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Session Summary
In this closing panel discussion of the Ethical Re-Opening Summit, all of the pain, trauma, and injustice that has become a shared sentiment in and out of the workplace is eminent and recognized. However, perspective is a key component of cognition and how we make meaning. With this consideration, the pandemic can be looked at as a journey where organizations can experiment with new systems and structures to increase not just work efficiency, but also agency and opportunity within its stakeholders and community. Deborah Cullinan, CEO of Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA), shares that this journey for her and YBCA is “not about reopening, but re-imagining...not returning, but regenerating.” While this is a romantic notion, the principle and value behind the idea is apt given the opportunity to change.
Change is hard for a lot of people for many different reasons. The pandemic has caused high levels of anxiety fueled by uncertainty and change for over a year now. And just like everything else that comes with a catch, the journey to re-imagine a thriving future comes with its own set of challenges as well. As the visionary leader of a prominent community arts center, Deborah notes that the biggest challenge for her is “to create conditions that make people feel valued and clear and safe in pursuit of something that is not yet known.”
Community artists, leaders, and activists are the future’s best designers. The pulse of a thriving society lives in the civic engagement of anti-racism work and the dismantling of corrupt systems. Transforming society and turning imagined ways of life into actuality, however, will not be done without White people and White led organizations doing the work to counter privilege by committing to cultural equity and racial justice through the development of pathways for new business and fair operations.