PLAYGROUND TAKES ACTION

BLACK LIVES MATTER

The Playground stands with those protesting systemic violence against black people. 

As an organization largely comprised of classically trained composers and performers, we recognize the historical lack of diversity and equity in our art form. We are dedicated to addressing these issues through collaboration and the championing of diverse voices by commissioning new works.

We understand that taking meaningful action is more important than this statement. In July 2020 our Board of Directors met to discuss how we can be better allies; how we choose the music we perform and the creators we collaborate with; how we can make our board and teaching teams look more like the community at large; and where we invest our resources in supporting issues of racial justice in America.

Black Lives Matter.

Programming Committee’s Diversity Pledge:

We are committed to continually evaluating the presence of potential barriers and biases in everything we do. For example, we recognize the language in our current CoCoCo “Call for Scores” is inherently biased because it uses the terms “scores,” and “composers.”  

We pledge to work toward normalizing diversity and inclusion throughout our season versus tokenizing. An example of this would be to explore longer term collaborations in order to represent a greater breadth of that artist’s work and to give that artist a more valuable experience.

Part of programming’s diversity pledge includes evaluating our own constituency, which may include decentralizing our own biases, hiring outside consultants, participating in workshops, and making reparations.

We will amplify voices outside of our own organization and venues. We will attend art forms and events that are not our own. We will share events on our social media pages, and our websites.

We will prioritize a portion of each programming meeting to the evaluation of how we are succeeding or failing on these goals.