In today's episode, Kendra Ingram, President and CEO of the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts, shares her experience as a woman of color in the arts and culture industry and how she has used her platform to advocate for more diversity in leadership roles. She discusses how having more diversity in leadership positions can impact decision-making and how this can lead to more representative programming that meets the needs of the community.

Tammy and Kendra talk about the importance of representation in leadership roles within arts and culture organizations, the role that arts and culture organizations play in serving their communities, and the challenge of creating more diverse and inclusive programming within arts and culture organizations. Listen to know more about diversity in the C-suite and the metrics used to achieve equity.

Highlights

04:03 - And the biggest thing that I've learned in the two and a half years is Milwaukeeans tend to take for granted I think what they have here in Milwaukee. People always say, "Oh, why would you move here from this place or that place to Milwaukee?" There's so many benefits to living in a small city that has the amenities of a large city, and has the thought of, "I need arts and culture. I need sports entertainment. I need outdoor recreation." The people here care about all those things and it's reflected in the work that's happening here. So, it's been an interesting time, overall a positive one.

14:26 - There are a lot of artists that are great, but it has to be something that is really – that's going to resonate with the community. And if I just booked shows based on what I like, I don't know if any would come because it's not about me and what I like. It's about we are in service to the community.

22:37 - For the Marcus Center, one of the things that we have done well is we have outlined specific areas to improve. And we've outlined those not just in yes, we need to improve in this area, but here is actually the benchmark and the metrics and the milestones that we want to reach when we know and how do we know we're actually achieving equity.

Connect with Tammy Belton-Davis

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Connect with Kendra Whitlock Ingram

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