Narrative Change
2019-2022
Grantmakers in the Arts is a community of practice with a shared vision of investing in arts and culture as a strategy for social change. One of the major issues we are exploring is dominant and/or mainstream narratives that continue to live on and perpetuate racialized practices and outcomes. With a system that is not broken, but rather structured intentionally to foster inequitable and unjust outcomes, the need for narrative change is more urgent now than ever. “Humans,” Ella Saltmarshe writes, “have always used stories to make sense out of our chaotic world.” Narrative change “frequently involves collaboration across difference, bringing together actors with very different positions to re-envision the goals of a system and to change it.”
We seek to elevate the importance of changing narratives among arts and culture funders, and we are excited to kick off our very first narrative change series! See below for a list of featured speakers and online learning events.
WATCH
LISTEN
Hear from Jeff Chang, vice president of Narrative, Arts, and Culture at Race Forward, who speaks about narrative change as strategy, cultural shifts and how these evolve to impact human behaviors, and his own critiques of pop culture. He closes with what funders can consider in their practice.Hear from Zeyba Rahman, (Building Bridges Program, Doris Duke Foundation); Josh Seftel, (filmmaker); Hussein Rashid, (Barnard College); and Negin Farsad, (writer and comedian) discuss their recent emmy-nominated film, "The History of Muslims in the US," and share how they have used creative methods for shifting narratives and culture as a strategy towards equity.Featuring Vanessa Camarena-Arredondo, Beloved Community Fund program officer, Akonadi Foundation, and Rinku Sen, writer and political strategist, they discussed the national discourse around narrative change and how funders can take action.Featuring Chi-hui Yang (Ford Foundation) and Elizabeth Méndez Berry (The Nathan Cummings Foundation) presents on media critique and spoke to their collaborative project Critical Minded, and share how funders can lead narrative change.EXPLORE
Explore our Narrative Change Twitter Chat Archive featuring Saint Paul and Minnesota Foundations, Living Cities, and Ella Saltmarshe. We will continue to elevate the importance of narrative change among arts and culture funders on maintaining, interrupting, and re-imagining systems.This chat was held on August 8, 2019 to discuss the intersection of #narrativechange and #artsfunding. While GIA is no longer active on X (formerly Twitter), the organizational profile remains visible as an archive.