Statement
After Generator released its BLM solidarity statements in the summer of 2020 we received significant criticisms surrounding our working culture and learning environment, including our flagship program, Artist Producer Training (APT). As a result of folks coming forward with critical feedback, Generator leadership hired facilitator Zainab Amadahy to conduct an internal review. The abridged Report shared today reflects the recommendations of that review and the process in which the review was undertaken and approached.
At this time, Generator’s governance and leadership is largely white. The Board is made up of white people and our Lead Producer is white. We are a PWI (Predominantly White Institution). As a service organization that prioritizes supporting artists from equity-seeking groups, we have failed to ensure power dynamics are not skewed along racial lines. Our white governance and leadership are working to understand and address the lived and living experiences of the individuals we aspire to support, particularly artists who identify as racialized, while also creating a long term plan to introduce a broader spectrum of voices into our leadership and governance.
The report created by Zainab outlines this discrepancy between intention and impact. We have read it, are absorbing the concerns of those who participated in the process and are committed to creating an organization that measures our “successes” (however fraught that term may be) in terms of racial equity.
We recognize some members of our Generator community encountered harm while engaging with us. We have heard feedback around equity, paternalism, passive-aggressive communication, lack of clear policies, rigidity and lack of racial representation among our facilitators and leadership. We apologize for the distress and pain our members experienced.
All of us became members of Generator’s board because we believe in the game-changing impact that Generator’s programs can have on individual artists and the Toronto performance sector as a whole. Zainab’s investigation, while framed and targeted to solicit critiques and concerns, also affirmed the essential value of the organization and the Artist Producer Training Program. By Zainab’s account, many participants noted the important professional development APT offered and how it has benefitted their practices.
Under Kristina’s leadership, Generator made a clear commitment to supporting artists from equity-seeking groups, and investing in their capacities to create platforms for their work. We have not always met their needs or supported them on their own terms, and we’ve hurt some of the artists we care about as a result. We are grateful to the interviewees for their honest feedback, and to Zainab for her thorough and candid work in investigating the feedback we received, speaking hard truths with compassion, and for helping us to learn where we must foundationally shift our practices to dismantle White Supremacy Culture within the organization.
We, as a board, are committed to repairing the relationship between the organization and the community. We understand that repair and reconciliation does not follow a linear path, but rather is a circle, a web, a thick braid, which we will attempt to weave laterally, with increased community involvement over the next two years. In the following pages, we have shared our plans for the short, medium, and long terms.
Our first step in this process is to invite other folks to become involved in shaping the next chapter of Generator’s future. We are excited about the energy and ideas that additional voices can bring as we look toward a leadership transition and Generator’s next iteration. In the next few weeks, we will be putting out calls for people to get involved in both volunteer and professional capacities in the coming year, as members of a strategic advisory, by joining us on the board, or by becoming a knowledge contributor for ArtistProducerResource.com.
We encourage you to email feedback or questions to board@generatorto.com, please introduce yourselves. We would love to start a conversation.
We have our sleeves rolled up.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
In solidarity
the Generator Board of Directors
Claire Burns, James Foy, Quinn Harris, Kristina Lemieux, Brendan McMurtry-Howlett, ted witzel
Workplan
Our goal is to rebuild/build trust between:
the organization
ie. the board, the staff, the leadership
AND
our community
ie. program participants, resident companies, community members and past Generator Generations.
Trust first and foremost between the individuals who make up the community and the organization. How do we rebuild trust? We know it will not be easy and will be a continuous process. We do not know the exact pathway but have been set up remarkably well through Zainab’s recommendations.
We are committed to transparency in this process. As Zainab writes, “Decisions can’t be made anonymously or behind closed doors”. The work plan is a work-in-progress developed to put the recommendations into action. The work plan is subject to change based on input from the Strategic Advisors, and we will update our community regularly on our progress. If you are interested in receiving updates or feeding into this process, either as a community member, by joining Generator’s board, or becoming a Strategic Advisor, please subscribe to our mailing list to hear about these opportunities.
SHORT TERM (March-July 2021)
a) Revising organizational values statement to ensure core priority of racial justice
b) Develop Board Work Plan and Matrix for skills development re. dismantling white supremacy
c) Call for professional paid, community Strategic Advisors to support the implementation of recommendations from this report
d) Call for Board Members with goal of racial parity or 50% BIPOC folks in leadership and governance positions
e) Creation of leadership transition plan with an emphasis on models with decentralized and/or shared organizational power structure
MID TERM (July-December 2021)
a) Building a work plan for authentic relationship building between Generator and BIPOC communities
b) Review of Accountability Process including the creation of a Grievance process with clear complaint mechanisms and alignment with goals of social and racial justice
c) Program and Curriculum review including methods for approving facilitators and confirming their commitment to racial justice, ensuring the self-determination of participants, holding folks accountable to their community agreements, and ensuring curriculum is assessed through an equity/social justice lens.
d) December 2021- Board Review- Board reviews its own performance guided by internal/external stakeholders
LONG TERM (January-June 2022 + beyond)
a) Comprehensive strategic review and planning process facilitated by an external consultant
b) 2022- Staff Performance reviews
c) Ongoing recruitment of Board Members with goal of racial parity or 50% BIPOC folks in leadership and governance positions
d) Continue to publicly share our learnings and goals as we identify next steps beyond this work plan
Process
In the spirit of Generator’s mandate as an educational service organization we’ve outlined the process leading up to the release date of this Report and Statement.
Organizational Statements
BLM Solidarity Statement (June 5)
Organizational Update (October 7)
Process Working with External Reviewer
Process of working with Zainab can be found in the Appendix of the Public Report
Consent to share the Public draft of the report was confirmed by Zainab and Participants in late February 2021
Process of Creating this Statement
I’m one person drafting this letter. My name is Claire (she/her). After I drafted this the other board members – Quinn (she/her), James (he/him), ted (he/him), Brendan (he/him) and Lead Producer, Kristina (she/her) – read this, contributed their ideas and suggested edits. Some but not all edits are incorporated in this final doc. We also shared the doc with the Lead Producer who had time to review it before forwarding it to Communications staff, Annie Clarke, to disseminate.
View this statement as a PDF signed by Generator’s board here.