On Diversity, Equity and Inclusion with Wendy Vincent and Erika Beatty

10/13/22 • 29 min

In this very first edition of AT THE MIC, we bring you a conversation on meaningful approaches to putting DEI practices into action with guest Wendy Vincent and moderator Erika Beatty.

Wendy is a Toronto based PR and Media Relations expert with a specialization in equity based strategic communications delivery. As a seasoned professional with specialties in media relations, communications and events planning, Wendy’s expertise spans the creative industries, as well as politics. Wendy’s delivery of equity and anti-Black racism work is informed by mindfulness and her lived experience as a Black woman.

In the cultural sector, Wendy has led PR campaigns for clients such as Afrofest, Nia Centre for the Arts, ACTRA Toronto, Planet in Focus Film Festival, among others. Past employers include The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), Harbourfront Centre, and Toronto Caribbean Carnival.

Halifax-based, Erika Beatty is known for strategic integration of new ideas and technology, creating collaborative partnerships and teams that excel, and developing organizations with good governance, sound strategy and sustainable finances. Following a 20-year career as chief executive of Canadian symphony orchestras she shifted to supporting content creation and the creative film industry.

Support for At The Mic:

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.

Show notes: Prepared by Wendy Vincent and Erika Beatty

For racialized, underrepresented people this is triggering, exhausting work, particularly for Black and Indigenous folk, given our recent news cycles. Mainstream society is accustomed to occupying the centre and needs to start to do their fair share of the work. This is not about ‘outreach’ this is about lifting up and re-centring arts and cultural organizations and how they look. As a sector, how can we value knowledge keepers (culture keepers) equally to donors (wealth keepers)? As organizations, how do we authentically and holistically embed equity work in our strategic plans and our budgets, to give those with equity expertise capacity to make systemic changes in the arts?

As a consultant: Be humble, don’t be a gatekeeper, share access transparently, look harder / go farther to deepen your pool of contacts, build trust with experts who don’t know you. Respect their seniority - again, be humble. Learn about white fragility, how to truly listen and unlearn, how to respond when your blind spots or biases are called out. Part of the authentic work is being intentional and empathetic toward eschewing easy traps that cause further harm (tokenism, virtue signalling, being a ‘white saviour’ etc.). Understand the risk to the sector of not making sincere and long-term investments in DEI.
For potential clients: Be aware of the trap of credentialism when hiring, lift yourself and your organizations up (don’t put the burden on racialized and diversity communities to do this work for you). Listen, be prepared to hear hard things, and be willing to unlearn other things. Representation is a requirement throughout your organization and its entry points: volunteer boards, executive leadership, arts and arts workers. Ensure DEI work is lead and championed by those who walk the talk - centre this work in your strategy, provide for it in your budget, and give it the respect of time and focus.
For ACCA as an organization: Seek out and recruit members who are experts in this field, invite speakers, engage organizations, create partnerships, establish generational access to underrepresented groups. When ignorance, bigotry or harm happens, say something. Prepare and release visible and accessible statements of equity solidarity (professionally produced by DEI experts), consider signing “pledges”, but do so with accountability; do the research to confirm that the pledge is authentic, and ask questions, or be prepared to answer questions if it is not. Make visible the harm/barriers that exist in this sector, and the work that is being done to re-centre and lift ourselves up.

Resources mentioned:

Konvo Media
The Arts Firm Inc.
Planet in Focus Film Festival
Afro Fest
Toronto Caribbean Carnival / Caribana Toronto
Black Like Me, past, present and future: Behind the Stratford Festival Curtain
Ndo-Mshkawgaabwimi - We all are standing strong
“White Fragility”
Dr. Afua Cooper

In this very first edition of AT THE MIC, we bring you a conversation on meaningful approaches to putting DEI practices into action with guest Wendy Vincent and moderator Erika Beatty.

Support for At The Mic:

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.

Show notes: Prepared by Wendy Vincent and Erika Beatty

As a consultant: Be humble, don’t be a gatekeeper, share access transparently, look harder / go farther to deepen your pool of contacts, build trust with experts who don’t know you. Respect their seniority - again, be humble. Learn about white fragility, how to truly listen and unlearn, how to respond when your blind spots or biases are called out. Part of the authentic work is being intentional and empathetic toward eschewing easy traps that cause further harm (tokenism, virtue signalling, being a ‘white saviour’ etc.). Understand the risk to the sector of not making sincere and long-term investments in DEI.
For potential clients: Be aware of the trap of credentialism when hiring, lift yourself and your organizations up (don’t put the burden on racialized and diversity communities to do this work for you). Listen, be prepared to hear hard things, and be willing to unlearn other things. Representation is a requirement throughout your organization and its entry points: volunteer boards, executive leadership, arts and arts workers. Ensure DEI work is lead and championed by those who walk the talk - centre this work in your strategy, provide for it in your budget, and give it the respect of time and focus.
For ACCA as an organization: Seek out and recruit members who are experts in this field, invite speakers, engage organizations, create partnerships, establish generational access to underrepresented groups. When ignorance, bigotry or harm happens, say something. Prepare and release visible and accessible statements of equity solidarity (professionally produced by DEI experts), consider signing “pledges”, but do so with accountability; do the research to confirm that the pledge is authentic, and ask questions, or be prepared to answer questions if it is not. Make visible the harm/barriers that exist in this sector, and the work that is being done to re-centre and lift ourselves up.

Resources mentioned:

Konvo Media
The Arts Firm Inc.
Planet in Focus Film Festival
Afro Fest
Toronto Caribbean Carnival / Caribana Toronto
Black Like Me, past, present and future: Behind the Stratford Festival Curtain
Ndo-Mshkawgaabwimi - We all are standing strong
“White Fragility”
Dr. Afua Cooper

Previous Episode

Introducing At The Mic / Au micro

Welcome to At The Mic, a podcast brought to you by Arts Consultants Canada, l’Association des consultants canadiens en art.

ACCA is Canada’s national association of professional consultants dedicated to supporting a vibrant and sustainable arts and culture scene.

Nous vous souhaitons la bienvenue au balado Au Micro ACCA. Quelques épisodes seront en français et nous vous offrirons tous les audioscripts traduits afin de ne rien manquer!

At The Mic is here to bring you conversations on contemporary issues in Canada’s Arts and Culture scene. In every episode we will feature an ACCA member who specializes in one of those issues in conversation with a guest moderator. Featured topics will include everything from leadership coaching to governance, new business models and equity in the arts. There will be a new episode of 30 minutes or so over each of the next ten months and we encourage you to check out those of value to you and your organization. We are here to give you a hand as we all navigate the changing world in which you operate.

ACCA acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts for this podcast series / L’ACCA remercie le Conseil des arts du Canada pour son soutien à cette série de baladosdiffusions.

Next Episode

Leadership Coaching: An approach for arts consultants

The field of coaching has recently exploded as has an expectation that everyone should be able to coach as part of their role as consultant, supervisor or colleague. But what is coaching exactly? Join Jewell Goodwyn and Lucy White as they explore what coaching is and is not, how coaching, mentoring, and consulting differ and how coaching skills can be useful tools to bring to your consulting practice.

Lucy White is a certified coach and cultural executive with over thirty years’ experience.

She crashed her first ACCA members-only meeting in about 2013 when still employed full-time as executive director of the Professional Association of Canadian Theatres.

As a Principal with The Osborne Group, Lucy serves as interim executive director for non-profit organizations. Recent cultural sector clients include: Koffler Centre of the Arts, Norm Foster Theatre Festival, Gardiner Museum, Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra, and Orchestras Canada.

Lucy’s long-time interest in personal and professional development in the non-profit sector led her study mindfulness practices, co-active coaching, and to become a Certified Positive Intelligence Coach. Lucy offers Mental Fitness for Nonprofit Leaders as well as individual coaching.

Lucy is an active volunteer and has served many boards including Mindfulness Everyday, Friends of the Osborne Collection of Early Children’s Books, CHRC and ACCA. She is a founder of the Canadian Arts Coalition.

Jewell Goodwyn, principal of J.R. Goodwyn Consulting, has worked in the not-for-profit arts sector for nearly three decades, with twenty+ years serving the artist run centre community as President and Founding Executive Director of Artist Run Centres and Collectives of Ontario (ARCCO.) Jewell established alliances and networks regionally, provincially and nationally to build support for the artist run centre community. Goodwyn is a founding member of Artist-Run Centres and Collectives Conference (ARCA). With fellow Ontario arts service organizations, Jewell also initiated the cross disciplinary coalition PASO-OPSA, to strengthen and increase public investment in the arts in Ontario.Since 2020, Jewell has served as an Artsvest Mentor, for Business of the Arts, and has worked with over 30 administrators of arts organizations, nationwide.Jewell is committed to cultivating environments that are equitable, inclusive and respectful. Jewell’s areas of expertise include organizational development, board governance, strategic planning, profile building and network-building.

Lucy White: