{"id":8153,"date":"2018-10-07T21:33:14","date_gmt":"2018-10-08T05:33:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wou.edu\/westernhowl\/?p=8153"},"modified":"2018-10-07T22:05:05","modified_gmt":"2018-10-08T06:05:05","slug":"ensuring-diversity-in-the-arts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/ensuring-diversity-in-the-arts\/","title":{"rendered":"Ensuring diversity in the arts"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Chrys Weedon | Entertainment Editor<\/span><\/p>\n

Often, liberal arts colleges and universities are privileged environments; when it comes to the creative atmosphere they foster, they can promote critical discussions on important topics, and allow traditionally underrepresented voices to be heard and appreciated. Continuing this trend can be quite difficult as our generation transitions into the \u201creal world\u201d \u2014 a world in which white, male, cisgender voices are often still held up as the standard.<\/span><\/p>\n

Americansforthearts.org states on their website, \u201cWe must all hold ourselves accountable, because acknowledging and challenging our inequities and working in partnership is how we will make change happen.\u201d Holding ourselves accountable can start by analysing the kinds of art we ingest. People should go through the music they have on their phone or computer. How many straight white males\u2019 music is downloaded? The same should be considered with literature and art collections. What types of perspectives dominate?<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI believe students need to see people like them doing the things that they want to do,\u201d commented art professor Paula Booth in regards to the way diversity can be reflected through this creative outlet. Representation through this medium is a way to help all students feel included, and to give a voice to the underrepresented.<\/span><\/p>\n

Booth goes on to add that \u201cpeople need to understand that art is not just something that was made by white men a couple hundred years ago, which is often what we\u2019re taught.\u201d To get a deeper comprehension of this concept, students can benefit from being mindful about what they choose to expose themselves to, especially when it goes against what they might have been taught growing up.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we\u2019re exposed to other people\u2019s cultures\u2026 we become more compassionate, we have greater empathy, we express our curiosity,\u201d stated Catherine Ndungo-Case, the founder of the Cheza Nami organization. According to chezanami.org, the goal of this organization is to \u201cpromote cultural education and diversity awareness.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, being perfect is not the goal here. Rather, the goal in ensuring diversity in the arts is to become more well-rounded individuals and to give a platform to the underrepresented. This can be achieved by looking at the literature, the art, the theater, and the visual content absorbed by most on a daily basis \u2014 by making an effort to surround ourselves with perspectives that aren\u2019t our default. <\/span><\/p>\n

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Contact the author at howlentertainment@wou.edu<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Photo courtesy of Paul F. Davis<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chrys Weedon | Entertainment Editor Often, liberal arts colleges and universities are privileged environments; when it comes to the creative atmosphere they foster, they can promote critical discussions on important topics, and allow traditionally underrepresented voices to be heard and appreciated. Continuing this trend can be quite difficult as our generation transitions into the \u201creal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1094,"featured_media":8139,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"modified_by":"The Western Howl","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1094"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8153\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}