Durham Arts Council celebrates the unique creativity and spirit of every person and believes in creating a vibrant, diverse, equitable and inclusive community through the arts. In this spirit, we are offering courses in Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) because we believe in the value of all human potential and the opportunity for people to be able to equitably and equally participate in not only the art offerings in our community, but in all facets of our society. These courses are open to artists, arts and cultural nonprofit organizations, and arts and cultural small businesses living in or based in the City of Durham.
Durham Arts Council has researched and selected two highly qualified training providers for these FREE DEIA programs:
DEI Training will be offered by The Equity Paradigm in 4 virtual sessions: Tuesdays, May 21–June 11, from 6-8pm. All four sessions compose a comprehensive arc of learning; therefore, all four sessions are required for completion of the course.
Accessibility Training will be offered by Arts Access North Carolina in 4 virtual sessions: Wednesday, May 29; Thursday, May 30; Wednesday, June 5; and Thursday, June 6, from 6:30-8pm. The first two sessions will provide overviews of the field of accessibility. The third session will focus on accessibility in performing arts. The fourth session will focus on accessibility in exhibitions. Attendance at the first two sessions is required, as they are foundational. You may then choose either the session on performance or the session on exhibitions. Three sessions are required for completion of the course.
Free Training, Plus You Will Be Paid to Participate!
These trainings will be offered to nonprofit arts and cultural organizations, arts and cultural small businesses, and individual artists located/living in the City of Durham free of charge, thanks to Grassroots/ARPA funding from NC Arts Council. Participants will have the option to submit an application to the Durham Arts Council’s ARPA program to receive a participation fee once training has been completed and a brief final report submitted online (participation fees funded by City of Durham ARPA funds). For these DEIA offerings the participation fee for 4 sessions of DEI training will be $2,000 per organization, business, or individual artist. The participation fee for 3 sessions of Accessibility training will be $1,500 for each organization, business, or individual artist.
To receive the participation fees for these trainings and future offerings, eligible organizations, businesses, and artists can submit an application selecting from available trainings on many different topics. All training programs will offer participation fees to be paid to the organizations, business, and artist upon successful completion of the course. Look for further information on future offerings to be shared in the coming weeks.
For more information and to sign up: https://durhamarts.org/deia/
