(upbeat music) - Live from your Public Media Studios, WVIA presents Keystone Edition Arts, Funding for this program is provided by the Lasc This is Keystone Edition Arts.

And now, Erika Funke.

(audience applauds) - Welcome to Keystone Edition Arts, where we're celebrating the arts in a special way.

We're coming to you from the 2023 ArtScene Conference and a program recorded here at the WVIA studios on September 19th.

Perhaps 100 artists, representatives of arts and cultural groups, educators, and those who care about the quality of life in the region have come together to engage with the topic (gentle music) creative relationships in a diverse world.

(music increases tempo) The theme grew out of a November, 2022 Keystone Edition Arts show titled Inclusivity and Diversity in the Theater.

The response was strong, and it's clear that many in the arts and cultural community here want to continue the conversation.

And anyone who weighed in has said no platitudes and nice position papers.

Let's speak plainly and directly and see where we are and where we need to go and how we can get there.

So that's the reason Jeffrey L. Bowman is sitting at this table.

He is our keynote speaker with a provocative topic, indeed: why diversity, equity, inclusion will not be enough to save arts and culture.

Jeffrey is co-founder and CEO of Reframe.

He's a two-time award-winning Wiley author and former senior partner and managing director at Ogilvy & Mather in New York City, where he pioneered the industry's first cross-cultural practice, modernizing the marketing and communications industry.

And he is a national arts and cultural consultant.

Also with us is Maureen McGuigan, Deputy Director of Arts and Culture for Lackawanna County.

She's a board member of PA Humanities and the Citizens for the Arts in Pennsylvania, Americans for the Arts, County Steering Network, and the National Association of County Arts Commission.

She also joins us here as a WVIA Community Advisory Board member, and she's also a poet and a playwright.

Yay, Maureen.

(everyone laughs) Dan Kimbrough is an artist, too, a filmmaker.

He's a founder of Park Multimedia, board member of PA Humanities and the Black Scranton Project.

He's producer of the Systemic podcast and tech director of the Scranton Fringe Festival.

And Francisco Torres-Aranda, Jr is president and CEO of Advanced Tech Materials.

He's worked with the US Department of Health and Human Services as a liaison between the immigrant community and various regional health organizations.

Francisco previously served on the PA Advisory Commission on Latino Affairs, and he is a member of the WVIA Community Advisory Board and a strong advocate of the arts.

Thank you all for being here.

We welcome you, Jeffrey, and we have - Thank you.

- a sense, and we know from the talk that you have given to us that you have a national, global perspective, in fact, and you're dedicated to helping us understand the big picture.

Now, tell us, help us to understand what you laid out for us in your presentation and it's this little time.

What's happening in the country, and what have we been missing?

- [Jeffrey] Yeah, no, thank you for having me.

In the simplest form, America is at a cultural crossroads.

When we think about the practice of diversity, equity, and inclusion developed in the Civil Rights era, it was originally developed, designed, to go from a segregated workplace society to integrated.

With the notion that there is a new majority, the question now becomes, how do we transition to actual change?

At the time of diversity, equity, and inclusion was developed and designed, Black and brown or women and BIPOC, well, BIPOC, specifically, accounted for less than 10% of the US population.

So the days of diversity, equity, and inclusion, brands of businesses getting credit for integrating are old.

Now we need to move to this idea of changing brands or businesses because most institutions were designed to develop not for BIPOC as the center of that experience.

- [Erika] Okay, okay, and what you've been able to help us understand here in our region, we are not New York, we're not Los Angeles, we are much more a smaller demographic region.

But you're telling us that the principles that you have come to understand about, that apply to us and how so then?

- And and more so, you know, let's take it outta context in terms of urban areas.

When you looked at the census, when you look at the changing face of America from a demographic standpoint, regions like this actually are accelerating higher in terms of diversity, a new minority majority, and because of the size and because of the opportunity, the stakes are even higher.

No different from 100, 150 years ago when the immigrant population showed up for coal.

Now you have an immigrant population that now should set up the region for the next 50 years.

So it's a conversation between the old and new.

Now, you need a framework.

Now, you need a blueprint for how to move the country, region, city from this idea of integrating to actually changing the infrastructure, the systems, the strategy, the structures specifically within regions like this across the US.

And the last thing I'll talk about and as it relates to smaller towns and cities, you guys are actually at an advantage, not a disadvantage, because you're actually able to change structures in a much more accelerated way than if you were to go to New York, and what some will think, as you know, the center of this debate.

In actuality, you guys are the center of this debate.

- [Erika] And you tell us also in addition to that, we are gathered under the umbrella of the arts.

Arts and cultural organizations have a role to play in this acceleration.

- Absolutely, absolutely.

When you think about arts and culture as a sector, and you look at other industries of a specific city, arts and culture plays a significant role in terms of tax dollars.

Meaning that if you were to invest in recruiting companies, when companies show up, they have the citizens that are here and the citizens that come.

It is proven that when you have a creative economy, arts and culture at the center, you're now going to invest in creators that then create jobs and opportunities that go beyond for this region, the distribution center.

These are jobs that will likely pay higher over time.

The dollars are gonna stay in within that community.

And you're not gonna have to subsidize these, you know, global organizations that move here wanting a tax break.

Whereas you actually get to build it from within.

And it's proven that you're gonna get a higher return on tax dollars as a result of that.

Arts and culture's at the center.

Creative economy is the future and current present.

If you look at all the top 10 cities, Silicon Valley is a creative economy, right?

Austin, Texas, creative economy.

New York City, creative economy.

- Wow.

And this is so perfect as we go to you, Maureen McGuigan, because we know that you, as Deputy Director of County that has resources to invest in artists and doing the work that Jeffrey has just described.

What do you, as a grantor, because that's what you often do, you also spur activity, but what are you seeing your role and how has it made an impact?

'Cause you've been in that position for some time?

- [Maureen] Well, first of all, I wanna say I come to this topic very humbly.

I am not an expert.

In fact, it's great to be around people who have inspired me in hearing the talk today, but I feel like I am in a position of power and privilege.

I mean, not me, but my department, but I also am the one that stewards those funds.

So I take that as a very serious responsibility, especially 'cause our funding is tax funded.

How am I involving the community at-large?

And who hasn't been at the table and who you might not even have the information on how to go about this, so I think, I don't know if this is the word you used earlier, Jeffrey, but you were talking about just observing and seeing, well, what's not happening?

So I started doing that a few years ago and thinking, what can I do to better engage people, so tactically, because it would be great in a perfect world if we all went through the same pipeline in this perfect, (laughs) (everyone laughs) like, equitable place, but that's not the reality.

It's changing.

So I started putting policies in place that our grants, you know, we would, and I say it right in the application, you know, they would have to be of a certain level, of course, but, you know, if you were a community that represented DEI, I'd put A and also LGBTQ plus in that, you would, you know, we would consider that maybe against another grant, which, of course, you get some pushback on that, but I have no problem defending that because there's been hundreds of years of systemic (laughs) inequities, and I think we need to invest in that right now.

So I'm clear about that.

I have discretionary funding, but I don't take that lightly.

You have to fit certain criteria.

So if you are a newer group representing one of those communities, or I even think geography, because in Lackawanna County, we have some municipalities who are engaged, so those are my two focuses.

So, I encourage groups to come and talk to me about their idea even 'cause maybe they don't have experience with grant writing or maybe they haven't, again, been invited or even know about it.

This is some tactical.

I join every single Facebook group I can.

(everyone laughs) I'm with Black Scranton.

There's a Latinx group.

There's a Queer NEPA because that's important, and then I can post things; I can let people know.

I think you were talking earlier, too, about just creating informal spaces for people.

I always say it starts with coffee.

So groups shouldn't be afraid to go out and see what's going on in the community and then talk to those community leaders about getting involved.

Go to people's events.

I know we're all busy, but we need to think about DEI as not something extra.

(laughs) It's just something you do because people are people.

I hire artists to represent different communities, but I think of them as artists first.

There's so much talent in our community, but maybe people haven't been asked.

Ask yourself, why are your boards not more diverse?

Who's on your committee?

Are you belonging to other committees that are dealing with that?

So I try to strive for that in my department and working with other groups, encourage them, or maybe they don't know what to do yet.

They're just at the beginning of the journey.

But, yeah, I think observation is a good word, and then questioning, and then making a tactical plan of how am I going to change that?

'Cause I don't think it's ever intentional.

I think sometimes we just get in habits, or we're not necessarily, we're so busy we're not thinking about that.

- Yes, yes.

And it's wonderful that we can move to you, Dan, because we mentioned that you are a filmmaker, so you are someone who is an artist, as Maureen is.

And I think that's an important thing as well.

But the, and all the boards that you sit on and all the action that you work with.

You've been doing, you say, DEI work, or that kind, for 25 years or something.

(everyone laughs) It's what you do.

You breathe it and live it in that way.

And so, what's fascinating to us today, when you're wearing your PA Humanities hat of the many things that you do for the community and the region and the state is that PA Humanities has as its mission a very important role that includes the arts.

It is not just what we might think of as the, and your mission and name has changed over time.

And what it has done is all I could hear when, Jeffrey, you were giving your talk, all I could think of was PA Humanities and how PA Humanities is not just rebranded a name, and so that it's, people remember it better or whatever it is or recognize it.

But fundamentally, the way PA Humanities does granting, works with communities and people, is fundamentally different, old and new.

Can you tell us something about that?

Because it is just what Jeffrey is calling us all to do.

- And before I even go to that, I wanna go back to something that Jeffrey said, and a large part of what he talked about was the idea of that DEI in the sixties and seventies comes to this idea of integration, and I agree 100%, but I also would think that we have to acknowledge systemically that integration was a hoax and that integration was always one way.

It was never about going into BIPOC communities and funneling American dollars that way.

It was always about bringing BIPOC communities into white spaces.

And so, if you look at the Negro Baseball League, it folds because of the MLB, not because of loss of talent, but because of integration.

The amount of Black-owned businesses in the United States dips after integration because the Black butcher that actually supported the Black community when they couldn't get meat from the white butcher is no longer in business because all of those dollars are going into the white community.

So integration was never two-way.

And so, when we talk about this notion that DEI was based on integration, you're 100% right but understand that integration was never about BIPOC communities.

It was always about how do we get these communities into these spaces?

And a lot of the businesses and things and hotels, movie theaters, butcher shops, whatever you wanna name that were Black owned, Hispanic owned on the West Coast, where you would get a lot of times, all go under because that money is no longer supporting those communities.

It's supporting the majority.

And so, when we are talking about this idea of DEI in the future, we have to understand that our base was completely flawed from day one.

And I think that when we go to PA Humanities, that's one of the things that we do is that we've really sort of thrown all of the traditional ways of how we talk about grants out the door.

We want advisory boards in communities handling the money that we give to represent that community.

So it's not only about, yes, we've granted this money, but we want you to put together an advisory board that represents your community, who knows it better than we do.

We get that we don't know you in your community, whether it's Monroe, whether you're in Pittsburgh, in Allegheny.

I think Allegheny.

Whether you're down in Delaware County, I mean Dauphin County.

We don't know everything.

You are the experts in your community, so we wanna allow you to really sort of build that up and trust it.

But we are gonna trust you in that process, 'cause it is about the relationships that we build over time, and with that, we have a real big focus right now looking at our DEI, and we have four pillars.

Our people, the impact, our community.

I can't read my own, and the culture.

I can't read my own handwriting.

But we've taken, I've been on the board for a year, and the majority of our discussions over the past year has really been how are we looking at DEI?

How better can we serve these communities in a way that is change based, not just numbers and looking at metrics.

We don't care about the metrics at the end of the day.

We, even in our last board meeting, one of the things that we shifted from was this idea of a return on investment to return on influence.

What is the return on influence?

So when we have people come to us and say, we have money that we want to give, we wanna change the narrative.

There's no return on investment.

I can't give you a balance sheet of what your money went to, but here's the influence.

Here are the stories of the community that you actually helped with this funding going forward.

And those are the things that we're trying to do working with grantees and changing it.

I know earlier there was discussion about whether, you know, trying to use video to apply.

We're doing that; we have a wings spraying grant that's actually out right now that you can apply and you can submit a video.

We're not thinking about these things anymore.

We're trying to put them in place, and if it doesn't work, we'll figure out how to make it work, but we've realized capacity-wise, we can't keep trying or debating on all these things.

We have to put things in place.

And so, our goal is really looking and listening and observing our communities and figuring out what best serves them, but also for us, everything's on the table now because the old ways worked for the old guard and what they were trying to do, but we wanna move forward, which means that we have to be willing to really stop and think about almost any capable way of removing barriers and access, meeting our grantees where they are, but also educating them.

Like, if you don't understand what the budget looks like or who your fiduciary person is, that doesn't mean don't apply.

Let's talk; let's have a conversation.

Let's figure out how we can find that person so you can check that off on your grant and keep going forward.

Those are the things that we're really trying to do in changing that process so that it's not scary, but it's a group inclusive relationship that we're building with our grantees.

- And that sounds just like the kind of - Yeah, definitely.

- Change that's fundamental, right?

- Yep, structural, shifting institutional norms and, you know, I like to say the outcomes reflect the ambition.

- Yeah, yes, and we wanted to bring into the conversation Laurie Zierer, who is Executive Director of PA Humanities, and we just wanted to salute you, Lori, and Dan and Maureen and all of your staff on the 50th anniversary of PA Humanities.

We are so fortunate to have all of you with us and to acknowledge the evolution or the really fundamental change.

And, Laurie, I don't know whether you would be willing, but if you would, because picking up on everything you said, Jeffrey, it couldn't have been easy, and there must have been bumps on the road.

And Laurie, as executive director, if you had a chance to talk to us about whether, if groups are listening and want to engage in this systematic change, which you've just described so well for us, Dan, and what you are talking about in terms of systemic change, Laurie, just what are some of the things that, when you're going to do this kind of shift, do we, as an executive director, what do organizations need to be alert to?

- [Laurie] I think the first thing that you need to do is really look deep within and begin to think about arts and the humanities and how they may need to be redefined in order to step into this space.

We're always talking about, you know, outside of our organizations that there's a problem to be solved, that we want to be able to engage with other folks.

Maybe the issue is that we need to be more people centered.

And that's the first step that we took, that it was not about the humanities, but it was deeply about people first.

That's the first step.

- Okay, that's wonderful.

And you, I know have, you were there when the board members of the Pennsylvania Humanities Council would get a stack of grants to review, and we said, "Well, no, yes, no, yes."

That kind of thing, we'd have deliberations.

I was fortunate enough to be part of the council in those days, but it really is a sea change.

And as Dan was saying, this is a remarkable way of engaging with communities, and you are gifted with a terrific staff and the ability to listen.

Can you give us a an example of one thing that so far has just taken flight for you in this new dispensation?

- Oh, you know, I think the most important thing is that we're learning all the time, and this process was us learning and fundamentally giving up power and letting people lead the process, not define what it was for them, and we started doing this, actually, you know, I remember so distinctly in Chester, Pennsylvania, you know, I described this experience as, you know, we went, we were invited into Chester to work with a number of artists, and we were brought in on a bus.

(laughs) And as soon as we entered the main street, I said, "We've gotta get off the bus."

It's not about being on a bus.

It's about creating those relationships and developing them deeply with others in order to build this practice with, not for.

- Thank you, and again, congratulations to all of you.

And I hope that people here will feel comfortable in contacting, yes.

- You know, I love the language she used, and the language being most, most institutions, they wanna start from the outside in, whereas most organizations should start from the inside out.

And a lot of times, organizations start from the outside in, in terms of trying to fix the outside because of financial reasons, right?

Risk associated with the organization.

They wanna, you know, fund X, Y, and Z when it should start from within because of a lot of the institutional decisions that have been made have barriers embedded in them from within itself.

And so, typically, a dynamic leader, a board member, association comes in, but the question now becomes how do you sustain that?

And that's by putting those policies, procedures, et cetera, in place with those stated goals and ambitions that go beyond your tenure in most cases.

- And greetings, Francisco.

- Thank you.

- So good to have you with us.

You're someone who can surely relate to this entire discussion.

You, especially Jeffrey's roots in the business world, because you are in the business world, but you have civic and societal concerns and concerns about arts and culture, and you are based in Drums in the Hazleton area.

Tell us, if you would, how you are working and what you are finding are the challenges and the rewards of working the way you are.

- Absolutely.

Well, as the Commissioner for Latino Affairs for Governor Wolf, one of my charges was to find ways to bring the community together.

What were the areas that were lacking?

What were the bridges needed to be built basically in all the different aspects of society in our region, all the way from the different services.

And one is, obviously, is arts and humanities.

And what I found in that capacity is that in Hazleton, Hazleton wanted an integration project, where I serve as vice president.

They found a way to reach the parents through the children.

When the children start participating in activities, all of a sudden the parents took an interest, and they started volunteering at the community center.

They actually participate in events that are offered, but it was the children that opened that door.

So I would suggest in any outreach that we wanna do, specifically, I'm speaking from the Latin community at this point, if you reach the children, even though the parents may be busy with a million things, because it's between their work capacity, their all the other things they have in their life, the children are the ones that'll introduce them to different art exhibits, different programs, different initiatives.

Give you an example, you know about the mural that they-- - Tell us.

- It was a mural that started organically at the community center.

And what it was the children wanted to, they invited the children to start painting on the walls.

The community center, it used to be a school, so it has a lot of wall space, and the walls were kind of drab.

Its gray walls.

So Lynn Curry at the community center suggested, why don't we do something with this wall space?

So they invited the children to start painting murals.

And these murals, a lot of the children that we have in our community center are from the Dominican Republic.

And what you'll see is, you'll see a cultural.

I love a cultural bridge because they'll do something that represents the island, and then they'll paint something that represents their new home in Hazleton.

So, the way I see it in myself, it's almost a psychological way for them to come to a new home and know that they're welcome and they don't have to forget about their roots.

So I think that's a program that really does show when you reach out to the children and you make that extra effort, you can build something beautiful.

- [Erika] Yes, yes, and Dan, you were, and Francisco were talking before we started about your agreeing with him 100%.

- [Dan] I do; one of the things, Hey, Rose.

One of the folks that I'm working with Roseanne Rosez.

She has this, the teen, the CYC teen drop-in shelter.

And a lot of the students that are there and talking with Rose about a year ago, these kids are the students that, when career opportunities or things come up, guidance counselors aren't reaching for them to pull them outta class.

These are kids that a lot of people are forgetting about, but they have the same concerns, job security, what's the future look like in NEPA?

Is this a place for me?

And so, working with Rose, who started this after-school program with them where right now it's every two weeks, but we're trying to bring in different community partners to come in and talk with these students one-on-one about the fact that there are things here, here are some cool opportunities.

You don't have to go to school, you can start in a trades program, you could do these, but there's someone coming to meet with just them to talk about these things, and then when these kids get to go home, they get to tell their parents, oh yeah, I heard from this group, or I talked to this person, or here's swag from this.

Like, there are people who care, but you start with the children.

And if the children are motivated by something, parents by nature, we're going to support our kids.

And if the community supports our children and the parents are supporting our kids, that changes the future.

That's change, it's not just the DEI, it's an actual change agent.

It's what he's doing is working, and so I applaud you for that.

- What I'd wanna also explore a little bit is what Jeffrey mentioned, the idea that a lot smaller community sometimes has the advantage to bring change quicker.

Because I give you an example.

You probably know this, Erika, but Hazleton went from being 20% Latin to over 60% Latin within 10 years.

So when you have that extreme change, everything has to change quickly as well.

All the services, all the everything, all the outreach that you conduct.

So there, I, to a certain extent, I think smaller; The larger communities could learn from the smaller communities in some cases.

We're kind of the microcosm.

- And doing the work that we do and we work with arts and culture organizations, a lot of the executive directors that say we believe in educating the kids, right?

But then I say, well, where are the children's museums located?

- Good point.

- Infrastructure, institutions.

Think about this year investing in the next generation of the valley, right?

If you're investing where the growth is, you're gonna create a much more economically stable region by putting those institutions is where the growth is happening, not away from the growth, and then asking them to come, right?

- Right.

- Go where the growth is, establish the institutions, and if you go to most cities, the culture institutions are not where the growth is happening.

(everyone laughs) You gotta go to Lincoln Center, downtown.

You gotta go to Harlem, Brooklyn, Queens.

Those institutions are not established in the same way.

The people that are funding those institutions fund institutions the way that they wanna see them, not the way that the people that they're serving wanna see it, in most cases.

- Yes, right.

- I was just having a dialogue about this because some, of course, you want people to come to your organization, but the reality is, this might sound like a harsh question, but why should people come (laughs) to your institution?

What are you providing to communities?

And I think right now in the world, it's important to go out to communities.

So, you know, as much as you want people to come into the space, which that's a goal, how are you connecting in areas that may be for various reasons they can't get there or they don't see it part of their daily life.

- And even, I would say, one of the things, and I do do EA training as well, one of the things that I often tell people is go to church and not in the literal go to church, but like, especially thinking of Hazleton and Wilkes-Barre in like the high Hispanic population, a lot of businesses are like, well, how do we reach the Hispanic population?

I can tell you where the majority of them are Sunday morning, and you're probably Catholic as well, so why don't you just go to Catholic?

And I've been to Catholic churches.

You follow the same script.

Even if I don't know the words, I know when to stand, I know when to sit, I know when to kneel.

You could go and become part of that community, make friends, don't ask, just to become part of the community, build the relationship, show up, and then, eventually guess what?

You have a relationship built.

So when you want to ask the question, you know who to ask.

It's not, ugh, Hispanic person, let's call.

(everyone laughs) But that's what we've been doing.

Or you could literally find where pockets of the groups that you're trying to work with congregate on a regular basis and become a normal person there.

And then in six, seven months, ask that question because now they know you, and they trust you.

- And so, the center, you talked about, Francisco, Hazleton Integration Center is in?

- [Francisco] It's right in the middle of Hazleton, yes, 225.

- So there you go.

That's a okay and accessible and used all the time, right?

- We do.

When they first opened, they weren't sure what the volume would be, and it was over 1,000 people a week just to start, and it's been constant since then.

So, it's really served its purpose.

We're very happy with it.

- And the only, I would counsel and advise anyone, you're the expert in terms of granting and building cultural institutions is that imagine it's very similar to public accessible radio and television was created at a time when America was shifting and changing, right?

And I'm sure there were a few years as your advertising people went on or as your folks went on, they had to educate what public radio is, what public TV is.

Think about art, you know, predominantly in America, it's institutionalized, right?

So you have new people entering these spaces that have never even heard of institutionalized art.

Like, I can create a career.

I can build an economic power center.

Can't even fathom.

So you have to educate as though you're back in the seventies, early eighties, and it's gonna take some time.

But that is how you develop an economically secure region by investing in the youth, in the places and spaces that they are.

- And I would expand on that just one small step is that art doesn't have a language.

So you can be here and the newcomer doesn't speak the language and participate right away.

That's the advantage of that, the space.

- That's right.

And if you're just joining us, we're talking about creative relationships in a diverse world.

Discussion recorded here at the WVIA studios during the Art Scene Conference in September, 2023.

Joining us, Jeffrey L. Bowman, keynote speaker for the conference, author and co-founder and CEO of Reframe; Maureen McGuigan, Deputy Director of Arts and Culture for Lackawanna County, a board member of PA Humanities, and a poet and playwright; Dan Kimbrough is a filmmaker and founder of Park Multimedia, also a board member of PA Humanities and the Black Scranton Project; and Francisco Torres-Aranda Jr, President, CEO of Advanced Tech Materials.

And you have worked on the national level and the state level, and you are also a great advocate of the arts and young people, too.

And I would like to turn, if he could make it to a microphone, to Mayor Michael Lombardo of Pittston, and he's gonna make it over because Mayor Lombardo, you have a vision for the city of Pittston that embraces the arts wholeheartedly.

And I wanted to ask you, what about the impact of public arts in terms of diversity, inclusion and the conversation that we're having, because you really are one of the leaders in our region.

- [Mayor Lombardo] Well, thank you, Erika.

You know, I think if you look historically at how areas, especially geographically settled, they originally, especially in this country, you know, they settled around some industry, and then, as those areas got stronger, the cities, the boroughs, the townships, they really became strong in terms of community.

And I think what's appropriate to understand about community, it's not about fitting in, it's being a part of it.

And those are two distinctly different ideas.

So, you know, for us in the city of Pittston, when we were looking at remaking our city, because industry changed, we wanted to think about what were the opportunities, what was a good solid foundation that we could set, you know, that forward progress on that would open the door and make people want to be part of our city?

And I've always believed that education and the arts as a result are one of those things.

I mean, they're transformative.

They make people think, and they make people step back.

You can like it or you can dislike it.

But I think if you have good discussions, and that's really the way forward.

It's not about being right or wrong.

It's about looking at something and saying, Hey, I like the way this looks.

Or maybe I don't like the way it looks, but I like that over there because it's a little bit different.

So I think, you know, that has really worked for us.

You know, we are gonna continue to invest in the arts because I think it really creates opportunities, and it really opens a door for diversity.

And I think it opens the door for organic and non-forced diversity.

And I think that's the difference.

So we're gonna continue to focus on that.

- [Erika] Great, and one of the good things, too, is that you are talking with mayors across the commonwealth about these matters.

- [Mayor Lombardo] Sure, I mean, local, we would meet with all the mayors regionally, but I'm also, this year, since past October, the president of the Pennsylvania Municipal League, and it's given me the opportunity to move from larger cities like Philadelphia to, you know, the other big P city in the Commonwealth.

(everyone laughs) I like to tell Mayor Gainey that all the time, but, you know, those opportunities to go out and speak about those things, and it's very interesting, you know.

I was having this conversation as a sidebar before this session that, as I've done that, very few of our conversations on this local level have been about the things that divide us on the state and the national level.

They've been about real things, real things that we need to do, so I think it's been very interesting.

We've been very fortunate in the city to be able to host a bunch of other cities that have come and look at our model of how we've gotten to where we are.

We're not perfect.

We have a lot of work to do.

But I think we're willing to learn, and I think, you know, somebody said earlier that, you know, learning is something that we keep doing, and I come from an educational world.

I'm a school psychologist by training.

I spent, you know, 20 plus years in public education.

So how I respond and how I lead is very much driven by that idea.

- Okay, thank you.

And thank you for being with us You're welcome, thanks for - today.

- having me.

(audience applauds) - Thank you.

(audience applauds) And yes?

- I just wanted to build on, 'cause Mike's a great leader in the public arts sector, I have a lot of respect for what Pittston's done.

But I think as both a funder or an organization, when you're doing programming, it matters who's seen to these points about being engaged, who's on stage, who's in the painting?

So we've tried to implement some policies if we fund a mural or even run it ourselves.

You know, I've asked, make sure that there's BIPOC representation or persons with disability.

Because when you see that picture, if it's all white (laughs) or, you know, able-bodied or, you know, it matters that children, especially, see themselves.

And, you know, we recently funded a program that was for ATARS at Marywood run by Jenny Gonzalez, wonderful program.

We wanted to bring in artists, but it was important to her and myself that they were represented the community, that they were Hispanic artists.

And I'm trying to build that database myself.

So I actually hired someone from out of the area because I think that's important as I'm trying to build more local artists, but yeah.

- I think the key to that is that you don't view yourself as someone who works for these organizations, and that they're not coming to you to work for you, that you work with people.

And that's one of the things, even at PA Humanity, we're big on that as well, but I think that that's one of the things that, if you're a funder or you have the ability to help folks to understand that you need, you're working with these communities, and that it's not your vision.

You're helping to amplify, but you're working with them, and that you are the subject matter expert when it comes to the funding and how that's gonna go and the structure of all that.

But when it comes to their community, the art, if it's art, specifically, or if it's music or whatever it is, that at the end of the day, you're working with them, and that it's your goal to help uplift their vision in the best sustainable structurally sound way possible.

But it's their vision and that we work with organizations, not for, and they don't work for us either.

- [Jeffrey] I shared this with a group one time in, recently this summer, and it was grappling with, you know, an art form being sourced from a place of scarcity, right?

We're celebrating 50 years of hip hop, right?

Culturally, place of scarcity in the seventies.

It took over an art form that was called rock and roll, right?

It took over a fashion industry called street wear now.

It took over public art.

A lot of things that came out of, let's say, and I'm not an art history person, I promise you, (everyone laughs) the modernist era, hip hop took over, culturally.

If you go to France, Versailles, (pronounces VER-SILE) is that kinda right?

- [Erika] Versailles, (pronounces ver-SIGH) right.

- Versailles, you look at all the murals and the pictures, they're not here anymore, right?

So the question becomes, as cultural institutions build these institutions, you may not be here anymore for the next creators from a generational standpoint because artists are going to create.

The question is the institutions that typically fund those creators sometimes don't really need that source.

All it took in the Bronx was a blackout.

They went and got the equipment.

They set up the speakers, the turntables.

The Latino community, and the African American community came together.

And that was the birth.

There was no grants.

There was no (everyone laughs) financial backing.

They were creators, and you want creators to be that, right?

And so, if I had to go to a bank every time I needed money, I wouldn't get it, right?

I create the opportunity.

And so, when you think about it in that context, this art form, now 50 years old, took over industries that once belonged to the old.

All the fashion houses reflect that art form.

So, in that context, as you guys think about the next 50 years, what do you want to be and say as it reflects to the new majority and that art form that they bring from their countries of origin here to this region.

And then how do you then translate that to economic development and opportunity for jobs?

- And that's something you're contemplating, isn't it Francisco?

- Oh, absolutely.

We have to always remember United States is a melting pot, and it's never gonna stay the same.

Whatever we think is all-American, well, eventually, it's gonna be all as American and salsa.

(everyone laughs) That's just the reality of the life we live.

And that's the reality, that's the beautiful, beautiful part of our country.

- You know, it's really funny.

You say that we, 2018, I think it was when I, my students were working on a documentary for Eckley's Miners' Village, and one of the people spoke, and you talked about this earlier, that the sort of economic change in America from 100 years ago, like we have to almost go back to that.

And it was the funniest thing.

He was talking, and he says that it was weird, he said he used to hear stories of how weird it was is that if you were a shop owner at the mines, he spoke a little of every language because you didn't know where the people that were working the mines literally came from the day before.

So you became multilingual, not out of this earnest good nature, I'm going to be this worldly person.

To me to sell you flour, I gotta be able to speak a little Lithuanian.

I have to be able to speak a little German.

Like, I don't know where they're coming from.

That was the model in NEPA at the turn of the century was the idea of we are a global community, and so, I need to be able to speak to and interact with a global community.

That was here.

It doesn't reflect it today by a long shot.

But that was where we were at the turn of the century, and it's been documented, so that notion that we need to go, we may need to go back to some of these old models where we actually grew by embracing that change is 100%, too.

Because for this region, that is legitimately how we became the coal industry that we were.

Yes, it's gone, but at one point, we were a multilingual, multi-class, and multicultural community that was thriving here.

We can get back to that.

- And if any of you in our audience are so moved, please come to the microphone, and we only ask you to come to the microphone so that we can all hear and our viewers would be able to hear your question, but please, if there's anybody?

Matthew look poised.

(everyone laughs) - [Matthew] Hi Matthew Hinton, formerly of Gaslight Theater, and I teach at Misericordia University.

Thank you all for being here and talking about these important issues.

I'm wondering, you're talking about the old guard and the new guard and I'm wondering how we can continue to help the younger generations, the new guard, those young people here to be thinking about the growing it from, you know, from local, you know, all politics is local, all change is local, all art has the potential to be local, so how can we keep them in that message, keep them looking forward to enact that change going ahead?

- [Jeffrey] I'll answer the question from a capital improvement standpoint.

Are there gonna be any new cultural buildings being built?

That's the question.

For the reason, are there capital wise?

- I know of a pocket market that's going up.

- I say that to say anything that's being created should-- - Restoration.

- I'm sorry?

- The Irem Temple Restoration Project.

- Oh, that's gonna be great.

- [Jeffrey] You know, hopefully, those institutions are, those cultural capitalization projects are being invested in the areas where the growth is at.

If you have children's theater, children's dance, they should be in places and spaces where their growth is happening.

The last thing I'll say, oftentimes, it may come across as us versus them.

You're building a community.

The kids get it.

We're in the way.

(everyone laughs) I promise you.

They will learn language, right?

Because all they wanna do is do what?

Play.

We're in the way.

So as much as you have these organizations and events and activations for kids, make sure all kids are there, not just your kids, but all kids.

And it's gonna make your kids better because as they go out into the world, the world is gonna be very different than what you may have been brought in, including myself.

So that's the most critical part when it comes to the children and the programming.

If you're on a board, if you are a part of a cultural institution, if you see something, say something.

If everybody looks like you, say something.

That means that needs to change.

Because if it's truly about the idea of creating a place and spaces for the future, it needs to look like the future.

- Oren Helbok is executive director of the Exchange Art Center and Gallery in Bloomsburg and, Oren, Columbia County can be considered rural to some degree and Jeffrey's been telling us about how these principles apply across the board.

But how do all of you work with, talk about diversity and inclusion in your general region?

- [Oren] The Exchange does does two things, and I think we do them fairly well.

One, we welcome everyone in.

So the shows that we do at the gallery, we say, here's the theme, bring the work, open to everyone.

And we mean absolutely everyone.

There's one rule for our shows.

The work has to fit through the front door.

(everyone laughs) Then it goes up.

So we've done about 80 shows in our gallery over the last 10 years.

We've had about 800 artists show work.

That's everyone from the university art professors to two-year-old children.

It's patients at Danville State Hospital.

It's been some of the incarcerated youth at the North Central Secure Treatment Unit.

If it comes through the door, it goes on the wall.

That's everything from a large framed piece behind glass to a piece of notebook paper.

So we're providing a venue where everyone can come tell their story.

We also do storytelling events where, again, even within a family, that is as close a unit as you can imagine.

Each member of that family has a different story.

We also go out into the community.

We have a program called the Art Cart.

We've gone over the course of the last seven years into probably about 60 different venues across four counties.

That's to childcare centers.

It's to North Central Secure Treatment Unit.

It's into nursing homes, senior centers, public libraries, farmers' markets.

We go to where people are.

We provide them with opportunities to make art.

We're not teaching them how to paint or how to draw.

Here are some simple materials.

Do something to bring the beauty that's in you out At North Central, our facilitator, Anne Cosper, was there and in the course of a conversation with some of these kids, graffiti came up.

That led into a lesson in calligraphy.

So they led the discussion into something that they could then learn and build on.

Our strength is that we are basically a vessel.

You tell us what you want to see, and you show us what you do.

- Awesome.

- Great, great, and you do it and, yep.

- [Dan] Kind of to his point and what you were asking about, you know, it's a rural community.

How does DEI still work?

I think one of the things that from a DEI lens and to put on the DEI counselor hat, DEI is about everyone.

If DEI works properly, and I think that most organizations have to get over the idea that it's gender, it's race or it's LGBTQIA.

I mean, DEI is about everyone.

And so as if you're a community and you want start DEI work, the first step is looking internally and figuring out who your community are and understand that if your community is 90% white, DEI still exists because how many disabled individuals do you have that exist within your community?

Where are wage gap notification areas within your community?

What's maternity and paternal care like in your community?

Are there daycare centers?

DEI is about everyone.

So I think we have to move beyond this notion that when we're talking about DEI in moving forward, that it's only these certain things and metrics and numbers.

DEI, the last one is inclusion.

If everyone's not included, if everyone's not present, if the room is all white males, the room's not inclusive.

But if the room is broken up of all white males, and we understand that while you may all look like white males, but is different still there, that's still an inclusive room.

But that's also relationship building and understanding who's present and not relying on just those old statistics.

And so, I think that a rural, all white community counts as a DEI based community because there's still difference within there.

But those differences are how we learn and grow together.

And those lived experiences are what lift everyone up.

And that's, if we think in that way, every community benefits from all of this.

- [Erika] Very well said, very well said.

And we've been talking about young people and Luz Cabrales of Scranton films is with us.

Luz, so I'm asking you to come forward.

We thank you.

'cause you have been a member of the advisory committee for the conference.

And as a filmmaker, what are your concerns as you hear this conversation?

Because you care very much about little ones.

- [Luz] Yes, yes, this, (hand taps mic stand) I'm a little short.

There you go.

Yes, I definitely do.

As part of Scranton Films and a local filmmaker here, I strive to really make this as filmmaking, storytelling as inclusive as possible, especially with children.

The reason being is because that's where we have to start.

Just every conversation that came from all of you really said children, you have to start with children because they're the ones that are gonna learn about art.

They're the ones that are gonna learn about language barriers.

They're the ones, I was one of those people that was translating for my parents when I was growing up.

So I have all that, but also as far as just the art is very, very important to start with children.

- [Erika] Stay there for a minute, Luz.

We just wanna (upbeat music) welcome you to the microphone, but also thank everyone who has been here.

This has been a special Keystone Edition arts program recorded at the 2023 ArtScene Conference at WVIA on September 19th.

The topic, creative relationships in a diverse world.

We've been fortunate to have as our keynote speaker, Jeffrey L. Bowman, co-founder and CEO of Refrain.

We've had Maureen McGuigan, Deputy Director of Arts and Culture for Lackawanna County.

We've had Dan Kimbrough with many hats, and we heard a lot from him in his PA Humanities cap.

And Francisco Torres-Aranda, Jr., president and CEO of Advanced Tech Materials.

And what we'd like to do is to close with a sample of a pilot that Luz and Scranton Films has produced.

We have a snippet from Palette: Exploring the Colors of Pennsylvania, an educational show about art and community.

And we'll let Jolie Cook, the program's host, sing us out.

(audience applauds) (bright upbeat music) - Well, we sure did learn a lot about shapes: squares, circles, triangles.

But it doesn't stop there.

There are also rectangles, trapezoids, - Huh?

- [Jolie] hexagons and so much more.

There are so many more shapes to see, explore, and dance.

(stuffed animal warbles) I see different shapes every day, and sometimes those shapes can transform into new shapes.

So I hope you go out and try to spot all the different shapes you see.

So until we meet again, stay imaginative, artastic, and remember, ♪ Being creative ♪ Doesn't cost a dime ♪ Just takes spark and a little bit of time ♪ ♪ And when you live in a world ♪ That you create ♪ You are superb, you're fabulous, and great ♪ ♪ So anytime you are (stuffed animal coos) ♪ feeling real low ♪ Just grab a pencil and a pad and enjoy the show ♪ Bye, creatives.