Journey to Memphis
The GIA board and select staff members took to Memphis, Tennessee for the board meeting and other activities from March 8-10, 2023.
““If you invest in the arts, you invest in more of what makes Memphis, Memphis.””
For Thursday’s day of learning, the group attended a presentation on Memphis history by Dr. Charles McKinney, Neville Frierson Bryan Chair of Africana Studies and Associate Professor of History, Rhodes College, who said, "If you invest in the arts, you invest in more of what makes Memphis, Memphis." Then Rychetta Watkins, Director of Grantmaking Partnerships, Memphis Music Initiative, shared about More for Memphis, the organization’s community-driven plan to increase resources and improve long-term quality of life for residents in the Memphis and Shelby County area. "...fund all Black art. And fund abundantly," said GIA board member Amber Hamilton (Memphis Music Initiative).
““...fund all Black art. And fund abundantly.””
The board spent the late morning with site visits to Memphis Slim Collaboratory, Collage Dance Collective, and Hattiloo Theatre. Their co-directors said, "[they] formed in NYC in response to the lack of diversity in ballet, and that meant [they] needed to really address training. [They] came to memphis and began running both a company and a school, and very quickly were overflowing in our 2,000 sqft space. This building–through a robust capital campaign throughout the pandemic–had an urgency to be…[they] knew [they] needed to build this space in order to run [their] program.
They concluded the day attending a panel with Victoria Jones (TONE), Nykesha Cole (Shelby County), and Rachel Knox (Hyde Family Foundation) at Halloran Centre for Performing Arts & Education before visiting the National Civil Rights Museum. "A legacy of Memphis–not supporting blues music, not supporting Black artists–this is a cycle and a legacy of funding in Memphis," said Rachel Knox. "I would like us to build a new legacy, that is not built on the rears and sweat of Black people to get a quarter of what other people and artists get."
“ I would like us to build a new legacy, that is not built on the rears and sweat of Black people to get a quarter of what other people and artists get.”
The goal of this day of learning was to understand how Black arts and Black artists and communities are building, fighting for, and disrupting the funding ecosystem for the arts in Memphis, a majority Black city in the mid-south, that is still confronting the legacies of plantation culture, segregation policies and practices, and patterns of under-resourcing Black artists and culture.
