As The Connecting Routes Project launches, already beginning to grow and expand, we find ourselves in a unique and ideal situation as a new nonprofit to welcome new ways of being and new visions as an inclusive and interconnected theater collective.
As our mission is in connecting communities across the nation, it not only makes sense, but is essential to seek out leaders, board members, artists, and audiences outside our own backgrounds. We honor and value the lived experiences and stories of folks and artists with different experiences than our own and treasure what can be learned from new relationships.
Below we have detailed our values of accessibility within The Connecting Routes Project, and what actionable items we commit to make immediately and in our developing years. This statement was informed by We See You W.A.T. and agreed upon by The Connecting Routes Project Leadership and Board of Directors.
Values
We value respectful communication and treating people with dignity. Although our organization is intended as an open forum, welcoming of stories from all experiences and opinions, it is our firm demand across all aspects of our organization that hate speech of any kind is never permitted. Hate has no home here. This applies to our staff, artists, board, community partners, and audiences, both in our programming and outreach programs.
We stand against the rise in hate speech and violence towards marginalized communities in our nation. Launching during an era of anti-immigrant and refugee rhetoric, police violence against Black communities and communities of color, racist attacks against the Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) community, threats to LGBTQIA+ rights, and fights for equality for women and all genders, we strive to facilitate a safe, welcoming, anti-racist, and nondiscriminatory environment for all artists and audiences -- addressing racism, discrimination and harm where it happens, when it happens. To ensure this, we will continue to educate ourselves and creative teams in anti-racist policies, seeking to always improve ourselves and The Connecting Routes Project, to nurture humane work environments for our artists, and experiences for our communities.
We believe in equitable access for our audiences, traveling directly to communities by train and offering tickets for free or at low-cost to our audiences. We value connecting with a diversity of communities throughout the tours of our productions, prioritizing those underserved by the arts within our nation. We value accessibility for people with disabilities and will work with our venues to best serve these audience members.
We value partnerships, both with artists and presenting communities. When curating partnerships, we will ensure they are equitable, reciprocal, and collaborative. We seek to amplify the voices of communities we connect with, supporting them and respecting their cooperation with our organization.
We value a variety in programming - speaking to different communities, different cultures, different social issues, and different age groups and demographics - so each production will be co-produced by a different artist or company. When partnering with an artist to co-produce a new project, we view that partner as an equal leader, operating in a horizontal leadership structure. We value compensation of our artists, and will always prioritize wages proportional to budgets.
We value transparency, and will always be upfront with obligations, salaries, and payment schedules in our job listings. We also welcome transparency into our finances with the general public. Budgets will be listed in a “Transparency” section added to our website.
COMMITMENTS
Acknowledging that we exist currently as a small but predominantly white institution, we seek to decenter ourselves and open the conversations within our organization to BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) communities as we continue to grow. As we expand our organization, we will provide accessible programming and opportunities inclusive of all genders, identities, political beliefs, and within the BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ communities. Below, you will see the actions we commit to in each aspect of our organization.
AUDIENCE AND COMMUNITY
While our railroad stations connect many rural destinations, we will equally seek to invest in and foster long-term relationships with BIPOC audiences within a multiplicity of cultures and communities. We will prioritize BIPOC communities, cities, and tribal lands when structuring our tours and, if working with financially-challenged institutions in these communities, will work together to ensure a way of bringing our work to their community.
When communities share their lived experiences with us in storytelling programs, we will use ethical storytelling practices throughout the process. We encourage BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ voices to participate in our story sharing programs, and will offer opportunities for these communities to lead these programs, too. This is to welcome and encourage voices from these communities who might otherwise feel deterred.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
As a new nonprofit, our Board of Directors is still in development. We acknowledge that our current board does not fully reflect the diversity of the communities we wish to connect with, and our first commitment is to expand and diversify our Board of Directors, doubling in size from currently three members to six. The Board will prioritize members of the BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ community, and we commit to this expansion within the time range of one year.
We value lived experiences, skills shared, cultural competency and relationship building for the growth of The Connecting Routes Project. It is our utmost belief that our Board should reflect the communities we serve. In our Board, financial obligations are not mandatory -- instead, we prioritize non-monetary contributions. Acknowledging that a volunteer position like this offers barriers to potential applicants in the BIPOC community, we commit to measured flexibility in meeting attendance to expand our reach to those who may have external commitments, professionally and personally.
The Board has recently adopted titles, but an official election will occur again once a full board is formed. At that time, the Board will review and amend the bylaws to ensure that all voices have a say in leading the organization.
We will commit to a governing term limit of 20 years for Board Members. Afterwards, they may move to the non-governing Advisory Board. We commit to publishing transparent affiliations of Board Members to corporations and other nonprofits.
STAFF
As an unconventional organization launching amid a pandemic, we must be transparent that while our current financial circumstances do not currently allow us to expand our administrative staff, we seek to do so as soon as possible.
We seek to expand our viewpoints and experiences within the staff of The Connecting Routes Project, as it is our belief that a diversity of perspectives only yields growth and new possibilities. We commit to horizontally expanding our staff by at least one other position within the time frame of two years, unless finances do not allow proper compensation. We will commit to an inclusive, diverse pool of candidates across BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ identities for this and all future opportunities within The Connecting Routes Project. As we are a nationally reaching company, there are no geographical barriers to prevent applicant consideration, and will welcome members from communities we connect with now or in the future to apply.
CONTRACTED ARTISTS
We commit from our very first production to pay our artists for the work and talent they share with The Connecting Routes Project. We must acknowledge that our finances do not currently support our artists as a full time salary, so we commit to make accommodations around expectations so as to not impede on their external professional and personal lives while in our home base of Chicago.
While rehearsing in Chicago, all known responsibilities will also be transparent and listed in the job listing as well. If an additional promotional appearance is requested, additional compensation will be offered.
Acknowledging our pay is not equivalent to full time pay, we will not request artists commit to us full time while in Chicago. We will eliminate the rehearsing standard of 6 days a week, and 10 hour tech rehearsals. Rehearsals will be conducted approximately 20-24 hours a week, allowing appropriate time to create new work without the pressure of a final product’s deadline.
However, while touring, we must acknowledge that many unknowns exist in the nontraditional way we tour with The Connecting Routes Project, resulting in unusual work and travel hours dependent on the Metra and Amtrak train schedule and delays. Regardless, we commit to treating our artists ethically, respectfully prioritizing their human needs while touring, and there will be regular check-ins with artists to ensure their needs are being represented and met.
PRODUCTIONS
We commit to presenting productions that speak and connect to the social issues of communities we connect with.
If a new project is specific to a culture or community, that community will either be represented on the creative team or a cultural consultant will be hired for the production.
As we program our future body of work, we seek to amplify a diverse set of voices by co-producing with a different artist or company for each production. Each project will be chosen or created to speak to a new audience base and invite more community members into our shared space.
ACCOUNTABILITY
Each year, the Board of Directors and Staff commits to reviewing and revising these statements accordingly, in order to continue moving forward with these commitments as an organization. Stating these values and commitments, we ask you, as our community, to in return keep us accountable to these statements, and to reach out with any concerns, questions or suggestions every step along the way.
