Arts Research with Communities of Color
Fellowship Report
This fellowship is an archived page. Information will no longer be updated, unless otherwise noted.
The Arts Research with Communities of Color Fellowship
Fellowship Report Objective
From June 2023 to May 2024, Dr. Jaleesa Wells explored the interconnections between the three arts organizations—Artist as First Responder, Black Cultural Zone, and Eastside Arts Alliance—as they coalesced within their distinct socio-cultural context and environment: East Oakland, California. Taking a social science approach, Dr. Wells led a multi-project research study to investigate community stakeholder perspectives, explore the landscape of scholarship on cultural spaces and Black women’s arts leadership, and map a directory of Black cultural archives and collections across the United States of America.
The objective of this fellowship report is to share, widely, the discoveries from the multi-project study, and provide open access to case studies, literature database, and Black cultural archives map.
Dr. Wells was one of 18 fellows and principal investigators for the Social Science Research Council and Wallace Foundation research program: Arts Research with Communities of Color (ARCC) Fellowship (2023-2024).
Graduate Research Assistants
Morgan Gilbert
Student, PhD in Arts Administration
University of Kentucky
Nathaniel Thompson
Student, MA in Arts Administration
University of Kentucky
Community Case Studies
About
The case studies provide insights into the perceptions of community stakeholders about the environment, leadership, and embeddedness of the three arts organizations. The purpose of the case studies is to illustrate and showcase these narratives within the following inquiry: how do the organizations serve as networked leaders and stewards of economic, political, social, and cultural development within East Oakland? Case studies provide an in-depth understanding of the phenomenon of Black women leaders in the arts whose organizations are embedded within and directly serving communities of color.
Methodology
The case studies culminate and synthesize the interview project. From June to December 2023, Dr. Wells conducted interviews with community stakeholders who had connections to the arts organizations. From January to May 2024, Dr. Wells transcribed, validated, and conducted qualitative data analysis coding of completed interviews. The main themes to emerge include: Building a Black Arts Institution and Stewarding Black Cultural Resilience. Synthesis of the data and sample direct quotes reflect insights from community stakeholders, as well as a resonant snapshot of the progress and impact of Black women-led arts organizations in contemporary society.
Scholarly Landscape
About
The searchable database provides a snapshot of the current research and scholarship landscape from published literature on the development of cultural spaces and on Black women’s arts leadership. The literature database is an output of a short-term project conducted in Spring 2024 by two graduate student research assistants: Morgan Gilbert (PhD student) and Nathaniel Thompson (MA student). The database highlights the current landscape of studies conducted on the two key foci for the fellowship study. Additionally, a literature review summary is provided for developing cultural spaces.
Methodology
Under the guidance and mentoring of Dr. Wells, the graduate student research assistants each conducted a literature review: (1) a systematic review to analyze literature on the development of cultural zones, plazas, hubs, districts, centers, and villages—collectively ‘cultural spaces’; and (2) an exploratory review investigating if and what research and scholarship has been conducted on Black women’s community arts and cultural leadership within the last decade. The database highlights the important need for more research to be conducted on Black women as arts and cultural leaders making and keeping cultural places for communities of color to thrive.
Searchable Literature Database
The culmination of this project was the creation of a searchable database of the literature collected and reviewed for the fellowship study.
