating meaningful, sustainable relationships with other organizations– seem to be divided on race or socioeconomic status lines
   2. There is a center down the road that has primarily POC children
   3. Offering free tickets to those events to make it more accessible– ppl who can pay, pay. Ppl who can’t can’t
   4. Partnership 
   5. Do a little bit of both 
   6. Bringing resources to them and bringing them into our spaces to take advantage of the resources
   7. Takes time to build up trust and relationship to bring ppl into your own facility
   8. Good intentions doesn’t mean they will feel welcome right away
7. Do you believe that the government, school boards, or other local organizations have a responsibility to bridge these disparities? If so, are they doing enough?
   1. Follow up: How can they do more?
   2. Not doing enough
   3. Resources aren’t there– have to go up and up the chain to find that resource
   4. How do we get legislators to see value in community engagement and the arts
   5. Requires a team– workers spread too thin
   6. Need to vote in local elections
8. Public school curriculum
   1. Such a shortage of arts teachers 
   2. Children aren’t gaining exposure to the arts in schools
   3. The arts are usually considered extra when they should really be integrated into everything we are doing
   4. We aren’t prioritizing our funding– it all comes back to funding and resources
9. Could you tell me about the mission of the organization you work for, the Carrboro Arts Center, and what you do there?
   1. Director of education, coordinate youth programming– offer after school programming where all chapel hill carrboro school elementary school buses bring children here for programs– provides after school care and month long artist residencies to work with artists in different genres– end of the month sharing with parents
      1. Handful of kids who can come on scholarships 
      2. Summer camps offered 
      3. Try to balance filling the need in the community while also giving them quality education and programming– exposing kids to not just visual arts– but also music, theater, dance, etc.
         1. Then when they’re older they can choose their favorites and have more of a voice in the kinds of classes they take 
   2. How is the Arts Center funded?
      1. Grants, donations, sponsorships from state organizations or bigger foundations (pretty substantial), memberships w/donations
   3. Where and how are classes taught?
      1. Have many classrooms at their facility– had 7 or 8 camps happening at once in their facility over the summer
      2. They have many art rooms, digital lab, theater
      3. They hire teaching artists– working artists in our community 
         1. They have instructor showcases– kids can really see what they do as a working artist– shows potential career path in the arts
   4. In terms of scholarships, how does the Arts Center cater towards students and families who are unable to pay for classes? How many scholarships are available and how are they awarded?
      1. Development team that applies for grants to support scholarships and collects donations – tells story of our arts programming and how it’s beneficial to everyone– they help raise money to give out scholarships
      2. Application process to gauge financial need– need based 
         1. These are prioritized
   5. Do you feel that the Arts Center has adequate support? What more could be done if you had more resources? 
      1. Nonprofit arts organization so we could always use more funding– more funding we get the more we can do
      2. Some programs they want to do can’t happen because there isn’t enough funding 
10. Why do you think organizations like the Arts Center are important? How have they impacted the community?
    1. Offers a physical space for community – galleries open most of the day, can see performances, hub for the arts to make everyone feel welcome
    2. Arts brings people together
11. Are there any plans for expansion or new program developments at the Arts Center?
    1. Moving to a new location– renovating the building – provides opportunities for growth
    2. Fabrics lab, 3D printers, laser cutters, etc. – amp up technology to draw in a bigger crowd
    3. Expand programming to older youth aka teens
    4. New space can help tap into new communities 
12. Do you know of or are you involved in any other organizations with similar goals?
    1. Good space to work together and actually achieve their goals
    2. University often loses touch with the community that surrounds it (UNC)
    3. Can collaborate with so many different groups– other local small organizations
    4. Orange County Arts Commission, NC Arts Council, also local community centers
13. What more do you think needs to be done to make dance more accessible in our community?
    1. Funding, etc. as mentioned above
14. How can individuals contribute to this cause?
    1. Support their local organizations with donations, sign up for programming b/c it helps grow what we do, be more involved in the community

This week I was able to interview Heather Tatreau! It was a really great experience to get to talk to her and learn about her experiences in the dance world and with community outreach in the Triangle. We began by discussing why she believes dance is so important for children and adolescents. She explained that the arts can be used as a tool to help different learners process materials in school in a way that is more easily comprehensible to them. The main focus of the interview was on arts (specifically dance) accessibility in the Triangle community, what we are doing well, and where we can improve. When I asked her to rate the Triangle community on its arts accessibility, she gave it a 6/10 because there are some pockets of the area that have really great, accessible opportunities, while others are severely underserved. We then moved into talking about the barriers children face to accessing dance opportunities in our community. The main issues she highlighted were the often elitist and exclusive nature of the arts, especially in ballet which is historically a predominantly upper class, white activity. Thus these spaces can exclude certain groups, especially Black and brown communities, and make them feel unwelcome. Furthermore, dance classes can be incredibly expensive, which excludes many children in our community who cannot afford them and who do not have access to other dance classes in their school curriculum.

We spoke in depth about her work at the Carrboro Arts Center and how they are working to overcome these disparities in our community by offering scholarships for their arts programs and making their spaces inclusive. She emphasized the importance of community engagement and creating meaningful, sustainable relationships with communities. It is important to go into these communities and collaborate to bring programming to them. We ended the interview by talking about the ways in which individuals can support their local organizations with donations and signing up for programming to grow the artistic community.

I will be posting the full interview notes in another post for anyone interested in her responses.

I was able to secure a time to interview Ms. Tatreau next week, so I spent this week preparing for our interview. I continued researching her role at the Carrboro Arts Center as the Education Director and her overall experience and achievements in the dance world, such as previous teaching experience at UNC and working as a choreographer on various local projects. Aside from asking her about her own experiences in the dance world, I want to focus our interview on dance accessibility in the Triangle community. I want to know her perspective on how accessible the arts are to children of different backgrounds in our community, the largest barriers they face, and examples of successful approaches to remedying these issues.

This week I focused on continuing my research into local arts organizations, specifically the Carrboro Arts Center and the Durham Arts Council. I wanted to further delve into their programs, scholarships, faculty, and volunteers. Since these are the two organizations I focused my previous research on, I wanted to interview experts who worked with these programs as dance teachers. As I researched more into the Carrboro Arts Center and brainstormed with Ms. McDonald about conducting interviews, I decided I wanted to interview a dancer and educator named Heather Tatreau who works with the Arts Center as a dance teacher. Ms. McDonald went to school and danced with Ms. Tatreau, so she was able to give me her contact information. I reached out to her to ask for an interview and while I wait I am doing research on her role at the Carrboro Arts Center as well as her other projects she’s been involved in.

In this post I will be evaluating my progress in this study through the first quarter. During quarter 1, I have been focusing my research on the broad issue of arts inequality and its causes as well as learning about existing local programs aiming to combat these barriers to dance access. I have been consulting various research papers and scholarly articles, as well as data sources and local program websites. Mrs. Spruill has been especially helpful in helping me to locate information about arts inequality in the Triangle because there is not a ton of information out there about this topic on the local level. It has been interesting to read about all of the different variables that contribute to arts inequality, such as transportation, cost of classes, and time commitment. I hope to continue learning about issues at the local level and current solutions to them this month. 

I have been pleasantly surprised by my ability to stay motivated and on top of my research and blog posts. I was initially worried that I wouldn’t be able to keep myself on track, but I have been able to more than I thought I would. Of course there are still times when I haven’t been able to dedicate as much time as I would’ve liked to my study because of college applications; however, overall I am pleased with how I am managing my time. My meetings with my content advisor, Mrs. McDonald have been very helpful because she reviews my blog posts or current research and gives me suggestions about how I should proceed and specific topics I should look into. She is also very knowledgeable about the local dance scene and programs since she owns a dance studio herself. This has been particularly helpful this month since I am focusing on local programs that combat arts inequality. She has been able to recommend specific programs to research, as well as referring me to colleagues she knows in the industry that I could interview.

I am excited to continue my research into quarter two and see where it takes me!