Afro-American Cultural Center Inc

Initiative for equity + innovationin the fall of 2018, the gantt center launched its initiative for equity and innovation, or iei, as a strategic and permanent response to the nationally viewed riots that ensued in 2016 as a result of the shooting of keith lamont scott, a black man killed by charlotte-mecklenburg police. Our strategy is to be proactive rather than reactive in our approaches to effect change. Through iei, we create cultural experiences and engage the public in conversations that build awareness and affects change. Harvard's chetty study further shaped our strategy to implement the initiative, which ranked charlotte 50 out of 50 in economic mobility among the nation's largest cities. The chetty study, along with the 2016 "uprising," put a spotlight on longstanding racial divides and undeniable barriers to economic mobility, quality education, and fair access to resources and opportunity.we are charlotte's largest and most prominent black-led nonprofit organization and one of the region's foremost arts institutions. Thirty-five percent (35%) of our city's population identifies as black, and they disproportionately bear the intergenerational impact of inequities. Our goal was to create a permanent institutional strategy that would allow us to adapt to the systemic needs of the black community. The initiative encourages all of us to answer the tough questions and to be a part of the solutions that promote a more just society for black people in america. Iei is, therefore, built upon six pillars:1. Leverage the arts to explore social issues, diffuse tensions, and introduce creative responses2. Heighten public awareness on issues of opportunity, fairness and justice;3. Engage the public on timely topics and community concerns4. Deepen capacity for understanding and navigating difference5. Equip the next generation with knowledge and tools6. Empower a broad range of partners across disciplines to function effectively as allieschange is unachievable if members of the charlotte community are ill-informed or uneducated about 1) the societal problems that thwart marginalized communities and 2) the resources and approaches that can effect change. With iei, the gantt center is boldly stepping up to address racial equity and opportunity issues through various african-american art forms and with creative experiences that educate by challenging biases, regressive ideas, and rigid mindsets. Iei has produced many outreach opportunities for us to connect with diverse audiences regionally in a more profound way. With the launch of iei, we continue to offer experiential learning sessions to corporate and community groups rooted in our exhibitions and focused on equity and unconscious biases. These learning sessions include interactive activities, guided tours, and q&a sessions. An array of professional, community, and corporate groups such as nascar, leadership charlotte, turner construction, ymca, crva, charlotte rescue mission, and the city of charlotte's citizen leadership academy have participated.

Exhibitions and programmingexhibitionsthe gantt center's artistic vision exemplifies the use of "arts as activism" while embracing innovation and intellectual thought, essential ingredients to fulfilling the critical need for a more vibrant charlotte. As an innovative institution that prides itself on the quality of artistic works and programs presented to the community, the foundation of our vision lies on the premise that african-american art and culture, although under-represented and underfunded, must claim and own its place among mainstream cultural institutions. The gantt's iei focus has served to heighten our awareness internally and shifted our organizational strategies and practices. We ensure that our exhibitions align with the most pressing needs of our community, as well as provide a platform for education through the lens of artists, as seen in exhibitions such as choose your weapon, visual vanguard, welcome to brookhill, jamel shabazz: reflections of a people and visible man: art and black male subjectivity.modain may 2023, the gantt center opened the mecca of digital arts (moda) digital arts studio, which has successfully cultivated and established community connections to support mentorship, career choices, and exposure to existing and emerging technologies for local youth. This initiative served as a valuable community asset, fostering the exploration of digital arts for emerging artists. The studio space was built to accommodate three key programming areas: photography, film/videography, and other related digital arts disciplines such as animation, illustration, character design, and ar/vr. A dedicated staff member is assigned to manage the digital arts studio, supporting the creative faculty collective, teaching artists, and developing relevant and substantive programming curricula to ensure equitable community access to digital art instruction and resources.family firstthe gantt center offers educational and artistic programs for adults and schoolchildren of all ages. Our family first program, sponsored by novant health, has allowed us to design programs primarily for students between the ages of 5 and 13. On the first saturday of each month, children and their families can engage in artistic and cultural activities and workshops that meet them where they are. Past family-first activities have included theatre arts, dance, mask-making, music-making, spoken word, poetry, painting, collage-making, and various other art forms.k-12 student educational programmingat the core of our educational programming is the newly developed envision me program, launched in the fall of 2020 in partnership with charlotte-mecklenburg schools. Envision me aims to reach more students and provide access to high-quality creative experiences for title 1 school students. This program provides access to valuable experiences with state-of-the-art equipment that utilizes the arts to build confidence, improve critical thinking, and ignite students' passion for learning across multiple subject areas. Students engage in semester-long workshops with a selected artist in residence.gantt teacher institute: building equitable classroomsin partnership with charlotte-mecklenburg schools, the gantt center's teacher institute is a one-day experience designed to help teachers build more equitable classrooms. As a foundation for cultural proficiency learning, the gantt commissioned works by photographer and image activist alvin c. Jacobs called welcome to brookhill. Through this and other thought-provoking exhibition projects like question bridge, teachers explore themes such as racism, gentrification, health, wealth, and education to help them identify their own biases. This process of self-discovery supports a better understanding of the issues marginalized students of color cope with outside of the classroom and how those issues can impact learning and behavior within the classroom. Gantt teacher institute sessions leverage exhibitions to increase engagement and discourse between educators to deepen their capacity for understanding and navigating differences in the classroom.