Eliot School of Fine and Applied Arts

Making by hand is an essential part of humanity, yet institutions that demonstrate our society’s perceived cultural values have excluded Black Indigenous and other people of color (BIPOC) from participating in and benefiting from their programing. The result? Relentless theft, appropriation, and devaluation of the labor, identity, and cultural integrity of BIPOC communities.

This prize would accelerate our current efforts by supporting Pathways to Success in Art and Craft (PSAC), a two-year initiative bringing together leaders from peer organizations across the country to increase access and opportunity for racially and culturally diverse communities to rise, lead, and succeed in the fields of art, craft, and design, enriching the sector with the cultural accomplishments from historically excluded groups. 

Recognizing we have greater impact when we work together, the Eliot School of Fine & Applied Arts will establish a leadership team that includes the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, Haystack Mountain School of Craft, and Crafting the Future. Through collaboration, discourse, and programming, we will build a more racially equitable arts and craft national sector, and in the process ensure that everyone has access to making things by hand and expressing their authentic selves.

I am a maker, artist, arts administrator, educator, mother, Guyanese American, and Black woman.

As a child I was thrust into a wealthy, white private school while processing the loss of my father. I became hyper aware of my race, family culture, and lack of power, and was ill equipped to navigate the blatant racism that plagued every aspect of my education. In art, I found an anchor when so much around me was unstable; I learned to survive and then thrive despite little to no reflection of my identity in these environments. 

In 2013, I began working at the Eliot School of Fine & Applied Arts as a woodworking teacher at a public school. To my students, I was the visible embodiment of possibilities for their future, possibilities they didn’t know were available to them until they saw me. I witnessed how students became invested when their identities were reflected in their surroundings, peers, and caring adults. 

I am one of few black women occupying woodshops, classrooms, and leadership positions at the gatekeeping institutions in my field. I am on a journey to change a field through making, dialogue, leadership, collaboration, and above all, representation.

America for the Arts reports, “two-thirds of public school teachers believed that the fine arts are...getting crowded out of the school day by a focus on math and English.” Additionally, “Black and Hispanic students lack access to quality arts education compared to their White peers, earning an average of 30 and 25 percent fewer arts credits, respectively”. 

Our youth aren't receiving arts exposure that enables them to build resiliency and fully utilize the creative process to innovate and solve the inevitable problems of our society. In addition, if BIPOC creatives make it to arts organization, they likely aren't able to stay because the organizations aren’t doing enough to transform their cultures to support varied identities. 

To  address challenges at the Eliot School, I’ve:

• Built Arts Pathways, a comprehensive suite of interventions with youth from under-resourced Boston communities, combining initiatives that introduce youth to the arts, empower youth through the arts, support collaboration with artists, and intensive professional development teaching artists.
• Led public conversations urging access and racial equity in art and craft, from two seminal talks on this theme as part of Boston Design Week to the Smithsonian’s African-American Craft Summit to the national Racial Equity Learning Group.

The Eliot School is more than an arts and crafts school. It's a place of art advocacy and art therapy, a community cultivator, a creative youth development organization, and much more. For many, holding so many identities is confusing and scary, but at the intersections of these identities is where we find the potential for transformation.

We didn’t invent art classes or artists in residencies. What makes us unique is that we see our youths as whole persons. They’re not just passing through us. We commit to providing holistic support to them for many years. Arts education is just the vehicle. The students are the masterpieces.

The long overdue recent racial awakening in the US is only amplifying the urgency of what we do.

We are resolved to continue to adapt our programs. We know that they are scalable.

We are resolved to speaking truth to power. We know we can transform cultures in other organizations.

The future we see is one where voices of the previously excluded are uplifted. One where there are many entry points to artistic success, to self expression, to communities that are vibrant and thriving.

The Eliot School’s mission is to inspire lifelong learning in craftsmanship and creativity for all. 

Our work brings us close to deeply ingrained inequalities in our city, through the lived experiences of our students. 

We believe that imagination and art-making can support questioning, engagement and recognition of one’s power to shape one’s world. As we survive the current health crisis and build art pathways for all ages, we remain fully committed to our mission – the mandate to serve “all.”

Building from our success from Arts Pathways and racial equity initiatives, Pathways to Success in Art and Craft will unfold with the following steps:

1. Regular peer discourse and action across the sector 
2. Identify and promote organizational infrastructure changes
3. Expand successful programmatic models
4. Conceptualize and promote public programs to pursue and achieve racial equity 

During the two-year period, activities will occur during periods of Research & Development, Program Pilot, and Program Implementation - consolidating peer learning and contributing collaboratively to the field.