Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance

A history of equity, inclusion, and anti-racism work:celebrating its 10th anniversary, urban arts leadership (ual) has been the flagship program of the greater baltimore cultural alliance's equity and inclusion efforts. Ual serves as a career pipeline for emerging leaders from backgrounds that are underrepresented, particularly those of color, in the cultural workforce. Having deep experience in developing and operating ual, gbca is uniquely positioned to respond to the current economic and social upheavals exacerbated by the covid 19 pandemic and racial injustice. Working to address systemic barriers to equity in the cultural workforce, the program also focuses on tools and training for participating host cultural organizations aimed at strengthening their ability to successfully recruit, hire, and retain a more diverse workforce. Gbca received renewed support from the national endowment for the arts to deepen the work of the ual through its groundbreaking field school. The field school teaches the practices of folklorists as a means for artists and cultural organizations to engage authentically and respectfully in community-based programming. The first phase of this project, beauty beneath the blight, focused on the stories of pennsylvania avenue in baltimore city. Skills developed by fellows through the field school are replicable and carried with each into their respective placements and throughout their careers. Partners for this initiative include the library of congress and the smithsonian institute folklife center. Importantly, over the past ten years ual alumni have launched exciting careers and are putting their commitment to justice and their training to work. Organizations who have benefited by hiring alumni include the maryland state arts council, the national museum for women in the arts, maryland citizens for the arts, maryland volunteer lawyers for the arts, greater baltimore cultural alliance, and many more.

Over the past 20 years, gbca has refined its role as a wayfinder and primary source of information for the cultural community. Through its regional events calendar, culture fly is the most comprehensive source of events and now virtual experiences. The site is easy to use and highly searchable by interest, geography, discipline, and more. It includes a weekly newsletter to 16,000 subscribers, culture flyer, that promotes a wide offering of free and half priced events. Because gbca already had this infrastructure as soon as the pandemic was declared organizations were quickly able to begin promoting online events. And because of the increased needs for learning at home and well-being resources, those categories were quickly added to the search options. Just prior to the pandemic, the culture fly site had 103,000 views annually and an annual average of 400 event postings at any given time. These programs offer additional exposure for gbca members, saving on marketing costs and labor. Jobsplus is the number one resource for cultural positions in the region and is the most highly visited of all gbca websites. Gbca is also a source for up-to-date funding, anti-racism resources, advocacy, space, and other resources.