EDIB Fall 2021 Report

Dear students, faculty, and staff,

Since our last report, EDIB work across the school has continued to expand in keeping with the Strategic Plan, with key elements including, broadening recruitment efforts, expanding community engagement programming, enriching the pipeline, and growing internal and external support in keeping with EDIB values.

Below you will find the Fall 2021 Report, which captures select progress on these objectives. We would like to extend a special thank you to the members of the EDIB Taskforce who have served since 2019, and departments and divisions will continue to report updates within their respective newsletters.

Sincerely,
The Office of EDIB

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Juilliard’s Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging Fall 2021 Report

The following report is a summary of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging (EDIB) work from the Office of EDIB, housed within the Office of the President. While this report includes many updates, it is not a complete representation of all current and projected EDIB initiatives. Divisional and departmental efforts and programming will be reported in their respective communication channels. An additional report will be circulated at the end of the academic year.

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Broadening recruitment efforts

Travel Grants

During this recruitment cycle, we will be offering travel grants to eligible prospective students to assist in supporting their travel to New York for in-person auditions. Eligibility will be determined based on approval for application waivers, and students will be directly contacted for materials and interest, and there will be no application process.

Music Advancement Program

Juilliard has received a permanent endowment grant from Crankstart of $50 million for the Music Advancement Program (MAP). The grant will further MAP’s mission to increase access to arts education for communities historically underrepresented in classical music. Program investments will include: supporting full tuition scholarships for all participants, expanding recruitment efforts, increasing faculty and staff, support for guest artists, and the development of an instrument fund.

Collaboration with the Sphinx Organization

Juilliard is pleased to continue our collaboration with Sphinx to offer Sphinx Performance Academy (SPA) and Leaders in Excellence, Arts & Diversity (LEAD). SPA engages students from cultural backgrounds that are underrepresented in the field of classical music and provides an inclusive curriculum offering lessons, coaching, masterclasses, and mentorship. Sphinx LEAD provides a cohort of arts administrators of color with a variety of mentorship, networking, and skill-building opportunities for a two-year fellowship.

• This past summer, we engaged 26 SPA string musicians, ages 11-17 in a 10-day virtual program.
• In October, Juilliard welcomed the third cohort of 11 Sphinx LEAD participants to campus for an in-person 3-day retreat. Sessions covered conflict management, strategic planning, development and fundraising, technology investments, and organizing equity, diversity, inclusion, and belonging (EDIB) efforts within arts institutions.

Livestreaming

In April, Juilliard LIVE, a streaming initiative offering student performances from all three divisions, was launched. The mix of livestreamed and on-demand content has not only expanded student performance opportunities and world-wide accessibility to those performance, but also increased our ability to share knowledge about the school as a recruitment tool. In the first two months of launching Juilliard LIVE, more than 250 ensemble performances and recitals were streamed. We will continue to develop methods for using streaming technology in Juilliard’s recruitment efforts, as we broaden the overall reach of the school.

Expanding Community engagement and programming

Work with Student Groups

Community Engagement

The Office of EDIB was invited by The Office of Community Engagement to facilitate two sessions during the fall semester for all community engagement fellows. Presentations and discussions aimed to explore how EDIB frameworks and values relate to the students’ work as student leaders out in the field.

Additional sessions will occur in the spring.

Diversity Advocates

The seven current Diversity Advocates participated in sessions with the Office of EDIB covering facilitation techniques and collaboration opportunities. Additional specific training was given to prepare DAs to facilitate the three new student orientation sessions.

K-12

Additionally, our K-12 team is incorporating on-demand content into curricular resources to share with public school clients. Our hope is to reach students who would not otherwise have access to arts education.

Internal and external support mechanisms and investments in the community

At Juilliard EDIB as a practice, not a destination, and a critical component of our internal EDIB investments is learning opportunities. Below you will find details on workshops offered to the community.

First-Year Experience Course

First-Year Experience is a required semester long course for first time college students led by a faculty or staff member and peer coach. Previously called Colloquium, this module covers life at Juilliard, transitioning to college, as well as artistic exploration and collaboration between dance, drama, and music.

For Fall 2021, the EDIB team led two classes for all first-year students exploring EDIB concepts and structures through an examination of artistic works. Objectives included establishing an understanding of EDIB language and values, and exploring them in the context of artistic forms and practices.

The artistic works discussed this year were excerpted from The Kitchen Table Series by Carrie Mae Weems and Minor Feelings by Cathy Park Hong. The curriculum will be updated each year with new examples. The two EDIB sessions were followed by a presentation led by The Office of Community Engagement. Feedback was collected via student surveys to enhance future iterations.

Orientation

The Office of EDIB led two orientation sessions for new Undergraduate students and one session for new Graduate/DMA/AD/Transfer students. The undergraduate new student orientation covered Juilliard resources, offices, and values before exploring identity and opportunities for community building in smaller group discussions.

The graduate session covered Juilliard resources and focused on a close reading of artistic selections with an EDIB lens to explore possibilities within the students’ own time at Juilliard.

Workshop Opportunities

This fall, we offered a varied slate of optional EDIB Workshop opportunities based on recommendations from the 2020-21 Workshop Development Working Group. The 90-minute voluntary sessions were all virtual. 88 faculty and staff chose to attend these sessions, which received satisfaction ratings of 94-100%. The surveys had completion rates ranging from 25-70%.

The workshops were:

“Disability, Inclusion and Intersectionality”
With Keri Gray, founder and CEO of NAMD Advocates
Co-hosted by the Office of Academic Support and Disability Services

“Tools for Inclusive Learning Environments”
With Eric McGriff, Khia Duncan, and Lindsey Hennawi from the Crime Victims Treatment Center (CVTC)

“Fostering Belonging at Work: Session #1 for Managers”
With Dr. Patricia Faison Hewlin, Assistant Professor, McGill University, Faculty of Management

Following each session, we asked participants to fill out brief surveys to help shape our future offerings. We hope to invite speakers back to expand their sessions.

If you were unable to attend or are interested in reviewing the materials, session recordings will be posted in January 2022 via internal channels for community members until June 2022. We will be announcing the Spring 2022 EDIB Workshop offerings soon via email communication.

Restorative Justice Training

In summer 2021, 8 staff members connected to EDIB and Bias Response work attended a comprehensive 6-week restorative justice training run by the University of San Diego Center for Restorative Justice. The skills gained were specific to higher education settings and have increased our capacity to address bias incidents school-wide.

The Offices of EDIB and Bias Response/Title IX are continuing to adopt restorative justice practices in approaches to community conversations. More staff members are now equipped with additional skills to facilitate productive and healing conversations.

Online Foundational Workshop Launch

The EDIB Foundational Workshop designed and implemented in 2019 for Juilliard employees has been incorporated into an online resource to be used as part of onboarding new employees. Between January and the end of the academic year, the resource will also be available online for continuing faculty and staff who may choose to take it.

As a follow-up opportunity, optional community-building sessions will be offered in person to answer questions, discuss, and further explore EDIB topics. Stay tuned for the spring semester schedule of opportunities.

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Contact Us

We welcome feedback on EDIB initiatives at any time. Please send comments or questions to [email protected].