Announcing our 2024-2026 Strategic Plan!

A year ago, the USDAC team gathered for a strategic planning retreat. Over the course of several days we wrestled with deep questions, shared food and laughter, and walked away with a fresh mission and vision for our collective work.

We are so excited to share our reflections from that retreat– and the months that followed– in the form of our new strategic plan! You will recognize many themes from the first ten years of our programming, and you’ll also see that we are stretching our legs into new areas and sharpening our focus.

OUR NEW VISION STATEMENT

The U.S. Department of Arts and Culture contributes to the strength and vibrancy of the movement for collective liberation by resourcing and mobilizing cultural organizers and artists. 

As a people-led and people-centered arts and culture department, we merge organizing, political education, and performance to create a vibrant ecosystem that activates and harnesses spaces ripe for social, cultural and political change.

CENTERING ARTISTS IN OUR MOVEMENTS

We believe that artists and cultural organizers play a critical role in the movement for liberatory change. It is our belief that the movement for liberatory change will be more potent, powerful, and joyful when artists and cultural organizers are connected to and working in deep collaboration with movement organizations of all sizes and issue areas. We believe that by investing in artists and cultural organizers, we are contributing to a strong and vibrant movement ecosystem.

WHAT IS A CULTURAL ORGANIZER?

A cultural organizer utilizes a blend of strategic action and multidisciplinary creative practices to activate social change. They work to impact material change in people’s lives - politically, socially, ideologically and spiritually.

They are loyal to the connections they hold to people, community, land, and ancestry and see those connections as a strength. They actively center the people and communities who have been at the margins, while bridging themselves and others to a powerful vision of a liberated future.

STRATEGY AREAS

Our programs bridge the gaps between cultural organizers, artists, and social change movements through the following four strategies: 

• Political Education for Artists and Cultural Organizers:

We support and sustain a vibrant movement for liberatory change by investing in the leadership development and training of artist-activists and cultural workers. 

• Network Weaving:

We connect artists and cultural organizers to each other, and to movement organizations. Our programs create clear pathways for cultural organizers to connect, convene, and collaborate with each other and with movement organizations.

• Policy Shift:

We aim to shift the material conditions that artists and cultural organizers are currently working within by using policy as a tool. We do this by advocating for policy changes that improve and expand access and resources for cultural organizers.

• Play & Performance:

In the absence of a "real" federal department of Arts and Culture, we are “performing” the state, supporting the communities and work we'd want to see that agency support. We catalyze possibilities for new worlds, new systems, and new rituals through this play and performance.

Click for a link to the full strategic plan!

Unearthing Truths: Reckoning with Our Nation's Indigenous Boarding School History

By Jaclyn Roessel, USDAC Director of Decolonized Futures & Radical Dreams

Ben Nelms/CBC: Memorial at the Kamloops Indian Residential School

As a Diné child, I relished the time spent traveling to lectures that my dad delivered to museums and universities about his work as a photographer. The old Kodak projector slides dropped into focus with the rhythm of his lessons: Navajo people are the land, Navajo culture is Navajo survival. Native culture is Native survival. 

His talks would share what it meant to be Navajo. As he shared about his work he would illustrate the legacy of Federal Indian Policy and its treatment of Native people. I still couldn’t imagine at that age what the U.S. government boarding schools had done to attack the very essence of my identity and pride in my culture I held so dear. Each time he delivered a talk, he asked a simple question that rings in my head to this day: “how many schools do you know that have graveyards next to them?”

That question rings in my head again today, and the past several weeks as multiple First Nations and Indigenous communities have uncovered mass graveyards of people— many of them children— at the sites of former residential schools in Canada.

Here at the U.S. Department of Arts and Culture, we’ve long stated the importance of providing a land acknowledgement before events, gatherings and meetings. Whether in-person or online, the purpose of a land acknowledgement is meant to restore and name the ancestral and continuing bond between Indigenous peoples and the land, air, minerals, water, vision that we’ve stewarded since time immemorial. We see this as a small first step toward being in right relationship, toward true Native sovereignty. Today, we ask you to join us in recommitting to acknowledging not only the proper stewards of our land, but the specific violence that keeps that space in settler occupation. We ask you to commit to naming and contextualizing the violence that undergirds the places we call home. 

For most Americans, the idea of a boarding school might invoke images of affluent college prep schools, or repositories for disobedient students. For Indigenous people in the US and Canada, the term brings forth terror. Indigenous boarding schools were a tactical experiment, supported by the US War Department and the Department of Interior. After hundreds of years of attempted ethnic genocide, Indigenous people maintained their hard-fought connection to land and culture. The U.S. government made the strategic decision to wage a new kind of war. Alongside the implementation of the Dawes Act of 1887, the Carlisle Indian Industrial School was a targeted effort to obliterate the ties children had between their culture and land before they were fully developed.

The continuing slogan of the first boarding school, Carlisle Indian School was “kill the Indian, save the man.” A phrase illustrative of the genocidal agenda at the center of these institutions. The school opened in 1879 and swiftly became a “success” by white supremacist standards as the children were taught Euro-centric education and were severely punished for practicing any part of their culture, language or Indigenous way of knowings. 

Source: National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition

According to the National Boarding School Healing Coalition, “between 1869 and the 1960s, it’s likely that hundreds of thousands of Native American children were removed from their homes and families and placed in boarding schools operated by the federal government and the churches. Though we don’t know how many children were taken in total, by 1900 there were 20,000 children in Indian boarding schools, and by 1925 that number had more than tripled.” 

In Canada, from the 1800s to 1996 over 150,000 children were removed from their families and communities. Regardless of which side of the colonial border, Indigenous children were sent away from everything they knew and forced to assimilate into the settler culture. For countless Indigenous children, this meant pervasive abuse, psychological torment, cultural erasure and, as the recent headlines illustrate, murder.

In times like these I think of my dad, the photographer, how do you photograph the invisible? How do you document the erased? The Indian Boarding School Project created ghost generations. I have never wanted to become accepting of this horrific legacy in the U.S. education system. Children “graduated” from these hellish places to find a country that regarded them as subhuman, no matter how hard they’d had the culture beaten out of them. Many tried to return home and found they could no longer communicate with their own families, or practice their most sacred rites. Many lay in graveyards next to these schools, waiting to be found. We see now that the ghosts of this trauma want to be seen.

So how can we begin to be in right relationship? Here are some first steps: 

• Push for action to fund the U.S. efforts to investigate what happened to the thousands of children who didn’t return home: a call that Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland declared. Contact your representatives and let them know you support this call to action. 

• Incorporate and specifically name the violence of boarding schools into the land acknowledgements you are already giving. Be explicit about the history necessary for truth-telling. (Check out the USDAC Native Land page if you don’t know how to get started)

• Research the location of boarding schools near you. Since Carlisle proved to be “successful,” the U.S. and Canadian governments funded the opening of these schools across both countries, many times partnering with churches like the Catholic Church to operate these schools. For these reasons there are hundreds of schools that were opened across the U.S. and Canada.

• You can access the curriculum of the National Indian Boarding School Healing Coalition to learn more about the history of the boarding school here. 

• You can teach the children in your life about the boarding school experience. There is a very poignant, child-appropriate episode of Molly of Denali here from PBS. You can read and access questions to help have a generative conversation with the children in your life here. 

• You can participate in Orange Shirt Day, a legacy project meant to build awareness of the residential school project and its harmful events. 

Indigenous Nations and communities have long carried the living history and trauma of the boarding school era. It is time for allies to help in fighting for justice and truth. Without truth we will never reach the hope of reconciliation. 

Press Release: Announcing the 2021 Poetic Address to the Nation

The US Department of Arts and Culture joins with The Theater Offensive and MASSCreative to present the Poetic Address to the Nation, April 22, 7pm ET

The event will be the culmination of the 2021 People’s State of the Union

BOSTON, March 30, 2021 — The US Department of Arts and Culture (USDAC), The Theater Offensive (TTO), and MASSCreative announced today that they will be collaborating to present the seventh annual Poetic Address to the Nation on April 22nd, 7pm ET. Every year, the USDAC sponsors the People’s State of the Union, inviting community members across the country to host story circles in their own homes, schools, houses of worship, and community organizations, engaging in conversations that reveal the state of our union. The Poetic Address to the Nation invites writers, performers, and activists to present work inspired by the stories. TTO will produce the virtual 2021 Poetic Address to the Nation, featuring exemplary Boston-based and national performers, in partnership with the USDAC and MASSCreative.

The USDAC is a people-powered national action network (not a federal agency) composed of artists, activists, and allies inciting creativity and social imagination to shape a culture of equity, empathy, and belonging. Founded in 1989, TTO is a social change organization that presents liberating art by, for, and about queer and trans people of color. MASSCreative advocates for a well-resourced and equitable creative sector that is essential to the economic and civic vibrancy of Massachusetts.

“The combination of national scope and deeply-local roots is precisely what the USDAC stands for,” said the USDAC Co-Director Jordan Seaberry, and Chief Ray of Sunshine, Carol Zou. “The Poetic Address to the Nation seeks to build radically imaginative interventions across the country, and the values of TTO and MASSCreative are the embodiment of those principles.”

This year, community members across the nation were invited to reflect on the interlocking crises of systemic racism, eviction, poverty, access to healthcare, and more laid bare by COVID-19.

“The Theater Offensive’s deep roots in trans and queer communities of color allow us to bring artists and stories to the forefront that often are marginalized, especially as COVID has revealed some of the structural inequalities that have always marked our neighborhoods,” said Harold Steward, Executive Director and Cultural Strategist at TTO. 

“We stand with the belief that democracy is not a monologue, it’s a conversation,” said Tri Quach, Director of Engagement and Organizing at MASSCreative. “The Poetic Address to the Nation will demonstrate how vital that conversation will be to the future of our union.” 

The Poetic Address to the Nation is historically an in-person event; moving it virtually this year allows partners and participants to expand the event’s accessibility beyond any single space, bridging communities across geographic boundaries. Those connections are the foundation of what Story Circles can weave in communities across the country.

The 2021 People’s State of the Union

April 22, 2021

7 to 8 pm ET

Register by clicking here, or by visiting https://usdac.us/psotu/

About the US Department of Arts and Culture

The USDAC is a network of artists, activists, and allies inciting creativity and social imagination to shape a culture of equity, empathy, and belonging.

The USDAC affirms the right to culture and pursuing cultural democracy that:

• Welcomes each individual as a whole person

• Values each community’s heritage, contributions, and aspirations

• Promotes caring, reciprocity, and open communication across all lines of difference

• Dismantles all barriers to love and justice

About the Theater Offensive

The Theater Offensive’s mission is liberation. To present liberating art by, for, and about queer and trans people of color that transcends artistic boundaries, celebrates cultural abundance, and dismantles oppression.

About MASSCreative

MASSCreative advocates for a well-resourced and equitable creative sector that is essential to the economic and civic vibrancy of Massachusetts. Working with its organizational and individual members, MASSCreative advances the public policy, grassroots advocacy learning, and cross-sector alliances necessary to creating a Commonwealth where art, culture, and creativity are a valued part of everyday life.

On the Tragic Passing of Amelia Brown, USDAC Cabinet Member

“Emergencies not only create new problems but compound existing issues. They also offer opportunities to create new solutions.” 

- Amelia Brown

From Art Became the Oxygen; A Guide to Artistic Response

I’m deeply saddened to report the sudden death of my friend, colleague and fellow USDAC Cabinet member Amelia Ruth Brown. She died suddenly of a heart attack on January 16th at the age of 41. Amelia believed fiercely that art can transform, heal and repair communities, including those devastated by natural and manmade disasters. As an artist, writer, community organizer, activist and consultant, Amelia was a fearless force of nature, bringing light, love, energy and passion into every room she entered. Her heart was as big as her infectious smile; even if you just met her, she’d act like you were long-lost friends.

She traveled the world, sharing her research on the role of the arts and artists in repairing wounds, and advocated for the arts to be fully integrated in emergency relief efforts. From post-Katrina New Orleans to earthquake-devastated Christchurch, New Zealand, Amelia crisscrossed the globe several times, inspiring audiences and bringing practical solutions to light. She founded the nonprofit Emergency Arts, which was her passion, and worked in a wide variety of settings: LISC, AmeriCorps, Forecast Public Art, and the City of Minneapolis, where she helped develop DEI educational programs for city staff. She also led the charge to develop a resolution for the City declaring racism a public health crisis, leading to reallocation of city funds, and leveraged city funding of $100,000 to support artists’ response to the police killing of George Floyd. 

At her memorial service, held on the 23rd, there were numerous words used to describe Amelia: “warrior for justice, big-hearted, energy, spirited, kind, thoughtful, hopeful, caring, passionate, in-the-moment, nature-lover, supportive, soulful, and great hugger.” We need fierce warriors like Amelia—now, more than ever. Her work needs to continue, and I—along with many of you—remain committed to keeping her legacy alive as the world struggles with healing, recovery and rebuilding.  I invite you to read one of her last articles, entitled Art: Creating Possibilities in Emergencies. Rest in Justice, Amelia, and may your legacy live forever!

- Jack Becker, Public Art Mobilizer, USDAC National Cabinet