The Peabody Institute is fully committed to fighting racism and creating and sustaining a culture of diversity, equity, and inclusion within our community. By making diversity one of the five central pillars of our strategic Breakthrough Plan, Peabody has defined for itself a goal of leading change across an industry that, for too long, has been unwelcoming, exclusionary, and resistant to change. Indeed, those same words could describe Peabody for much of its history.
Today, our work in these areas is an institutional priority at the highest level. As Peabody Dean Fred Bronstein has emphasized, our focus on creating an ethos of mutual respect and civility – on our campus and across the performing arts industry – requires immediate action. “The need for our field to diversify our administrations, performing rosters, board members, audiences, and more, is urgent,” he wrote in a recent message to the community. “For too long our field has approached this issue as peripheral.”
The Peabody Institute Anti-Racism, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (ADEI) Steering Committee was established in fall 2020 to bring new rigor and heightened visibility to this work, building on the progress made through a number of existing and ongoing initiatives and programs. Recognizing that diversity has many aspects, the committee’s first action step was to create a strategic framework within which Peabody can continue to advance and expand its ADEI efforts. We move forward in five key areas:
There is much to be done and Peabody’s ADEI Steering Committee has undertaken this work with a commitment to transparency, accountability, and action. Please see the quarterly updates from the committee and highlights of our institutional progress in advancing ADEI for more details.