In my Spellbook series, I print emails and documents detailing my time in academia and the arts. It was a journey rife with obstacles both petty and monumental all of which effected my ability to earn an income. Throughout everything, I never hesitated to speak up for myself or express my opinion. Most of the time, I was ignored, harshly scolded, or criminalized. On rare occasions, however, I have received an apology. Remember when ‘spark a conversation’ was a popular catch phrase? An apology can be that spark. Below, the director of an arts organization personally took the time to engage in conversation with me.
Have a Pleasant Day
-Rae Pleasant
Date: Approx. September 2018
From: Rae
To: X
My name is Rae and I was the Research Associate at X. I took the time to research, lecture, and write about Black art and history during my time there. I then won a fellowship at X where I contacted the Souls Grown Deep Foundation several times with no response. As an African American artist and museum professional, I am very disappointed you showed such indifference to my existence and my work at X then proceed to be the president of a Foundation championing Black art. The Foundation ignoring my extended hand is yet another insult. The Foundation donating the entire collection to white institutions instead of historically Black museums, universities, or libraries is completely disrespectful. I wrote a letter to you all addressing this issue and your solution is to create undergraduate scholarships...as if that solves anything. There are not enough jobs to go around so why is everyone creating an enormous generation of unemployed museum workers. The Foundation could have used that money to support jobs at Black museums, compensate the descendants of folk artists, sponsor living artists, or support PhDs. How are a bunch of freshman scholarships going to change the fact that these artists were swindled? I worked very hard to get here on my own and break the stereotypes that Black success can only be achieved with the charity of white people. I am very disappointed, but not surprised.
—-
Date: September 2018
From: X
To: Rae
Dear Ms. Pleasant,
Thank you for writing.
First of all, I'm truly sorry you felt discounted at X. As a director working with hundreds of staff, volunteers, and board members, I am sure that I managed to leave many feeling discounted or ignored, and I sincerely apologize. I have always been happy to help younger colleagues make their way in the museum profession.
As for our failure to reply to you from the Foundation, again I'm sorry. We received a great deal of correspondence via the "info@" prefix before we were ready to be responsive, and yours seems to have gone unanswered.
With regard to the work of the Foundation, we are at the early stages of a multi-year program of transferring hundreds of objects to dozens of museums. About 90% of our collection remains in the Foundation's care. We are in dialogue with multiple historically black institutions and HBCUs at the moment, and will be announcing an acquisition by one in the coming weeks.
Our strategy has been to start with larger art museums, which are harder to persuade to change course, and to move on to other museums of differing sizes and specializations. That strategy will be visible in the months to come.
The decision to launch an undergraduate internship program was based in part on the research of the Mellon Foundation, which demonstrated the urgent need to attract students of color into museum work. Our hope is that some of the incumbents in the program will be inclined to continue in the profession.
As for acquiring artwork, that is not in the mandate of the Foundation. We are obligated by law to follow the wishes of our founder, and his intention was that the collection forming the basis of our activities would be the exclusive focus.
We have not made grants to individuals, but to institutions, on an undergraduate level, so I would not want you to feel singled out for not receiving a grant.
We wish you every success in the years to come, and appreciate your concerns about and interest in the Foundation.
Very sincerely,
X
