Avangrid Foundation awards $10,000 grant to the PMA
by Brian Arundel, Senior Manager of Grants, Foundations, and Government Relations
Many thanks to the Avangrid Foundation for supporting Art for All.
The Portland Museum of Art has received a grant for $10,000 from the Avangrid Foundation to support Art for All, the PMA’s guiding principle and commitment to Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, and Inclusion (DEAI).The grant marks the second consecutive year that the Avangrid Foundation has provided support to the PMA.
“Art for All is the lifeblood of the PMA, and this grant will provide vital support,” says Elizabeth Jones, the museum’s Deputy Director and Director of External Affairs. “Particularly during these challenging times, funding from generous donors like the Avangrid Foundation is essential for allowing the PMA to continue serving its community.”
“The Avangrid Foundation, in partnership with Central Maine Power, is a longtime supporter of the Portland Art Museum,” said Nicole Licata Grant, Director of the Avangrid Foundation. “This relationship is especially important as we consider what being a ‘sustainable community’ means, and the role that spaces dedicated to art play in bringing communities together and elevating diverse voices and ideas. In Maine, the PMA is one of the critical spaces dedicated to being a convener and a conduit of important conversations.”
Art for All permeates all internal and external PMA activities, and manifests through policies, exhibitions, and programs that reflect our community and strengthen the bonds that bring people together.
DEAI in action
The museum believes that DEAI work begins internally first, with our staff. In 2019, PMA leadership reviewed and increased compensation and benefits for all employees. The museum also began a partnership with the Greater Portland Immigrant Welcome Center to offer PMA employees customized, self-paced, English development opportunities, and created a gateway for new Mainers to work at the PMA through partnerships with Portland Adult Education.
PMA staff have also completed a Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, and Inclusivity road map that directly informs the PMA’s new Strategic Plan. PMA leadership has implemented anti-racial, anti-bias training for all staff to ensure our DEAI values are not merely rhetorical but are practices intrinsic to the PMA environment. The PMA also recently created the Department of Member Experience and Safety. This is a significant step toward addressing long-standing “blind spots” in the art world that have perpetuated inequities of experience, accessibility, and inclusion at the PMA.
Externally, Art for All has helped expand the voices in the PMA collection by sponsoring acquisitions from a diverse range of artists, including Jeffrey Gibson, a contemporary American painter and sculptor of Choctaw-Cherokee heritage; Kara Walker, an African American contemporary painter; and David Driskell, an African American artist and scholar.
The PMA is committed to ensuring our exhibitions are engaging, educational, and inclusive of multiple perspectives and voices. With this in mind, the museum’s Learning & Interpretation division has evolved into the Learning & Community Collaboration Department. This team will continue the PMA’s focus on recruiting new voices and perspectives into exhibitions and programs. One means of inclusion is through working with community-led advisory groups to create exhibition gallery labels that present non-PMA, external points of view. These alternative perspectives can at times be at odds with conventional interpretations, creating a tension that can in turn provide invaluable opportunities to broaden conversations and understanding.
PMA staff have collaborated with individuals, institutions, and organizations from across Maine’s communities to present programs that resonate with people from all walks of life. This year, to accompany the exhibition Tabernacles for Trying Times, the museum presented Dream Action Factory, a free digital series focused on DEAI. This programming included a social justice discussion with the artists, Carrie Moyer and Sheila Pepe, and “Lessons from the Feminist Movement: A Community Conversation About Where We Go from Here” with Maine Women’s Lobby, among many other events. In all, Tabernacles for Trying Times and its associated programming generated a staggering digital reach of 2.3 million individual contacts in a few short weeks.
Art for All also helps the PMA remove financial barriers and expand access for all audiences. In March 2018, through the generosity of Susie Konkel, the PMA introduced free admission to everyone ages 21 and under. In total, nearly 55,000 guests enjoyed free access to the PMA last year, including nearly 11,000 kids. Overall, an average of 35 percent of museum visitors attend for free through Free Fridays, Community Days, and Free School Tours programs. And in response to the needs of our community in these challenging times, the PMA also expanded its Free Friday program this year to include the full day.
The Avangrid Foundation is an independent, nonprofit organization that funds philanthropic investments that primarily impact communities where AVANGRID, Inc. and its subsidiaries operate. Since 2002, the Avangrid Foundation and its predecessors have invested more than $24 million in partnerships that focus on building sustainable, vital and healthy communities; preserving cultural and artistic heritage; advancing education; and improving people’s lives. The Avangrid Foundation is committed to advancing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals in the United States. For more information, please visit www.avangridfoundation.org.
A native of Washington, DC, Brian Arundel worked for 15 years in the publishing industry and lived in 10 different states before transitioning to the nonprofit sector and settling in Maine in 2014. His writing has appeared in numerous publications that include the anthologies The Practice of Creative Writing, Best of Brevity and Contemporary Creative Nonfiction. An avid trail runner and ultramarathoner in denial of aging, Brian lives outside of Portland with his wife, Manuela.