Arts and Social Justice

The backlash against R&B singer R. Kelly following the six-part documentary Surviving R. Kelly, 20 years of accusations against him for sexually assaulting minors, and his arrest on charges of sexually abusing girls as young as 13, have sparked an uproar that seems to signal "that #MeToo has finally returned to black girls," point out Salamishah Tillet and Scheherazade Tillet, co-founders of A Long Walk Home, a nonprofit that uses art to empower young people to end violence against girls and women, in a recent opinion piece in The New York Times.

Understanding where our values and beliefs come from is a key drive for people committed to social change, according to a recent blog post by Julienne Kaleta and Joanna Carrasco, Living Cities coordinators.

"We take up space/ By being in community/ Together/ And saying that we/ Won’t tolerate this/ Anymore," writes community activist Jasmin Rogers, honoring the community of women who support her every day. Her words, published in a piece by The Miami Herald, resonate in commemoration of Women’s History Month in March.

Thinking about diverse leaders that need support to climb the leadership ladder and journalists and storytellers of color that deserve more visibility, the Field Foundation launched two new programs, supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, to help make Chicago more racially equitable.

The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) will close for four months, from June 15 to October 21, "to reconfigure its galleries, rehang the entire collection and rethink the way that the story of modern and contemporary art is presented to the public," reported The New York Times.

A recent article on the Oakland Museum of California tackles the challenges and outcomes the institution has faced in the process of understanding and measuring the museum's impact on the local community.

Funders supporting legacy institutions that use the arts to address social challenges and promote access across historically underserved populations is the topic of an article last year addressing the partnership between the William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust and New York City organizations to explore how arts organizations can better serve diverse communities.

Philadelphia was recently awarded $4 million by the MacArthur Foundation with the goal of decreasing the city’s jail population by 50 percent by 2020. The plan to cut the prison population comes after the city was able to surpass its original target reduction of 34 percent over three years, reported WHYY.