A New Arts Commons for Racial Equity
Art Department professor Kim Yasuda and her team will lead the new Arts and Racial Equity Commons at UCSB, after receiving a $175,000 grant from the UC Office of the President.
A team of UC Santa Barbara arts faculty and staff have received a $175,000 grant from the UC Office of the President’s initiative to advance faculty diversity by setting up an arts ‘commons’ that features an artists-in-residence program.
It is the first arts initiative in the UC system to receive this diversity grant from UCOP, the office of the UC president, since the grant program began five years ago.
The 3-year project establishes an Arts and Racial Equity Commons within the departments of Art, the History of Art and Architecture, and the Art, Design and Architecture Museum, that will partner in creating new models of cooperation to attract and retain diverse faculty.
Envisioned as a "tight-knit, supportive network for exchange, rooted in place," the pilot project provides a forum for diverse faculty and students from across campus to come together for research and curriculum development. It stresses co-mentorship and collaboration within the creative disciplines.
The commons will also host an artists-in-residence program to spur faculty research and best practices in teaching. And it will increase engagement with the public and augment partnerships with diverse communities beyond the campus.
Laurie Monahan is one of two lead professors on the Arts and Racial Equity Commons from the History of Art and Architecture department at UC Santa Barbara.
The new Arts Commons will be led by Art Department professor Kim Yasuda with professors Laurie Monahan and Sylvester Okwunodu Ogbechie of the History of Arts and Architecture department and Juliana Bruno, administrative coordinator for the arts cluster of departments and programs at UCSB.
"We are very pleased that our submission is the first one in the arts to be awarded this funding, not only on this campus but throughout the UC system,” Yasuda said.
UC Santa Barbara art history professor Sylvester Okwunodu Ogbechie specializes in the visual art of Africa and its diasporas.
The pilot program serves as "a catalyst” for leveraging existing staff, faculty and students across arts research and teaching at UCSB, she noted. Core to its mission is exploring ways to be more inclusive and co-mentoring between faculty and students through shared research and curricular innovation.
"The AFD grant call encouraged outside-the-box thinking, and this resonates with our arts community,” Yasuda said. “Our pilot is centered around the role artists could play in both cultural and institutional transformation."
Yasuda’s team prepared the proposal by drawing on first-hand knowledge gained from navigating their own careers as faculty and faculty of color, acutely aware of how the current public health crisis has intensified the precariiousness of advancement for early career faculty.
“Timing is crucial, as the global pandemic has amplified the unequal playing field of systemic racism and the urgent need for new models that decolonize our institutional spaces,” Yasuda said.
“The social isolation of the lockdown has also revealed the essential role of the arts in innovation, agency and resilience. It has renewed the value of the creative sector, which is now poised for prominence in a post-pandemic economy."
Juliana Bruno is Director of the Arts Administrative Support Center at UC Santa Barbara.
Susan Carlson, UCOP's vice provost for academic personnel, described the winning project as “innovative,” with a “clear commitment” to increasing faculty excellence at UCSB and modelling that for the entire UC system. It constitutes “a major contribution” by UC Santa Barbara to the UC’s advancement of racial equity in faculty, she said.
“The stakes are high for the funded projects, as these targeted expenditures will help UC demonstrate effective ways in which funding can improve climate and retention for an increasingly diverse faculty who enrich our teaching, research, and service missions,” Carlson said.