2023
In January 2023, as we head into our 14th Season, we want to uphold our commitment to ongoing practices of accountability, and give you an update on our continued work in inclusion, diversity, equity and accessibility (IDEA).
Since releasing our last accountability action plan in January of 2021, we are proud that: our programming has centered stories of BIPOC women, we have grown the BIPOC leadership of our Board to over 50%, and that WAM has committed to pay equity by increasing pay and benefits for our artists and year-round staff. All the changes that we have made are detailed below along with our ongoing commitments for 2023. As a performing arts non-profit, we acknowledge that we still have work to do further aligning our organization with our values, and we will continue to envision and implement our productions and community engagement activities in connection to these needs and in conversation with sister social justice organizations.
2021
In January, 2021, after approximately six months of work following the release of our July 2020 statement, our organization released a public statement of accountability that addresses WAM’s intention that people across race, gender, sexual orientation, location, age and ability, feel seen, heard and valued at WAM.
This living-document itemizes how the WAM board and Team are working towards being an anti-racist organization, through harm repair, harm reduction and harm prevention actions. Throughout the document we name the practices and actions we are now aware of that excluded, exploited, and misrepresented our BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color), WAM artists and community members in our first decade, and we share the accountability actions we are putting in place, now and in the upcoming months.
2020
In July 2020, working in service of the list of demands from We See You White American Theatre and in alignment with the cultural competency work WAM started with BRIDGE in 2016, and started with Nicole Brewer in 2019, we released a statement sharing what our accountability process would be.
In June 2020, after the murder of George Floyd, WAM Theatre’s board and team spent ten days working with an Anti-Racism Theatre coach, Nicole Brewer, who had been Kristen’s (WAM’s Producing Artistic Director) Anti-Racism Theatre coach for a year, and in consultation of some of our BIPOC colleagues (Black, Indigenous, People of Color), to share the following solidarity statement:
2019
In October, 2019, WAM partnered with BRIDGE and The Nora at Central Square Theatre in Cambridge, MA, to present PIPELINE by Dominique Morrisseau.
This interview with Kristen van Ginhoven, Gwendolyn VanSant, CEO of BRIDGE, Lee Mikeska Gardner, Artistic Director of The Nora and PIPELINE director Dawn Simmons shares what it was like to make an intentional effort to prioritize cultural competence and equity for our PIPELINE cast and audience members alike.
In July, 2019, WAM Theatre’s Producing Artistic Director Kristen van Ginhoven started working with Nicole Brewer, doing one-on-one coaching.
In February, 2019, WAM’s Producing Artistic Director, gave a TEDx Talk at the North Adams TEDx titled ‘The Discomfort of Community”. In the talk, Kristen shares how the more she works at the intersection of arts and activism, the more she recognizes how being part of the white, cisgender, able-bodied, middle class, heterosexual community is a privilege in which she can no longer afford to be comfortable. If we truly want to be change-makers and contribute to a community of empathy, equity, and belonging, we must learn how to tolerate our discomfort.
2016-2018
In January 2018, the WAM Board released this Diversity Statement:
In March 2016 WAM actively began exploring the intersection of gender and racial justice through our FACING OUR TRUTH project with local Berkshire social justice organization BRIDGE. That project began a journey that continues around WAM’s exploration of diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility.