Barbara Schaffer Bacon

Board Conversations in Inclusion and Race Equity | May 18

Board Conversations in Inclusion and Race Equity: - Barbara Schaffer Bacon, co-director of Animating Democracy, leads the Cohort in taking a deeper dive into board members/chairs and their role in DEI transformation. Barbara understands perspective is important when seeking change and informs the Cohort on ways to jumpstart the conversation and encourage a safe space. This session, we reevaluated the "old white moderate" way that most nonprofits and foundations continue to operate in and the barriers it causes. Barbara brings awareness to the inconsistencies in organizations who say they are committed to DEI, but have mostly white senior frontline staff and lower-paid staff mostly people of color. Barbara also taught that even suble barriers exist and offered the term "solutions privilege" as an example. Her session was filled with impactful articles and journals that accompanied her compelling presentation.

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BIO: ​Barbara Schaffer Bacon co-directs Animating Democracy, a program of Americans for the Arts that inspires, informs, promotes, and connects arts and culture as potent contributors to community, civic, and social change. Additionally, she contributes to Equity and Local Arts Advancement work at Americans for the Arts. A consultant in program design and evaluation, Barbara serves as an adviser for state and national arts agencies and private foundations. Barbara previously served as executive director of the Arts Extension Service at the University of Massachusetts. She is president of the Arts Extension Institute, Inc. and a board member for WomenArts. Barbara served for 14 years on the Belchertown, MA School Committee.  In 2018, Barbara received the Robert E. Gard Foundation Leadership Award. She currently serves as a member of the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Barbara has contributed to many publications including Trend or Tipping Point: Arts & Social Change Grantmaking; Civic Dialogue, Arts & Culture: Findings from Animating Democracy; Case Studies from Animating Democracy; Animating Democracy: The Artistic Imagination as a Force for Civic Dialogue; Fundamentals of Local Arts Management; and The Cultural Planning Work Kit.